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Will AMD Go All Dual Soon? "Speaking With Forked Tongue" May 13, 2005

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c627627

c(n*199780) Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2002
Ed Stroligo here http://www.overclockers.com/tips00777/

talks about:

"Chip firm AMD held a press conference here in Monaco. It believes it can switch all of its single core processors to dual cores, and at the same price and with similar infrastructure, within a year.
(...)
AMD said it would be switching the whole of its family to dual cores at least a year before Intel managed to shift its uniprocessors to dual core systems. "

Mike Magee, The Inquirer
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23175


That implies there would be intro, mainstream and flagship dual cores of M2s... within a year.
Does that imply there would be no single cores?

We're to see the very first dual core CPUs come out at premium prices in Q3 of 2005 retail (June 2005 in OEM machines only) .... and then all of a sudden all AMD CPUs are dual cores in Q2 2006? I don't think so.

A leaked AMD roadmap earlier this year shows that only Windsor is clearly marked dual core, why wouldn't they mark Manila and Orleans dual core when they clearly marked Windsor as dual? They could have changed their plans (they often do) but that's just unlikley, don't you think?


So back to why would AMD talk about an all out switch 'within a year'?

With in a year of what? Could they have meant with a year from launch Q2 2006?

2007 is Longhorn time + I still think even then at least a Sempron would be single, don't you? There is and will be a demand for inexpensive CPUs for third world markets and email / word processing, why would AMD be making dual cores for that so soon, + after all, Intel plans on having singles for a while too...
 
AMD paper launched Venice. This sounds more like a vapor launch. Whatever the obscurantist justification for their statment, it sounds like hot air.

"Roadmap? Oh, we changed that."
 
i'd hate to correct c627 but this belongs in front page discussions :)

I like the interpretation of 'the whole M2 socket line' as dual core.
 
Otter

AMD paper launched Venice.


Revision 'E' die Athlon64s are merely a product revision from AMD's perspective, not a new product launch (although they arguably should be! :)).

As such, a 'paper launch' really is an impossibility. The new cores are indeed literally trickling in, and are not extremely wide-spread just yet. But when we keep in mind that it is only a product revision, it isn't really such a bad situation for AMD as a company to be in.



C627627, I agree with your conclusions. Movement to a complete dual-core lineup with low to mid-range products does not seem like a good money-making decision at this point in time. Of course, it is possible, and could conceivably happen! :)
 
felinusz said:
As such, a 'paper launch' really is an impossibility. The new cores are indeed literally trickling in, and are not extremely wide-spread just yet. But when we keep in mind that it is only a product revision, it isn't really such a bad situation for AMD as a company to be in.

Okay, maybe it would be more accurate to say they "paper released" the revision. I agree it's not that big a deal, just the most recent in a long history of annoyances, and I admit it's not the best example. My point is that statements AMD makes about the future can't be trusted. The company doesn't seem to know what it's going to do next, much less be able to tell us a year in advance.

The other side of AMD's unreliability is that they'll change their plans if, as the technology evolves, a better idea presents itself. Because of this, they often are ahead of Intel, at least in the bang for buck department. As much as we all hate that they keep changing their minds, and as huge a problem as that is for AMD as it tries to woo OEM and corporate customers, it's exactly what we love about AMD. There will always be a tradoff between producing innovative CPUs and producing the CPUs you put on your roadmap a year or two ago. AMD leans in the direction of innovation, and that's why their chips are so popular with hotrodders like us. But because they don't know what they're going to do more than six months in advance, we can't expect them to tell us with any certainty.

As for "switching" a family of processors to dual core within a year, it doesn't seem to me this statement has much meaning. A dual core processor is very different from a single core. They aren't going to switch anything. They're going to release a new line of processors and eventually stop making the single cores when the market for them dries up. That's unlikely to happen within a year. Hence, the statement seems little more than hype. The intent was to give the impression AMD is far head of Intel. This is just a sales pitch, and I wouldn't make more of it than that.
 
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