When?

AMD will supposedly introduce 2700+ and 2800+ processors October 1.

This is a little hard to take seriously when we haven’t seen 2400+ and 2600+ processors yet.

We haven’t said anything about that since AMD did say the processors wouldn’t be available until the end of September.

If you look at Pricewatch, there’s a handful of places offering to pre-sell the CPU, and they generally say the product should be available around October 1.

Never mind the new promised goodies. First, let’s see how good AMD’s word is on the old promised goodies.

The real concern has to be the availability of 2400/2600s. Those will be the chips that will give AMD a chance to raise their average selling price somewhat. If they’re not around, or in short supply, Intel can easily do terrible things to them on the low-end with pricing October 25. For instance, Intel could discontinue the 1.8 and 2.0, and make the 2.2 the $130 CPU.

If AMD can’t get 2400/2600s out the door, they obviously won’t be able to produce 2700/2800s, either.

More importantly, if October 1 comes and goes and TBreds IIs don’t become very plentiful very quickly, it’s not just some October sales at stake. It’s also AMD’s credibility on the line, a credibility that going to get a good shaking when third-quarter results come out. All Joe Sixpack needs to hear from somebody is “AMD? They’ve been having problems lately.”

He’s more likely to hear that from somebody when articles like this one from Business Week comes out. The article essentially says what I’ve been saying the past few months and essentially puts vultures on notice.

Yes, Intel has had paper launches, paper launches much worse than this. But Intel wasn’t in financial trouble, and AMD looks like it will be shortly. Events become more significant when that’s the case, just like a coughing fit is taken much more seriously in the ICU than on the street.

Ed