A Dual-Edged Sword

At last! A chance to be an equal-opportunity offender! 🙂

From here:

In any event, Sanders said that at least Intel will not be able to tout larger megahertz numbers. With Hammer debuting at speeds of at least 2GHz, the chip will run faster than McKinley. Intel will thus be stuck trying to argue that megahertz is important in the desktop space, where it will likely be ahead, and that megahertz is not important in the server space, where it won’t be.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Sanders said.

This is true, and Intel would be stupid for doing such.

However, if that’s stupid, won’t it be just as stupid for AMD to argue that megahertz is important in the server space, where it will likely be ahead, and that megahertz is not important in the desktop space, where it won’t be?

You can’t have it both ways the other way, either.

The problem is logicians won’t decide this with their money. People will. People who will largely be ignorant and/or stupid on the subject. And the best way to look smart to the stupid is to reinforce that stupidity. I just described Intel’s marketing strategy is one sentence.

Or will it? I’ve hinted at this in the recent past, let me ask flat-out now. (The email link is at the bottom.)

Presume Hammer becomes available early 2003. It gets a PR of 3400+, but its actual GHz rating is 2.0GHz.

Presume benchmarking shows that it’s about 8% faster than the 3GHz processor Intel should have by then for most things.

Also presume that the store/reseller advertisements for the machines call them XP3400+s, but show the actual GHz rating in smaller print. Presume the AMD and Intel machines (whether OEM or self-built) cost the same.

1) Would you or would you not buy the Hammer machine, and why would or wouldn’t you?

2) Do you think most of the non-computer buffs you know would buy the Hammer machine or not and why?

3) Reanswer question two, but this time, presume the AMD machine costs $250 less than the Intel machine.

In your response, please also indicate whether you are using an AMD or Intel processor to power your main machine.

Ed

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply