AMD dominates July 4th ruminations

When the first Athlon hit one gigahertz and roared past its intelligent competitor, a lot of us looked up rather startled that the small underdog was producing chips that were faster and cheaper than Intel.

Forward a couple years to events like the AMD Extreme Performance Event where droves of newfound AMD fan boys jumped up and down, gleefully looking at low prices and high performance. Evangelically AMD PR gave Churchillian speeches of fighting for the common good against a common enemy. And these people are what brought AMD's success to where it is today, AMD bribed consumers of their products with t-shirts and hats, and took them on as a free extension to their marketing division, giving them all of the knowledge needed to thwart those who had foolishly clutched tighter to Intel, as Intel increased the creativity in appearances of men in bunny suits.

For most people in the business, this was a great time for them, the mid range of the Athlon XP lineup at the time could be found for around a hundred dollars and the highest end at two hundred.

And now, we come upon today. Where Intel, faced with internal reorganization, brought on by foolishly letting go of their CEO and founder (he left because he finally hit a mandatory retirement age that he himself had set) becomes unable to compete with AMD's technological pace. Although the market share in the desktop segment has not changed much, market share is one thing, management of the new era tends to eat better not when sales are up, but when the stocks are up. And in the land of stocks, news rules. AMD's releases make Intel drool. (sorry, I was feeling rather poetic) AMD's perpetual success in its Athlon 64 lineup have had many a press release issued while comparison Intel has been unable to produce the products to say the words fastest, or market leader in its press releases titles. And we all know that as one falls, they get closer to the mud, and its just plain natural instinct to take a handful and sling it at the person who knocked you off your high horse. AMD's argument against Intel's business practice is not unfounded, quoting an unnamed person working in upper management for HP's Business Computer division, "I can deal with Microsoft, those are the high parts in my day, but dealing with Intel, that's when I have my bad days."

So on this very July Fourth in the states, when a group of people sent a not so nice letter overseas declaring their independence, I analyze in the same perspective AMD, launching its case against Intel. Obviously more a publicity stunt than a legal objective, its facts valid, but its more important objective to declare the acts by Intel against AMD's growth as a grotesque and unethical practice of business.

Many a learned man in the states, and most other civilized nations know the wise words of "trading one tyrant for another". A gaze upon processor prices today, particularly that of AMD's, them recently launching one of the most expensive processors in quite some time, shows that we may have indeed, traded one tyrant for another. War brings the best out of technology, and so does competition. We know how long it took to go from a 2000+ rating to a 3000+ rating, but it has taken much longer to get to the 4000+ rating. The speed of growth, is not quite as unsettling as the cost is. With a leadership position in technology, AMD has increased its prices significantly, by at least, doubling its mid range processor price. And in a quite INTELectual manner, in comes the Celeronish Semprons, looked upon as value by some, and by others, a gruesome depiction of performance and decadence. Now on to what this means.

The Good: AMD fans (and stockholders more so) rejoice, for their underdog has become king.

The Bad: No competition from Intel means that AMD can charge whatever they want for their products.

The Ugly: Intel doesn't seem to be reacting to AMD's progress in technology, maybe because they see the market share in the desktop segment being stable. Or probably because their US engineering division is on some type of morphine drip during reorganization. Their numbers for the server market have probably taken a horrendous down trend and the company has yet to drum up its attack. If we look at what competition did to the graphics industry we'll see that there has been tremendous pave in graphics processing power, with each new lineup coming out being twice as powerful as the last. With no competition, AMD has been lax to pave forward with increased speeds and power.

Basically, AMD is a public company; it has people inside of it that have capitalist ideals. They want to make money, and as long as they are on top, they will charge whatever they wish for their superior products. Great if you're a shareholder, but if your trying to build a computer, or buy one, not so great. Building a decent gaming machine today will cost a thousand, true, graphics cards are a main factor in the cost, but the extra hundred+ dollars you spend on a processor doesn't help.

And the other question is what's up with Intel? From more than just rumors, its going through a massive reorganization which has left its design engineers in great strain, the companies' lineup is currently being created by process engineers who are tweaking like crazy to take the old P4 architecture up a couple hundred megahertz. And the last thing to come out of the US engineering office was two P4 Yamhill's duct taped together with a Dual core stamp on it. Marketing in Intel seems to be unscathed however, but as many painfully see, they have not been looking for more interesting ways for men painted in blue to advertise, but creating whimsical product numbering systems. Honestly buying an Intel Processor is like browsing through a library where you cannot see the titles of the books, but the ISBN number is shown bright and boastfully. The most active Intel division is in Israel where Centrino, and the most elegant Pentium M was born.

Why is it that where one succeeds another fails. Intel in the low powered notebook chips, letting it have free reign in pricing there, and AMD in the desktop segment, allowing them same luxury.

So as us "free" Americans chomp on hamburgers and hot dogs during our Independence Day probably happier about the meat in our face than the letter we sent to trade one tyrant over a great sea for one much closer to home, I ponder not as to whom will I buy my next microprocessor from, but at what cost. At what cost.

