Intel heavyweights diss Opteron

While CEO Craig Barrett refrained from talking up the prospects of an upturn in the fortunes of technology firms per se, he reckoned Intel would nick market share even if the sector remains flat. Yet it fell to President Otellini to mention the "O" word in public.

The Intel execs were banging the drum for the company's upcoming chip offerings, pushing Prescott for the desktop and the next generation of mobile Pentium, the Israel-developed Dothan.

"There is this product called Opteron out there kicking around," muttered Otellini before going on to claim that AMD's wonderchip would - with a 1MB cache - be twice the die size of Prescott.

Intel will build Prescott using 90 nanometer strained silicon technology. The chip is due before the end of the year and it will be next year before AMD is able to move Opteron to a similar 90nm process. Squeezing more chips from each silicon wafer makes the whole process more cost effective, but in choosing to utter the "O"-word, Otellini could be accused of comparing apples with pears.

For Prescott is the next in the Pentium family - aimed at desktop systems - while AMD aims its 32/64 chip at the server space. And in the upper tier Intel's Itanium2 is starting to resemble a lost sheep. Otellini could only claim that the Itanium 2 offers "world-class performance," whilst mumbling something about the number of firms offering servers sporting the chip increasing.

So, whilst the chipmaking Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum generally only refer to each other as "the competition" AMD execs will claim that Intel is obviously worried about Opteron. Worried enough, indeed, to start questioning the economics of producing the chip rather that how the chip will actually perform.

And since the delivery schedule for Prescott has already slipped from H2, to a definite Q4, 2003, AMD is not likely to be far behind with its move to a 90nm process for Opteron. µ

See also:
Intel unveils new improvements, instructions in Prescott
Intel's desktop CPUs in graphics
Intel's Yamhill still not a lost cause?
Intel releases Prescott, Springdale materials
Intel's Prescott and Tejas. Yamhill no future?
Prescott 3.20GHz appears in Intel roadmaps
Prescott Canterwood canters into view
Pentium 4 chips to get 800MHz system buses, while Prescott delayed
Prescott Intel chipsets have "communication streaming architecture"
Prescott, Itanium III to get airing at chip conference
Intel to intro mobile Prescott chip early next year
Intel confirms Tejas Prescott, Canterwood, Springdale details
Intel's Prescott â€" the speculation mounts
Intel Prescott will have Hyperthreading 2
Intel Prescott processors will have big RATs
Prescott to have Yammer inside?
Prescott, Springdale to have RMBS support
Intel Prescott could have 1MB L2 cache
Time for Prescott New Instructions (PNI)
Intel's 666MHz Prescott bus
What the 13 PNIs of Prescott really do
More data emerges on Prescott architecture
Intel thumps Prescott drum
Intel's up to date roadmaps