Fabulous FUD
People talk about FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) like it’s always a bad thing.
It isn’t.
Take the Taliban. They now come in two types: either dead or alive.
On the whole, those who paid no mind to FUD have joined the first category, while those that did belong to the second.
Paranoia is good when they are out to get you.
FUD is good, too. If nothing else, it gives you a checklist of things to check out before you do something.
The purpose of marketing is to make you adopt a “Ready, Shoot, Aim” approach to buying their products. FUD is a good counter to that.
It’s really fighting fire-with-fire. If marketeers try to tap your inner, irrational emotions, so does FUD.
It’s surely not the best way to level the playing field; it’s like taking a upper and downer to feel straight rather than getting the same result by not taking anything at all.
But if only fear will get people to look before they leap, it will have to do.
What About The Mobos?
There’s been a number of questions and doubts raised about the processor itself, whether AMD can get it up to speed and how well it will perform.
While these are reasonable questions, on the whole, AMD has a pretty good track record on this.
What has not had a very good track record in the past are the mobos that run the AMD CPUs.
Am I the only one cringing at the thought of how long it’s going to take until someone like Via gets it right?
Yes, AMD will initially make chipsets, and they’ll likely work. Unfortunately, one cannot be so sanguine about any of the other mobo contenders.
AMD is going to be under a lot more pressure this time to have Hammer be close to an instant success. They’re going to need money, so they’ll want to charge a premium for Hammer for a while.
I don’t think AMD has a year for Via to get its act together. These first motherboards have to be solid and essentially stable from the getgo.
I’ve spoken a few times about all sorts of dire things happening to AMD if Hammer stumbles badly the first half next year. Should that happen, I think it more likely the mobos will do Hammer in than the processor itself.
True, this isn’t inevitable. Via is an older and hopefully more mature company. nVidia must know what Via’s Achilles Heel is. SiS might be OK. (Ali is guilty until proven innocent. :))
But it’s certainly something to wonder about and check out.
If I were working for AMD, I wouldn’t be so scared of my enemies; it would be my friends keeping me up at night.
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