Ajay Desai

Subject: They are a bit like jellyfish dep't

Thanks for the article. Somewhat short on specifics, albeit not completely lacking. Any thing more though, and you'd probably cross that fine blue line separating respectable journalism from maundering muckraking. Didn't you learn anything from that Groklaw bit two summers ago? What are you trying to do, lose your Intel advertising stream as well? Our Independence Day celebrations here in the States not exciting enough for you? Just what shall your shareholders think?

Well okay, that "Open Letter" post did have one effect: it has ever since placed your disgusting, irreverent, sensationalist rag at the very top of my morning news list, from where I'm too lazy to have it budge.

You'd have my thanks, save you might take it personally :-)

That (sniff), and you missed (at least) one wee minor nit detail of Intel Corporate Culture. "Constructive Confrontation" is merely the title of a required in-house training course, just another part of new-employee orientation, and nowhere near the Big Deal you describe: the student either Gets It, or Gets Hosed. Stoicism is for losers. Cheers!

eleaver

Subject: Gutless PC vendors terrified by nightmare AMD Intel clash

They are a bit like jellyfish. Or donkeys"

Great article I must say and is a testament as to why I read theinq more than any other news site.

Standing up to such a huge company is a challenge and one I hope AMD succeeds with.

One favor I have to ask you, can you make a WAP version of the site for those of us who often read articles on our mobiles? I already get CNN, now all I need is C|Net and theinq to be golden.

-Stefan, long time inq reader and supporter

Subject: Slashdot sued

HAHA! Extreme right wing AND socialist?! Is that even possible? Oh man, there's either something in the water in Utah or this guy just has an extra stash of the substance in his basement. Is it sad that this story is the most entertaining thing I've seen today?

- Jason

Subject: Some people have way too much time on their hands

On the other hand, I really hope this guy has a lot of money stashed to support the costs, 'cause I can't see this one flying farther than I can spit. If he isn't loaded, he'll probably have to mortgage his house again, and it really would be a pity to see someone forfeit his life fortune for something so stupid and doomed to fail. Slashdot is preventing him from going to church ? Good luck trying to prove that one. Slashdotters are totally incapable of preventing anything in the digital world, so let's not try imagining them actually DOING something in the REAL world. And as for violating his constitutional rights, I believe Mr. Merkey is going to learn the hard way that freedom of speech is something that also applies to those who say things that you do not like. As long, of course, as you are not personally and wrongfully insulted.

I have searched the Slashdot forums, and I have actually found Mr. Merkey's name in several posts and threads on Slashdot. Now I am not going to make any comments on what is said in these long-winded pages of emptyness, but I will say one thing : if you don't like the company, you're free to click your way someplace else.

And a lawsuit isn't going to make Slashdot disappear, Jeffrey. Not until a certain place freezes over anyway.

Pascal.

Subject: Everywhere Girl showing up on www.vivarin.com

I sent a complaint to the FTC over this.

If GlaxoSmithKline is going to have pictures and quotes of people using those pills, they should be using *real* examples with *real* pictures of Vivarin users.

I doubt the real Jenna looks as good as Everywhere Girl if she has to depend on Vivarin to keep herself awake.

Peter Stern
Toronto, Canada

Subject: MSI Forum War

Mike,

Nowhere are the benefits of freedom of the press more obvious than user forums. They serve as an early warning system to management for production problems, freebie marketing help, & lend productive direction to product development.

The thought that a company would let the spectre of a gaggle of lawyers descending upon corporate coffers deter them from these benefits of user forums is a sad comment on the lack of corporate cajones.

Charles Greene

Subject: Slashdot right wing?

Yeah right slashdot is full of left wing liberals then again right wing in the US is what everyone else calls left wing... Which is really confusing -.- I'm an US right wing conservitave who voted for Bush in 2004 and supports the Iraq war and no more then 1% of slashdot are commie nut jobs. Granted a large number are left wing who probsally voted for kerry If they bothered to leave the basement while the sun was still up they are generally nice people who who only hate M$ but unless this dude is trolling in the the negative karma posts he's probally the one who cuases the trouble. Just another BS law suit from Utah (We seem to be getting a lot of those it's no wonder it draw problem for the mormons and utah in general)with some weird ties to SCO or novell hating that have yet to be proven.

sollord

Subject: The Utah Joke.

This is completely absurd! These websites I'm sure did not promote religous intolerance. The sites involved should not be punished for something their users might have said. Being a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I do often see religous intolerance toward our members, but in no way did the actions, if any truly existed, constitute a lawsuit.

It is my strong belief that he should be proud of his religous beliefs but should also have some integrity and strength to endure such minor intolerances.

Just my .02c, keep up the good work.

Matt

Subject: Crazy Frog

You know what I'd rather see, the creators of crazy frog locked into a room with it looping, and never letting them out. Roll on global warming, hopefully it will kill us all so that we don't make that kind of shite

Pyrocles