AMD gossip from New York... so far

THE GRANDFATHER of alternative CPUs turned up in NYC tonight to attempt to convince at least 14 starry eyed Taiwanese companies that the Opteron, and the Athlon 64, are top notch CPUs.

Which of course they undoubtedly are, but the "marketing, marketing" mantra is impressive too.

The world capital is driven by cash. So is New York. It's a bit like Las Vegas but intellectually quite different.

Thank goodness I haven't bumped into that minx Eva Glass, nor her heartless sibling Harta. I'm finished with the both of them! [Why is this in your news story? Ed.]

The really big news is that ex CEO Jerry Sanders III was spotted talking to at least 14 Asian vendors, right here in the W hotel, in old New York.

An INQUIRER reporter asked me "Got a digital camera, Rusty? You can catch Jerry as he leaves W".

We declined that opportunity.

Elderly men don't normally like megapixel flashes in their faces, as Bill Gates is beginning to realise.

If the Opteron is successful, as apparently the like of famous Wall St maven Atiq Raza reckons it could be, then according to another maven here in Union Square, "it will be taken over within the year by either Sun or IBM".

Eva once told me: "Beware hedge funds". What was she talking about?

The local US spinners scoffed at the very idea that Sun and IBM could be interested, in the slightest. Well, they scoffed at the Sun idea at least.

Carly Fiorina, though...

When the major brithax from Europe tipped up at Kennedy today, including that nice Toby from Computer Weekly, Chris Green from Computing and the possibly traitorous Tony "Smitty" Smith from Macworld, the INQUIRER and latterly the Other Plaice they were faced with a sign held by a taxi driver saying C. Fiorina.

Fortunately, an AMD shill rescued them all from that interesting situation and paid for a local cab down to the W hotel in Union Square. Price? $35+$3 in the tunnel and the tip on top of that.

One UK journalist said "We got down to downtown NYC but we were sure we were overtaken by some carriage carrying Carly".

And we thought Carly flew under her own steam.

Just keep me away from Eva, boss, OK?