Dell can't afford not to sell Opterons

I'd like to start by asking where in the world you find some of the sites you link to through the image in the left side menu bar. You have enlightened me to some truly bizarre things. Thanks, and keep up the daily break from monotony. :o)

Now, on to the real subject.

In observing the CPU market over the last several months, witnessing the ebb and flow of information, and trying to "read the tea leaves", a couple of thoughts have surfaced. This comes on the culmination of what I have found and is a total guess.

AMD kills the Duron line in favor of using older Athlons. -- Great idea. Probably should have happened years ago. (Or, never happened. Had we not been forced to endure the CPU speed race perhaps all of the energy spent on Celerons and Durons could have been put to better / more productive use?) Also, killing Duron allows AMD to put forth more resources to Hammer (in all forms).

Hammer. The name says it all, and AMD is somewhat betting the farm on it. In AMD's support, it does seem several OEM's are seriously considering Hammer (IBM, Dell, etc.) The most important one here may be IBM. 1. Consider the amount of money IBM is pouring into Linux and the Linux kernel has already been ported over to make use of the x86-64 extensions. 2. IBM would love a chance to "get back" at Microsoft for many reasons, OS/2 comes to mind. The continual growth of Linux in the market place has got to be causing huge smiles at IBM. 3. "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." -- agree with it or not this still seems to hold true. IBM has made a lot of money and a good name for themselves over the years by providing well to their corporate customers. IBM selling Opteron servers could be the only "stamp of approval" really needed.

Dell. Rumors and pictures aside, if Dell sells Opterons, its a good bet most of the other OEM's will follow suit, therefore, Dell's support would also be a huge win for AMD. Also, Dell can't afford to not sell Opterons if other Tier 1 OEM's are selling Opterons, as long as the Opterons are crushing the Xeons. Dell has made a good name selling high quality gear whose performance is top notch. Should the Opteron servers begin slaying the Xeon boxes, Dell's customers will start asking why Dell is not providing the best in servers.

Finally, the gaming community (read: willing to spend lots of money) is chomping at the bit for desktop Hammers. (The 64 bit version of UT comes to mind). This market segment should also include the other computer enthusiasts who are very supportive of AMD. This last piece is important because this is the grassroots support for AMD and Linux. When programmers are coding for speed / performance, it seems they will follow right in to x86-64, just as they did from 16 to 32 bit. As Microsoft is wavering / not announcing support for Hammer and the open source community is already welcoming Hammer with open arms, one has to wonder / consider will Hammer "help" the open source community as the open source community appears to be "helping" Hammer? Here Microsoft will have to follow the previous Dell example. If 64 bit Linux on Hammer (think: Apache) is crushing 32 bit Windows on Hammer (think: IIS), Microsoft will have to answer up to the challenge.

One parting thought. Although AMD does have PowerNow, AMD has never really stepped into the "lightweight" notebook sector (really long battery life) ... and, has not announced anything to compete with Intel in this arena. (This area is certainly a valuable market and seems to continue to grow.) Consider this: What if AMD is intentionally staying out of this market, spending all their money on Hammer development, with the understanding / expectation / agreement(?) with Transmeta that Transmeta's newest processor will be x86-64 compliant (when it needs to be...read: on demand)? Too strange to be true? The Transmeta products emulate 32 bit x86 now... so wouldn't x86-64 be just a software upgrade for Transmeta? If this were true it would allow for "instant" x86-64 laptops that really are low power (unlike the P4's). It would allow AMD to continue to concentrate on server / desktop innovation and leave all the power saving features to Transmeta, unlike Intel who spends huge amounts of money on both fronts. Linus Torvalds works for Transmeta, and the Linux community seemed to port Linux over to x86-64 almost over night... AMD has been very "open" about its x86-64 technology...

Perhaps AMD is learning a thing or two from the Open Source Community... Shall we someday see the design (or at least brainstorming) behind processors coming more from the community? Could "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" somehow apply to the hardware community, too?

Douglas Hutchison

Sony's Spanish shenanigans

Dear Mr. M. Magee,

I am an avid reader of the Inquirer and I have witnessed on your excellent site that you seem to champion many causes against badly behaved manufacturers.

My problem is with Sony Computers Spain. I am a British national working in Spain as a software engineer. I recently purchased a brand spanking new monitor here in Madrid namely the Sony HMD-A230.

The monitor had a defect right out of the box. I took it back to the retailer and they told me it was better if I dealt directly with Sony through their "next day service", with which, they would bring me a new monitor directly to my flat. In order to do so I had to register with Sony sending them a coupon that was supposedly inside the packaging of the monitor. It wasn't, I called Sony and they sent me the coupon.

All of this took more than two weeks so the 15 days in which I had a right to return it to the retailer passed. Upon reading the coupon I was informed that the replacement monitor was not new but a repaired one. I phoned Sony explaining that I wanted a new one, however, Spanish law allows the manufacturer to decide whether to replace or repair. Nevertheless, there is a European Directive that puts that decision with the consumer. Sony is aware of this Directive but since it has not been made part of Spanish law they simply ignore it. However, the Directive is applicable but must be done so by a judge.

Nevertheless, all I want is a working monitor which is what I paid for. It is now a month after the date of purchase and all I have is the defective monitor, because their "next day service" failed to turn up. I paid extra for a Sony monitor not just for quality but guarantee and I am at a loss here in Spain because I don't know who to turn to. I feel they are taking advantage of this ignorance and would like to inform other readers of your site about my experience with Sony. It may be of interest to others who are thinking of buying a monitor.

Yours sincerely,
David Pareja