Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Da Vincci Hinted about AMD-ATI merger

An internet site reported that an unseen Da Vincci manuscript was found yesterday and to the surprise of the researchers that the AMD+ATI merge was predicted by Da Vincci hundreds years ago. The below words were stated numerous occasion within that manuscript

DAAMIT
I.AM.TAD
I.AT.MAD
AIM.TAD
MAD.AT.I

:)

Saturday, July 22, 2006

IMC Myth

There seems to be an overhype on the IMC within the x86 CPU. I am not bashing on the goodness of having IMC and thus lower the memory latency, but my point is that it is simply overhype. Every single piece of feature within a CPU, is an engineering decision in one way and another. The main focus are the overall system performance and the target platform usage models.

Intel's new Core 2 Duo, is wothout the IMC, and yet still out perform the AMD's K8 with IMC, speaks for itself. It is not that Intel will not use IMC, it is just that it does not need it yet.

Then there are people argue about the scalability (about the NUMA vs UMA), saying that the C2d would not scale as good as AMD's; and in 2 years time , AMD's CPU might take the lead again due to this. Well, i wouldn't disagee on this scalability issue and the future possiblity of AMD taking the lead again. But who cares? As a desktop and laptop user, If I were to buy a decent system nowaday, I'd defintely go for Intel's C2D, at least for now. The scalability issue is not my issue, but the Intel's architect and design engineer issue. Some might want to further question this: "yes, intel can raise the FSB frequency and enhance cache design for 2 core or possible 4 cores, but it surely hit bottleneck when it designs 8 core and above". Well, it is not a user's concern. It is again their design team's concern on how to over come this, be it using IMC or other method.

Wait a minute, what about MP? As far as my desktop and laptop concern, I will not be using one , and again, at least in this few years time. Why should I incur such rediculous hardware cost and possibbly the softwatre cost while a decent single multicore processor can do the job?

Having said all that, AMD with its IMC and ccHT (hence NUMA) did give it an advantage at the 4P and above server end. The IMC is definitely not a case at the desktop and laptop end as of now, and not a case in 2P server as well because the dual FSB chipset is available.

Friday, July 21, 2006

From Fanboism to Extremist

Intel has just started its marketing campaign around its Core 2 Duo few months back, and that's exactly the time I started to participate in the blog commenting. There were occasionally funny comments appearing in technology news feedback, protraying fanboism if not extremist :)

After sending my comment to this sharikou.blogspot.com today, then I have a though why not I start my own blog and to express my view on those fanboism comments. Of course, I might write my thought on the technology as well, especially regarding to the computer industry.

AMD fanboys, to the extreme, Sharikou, likes to disagree on whatever Intel does, discredit is ability, bad name it, and most of the time, make funny judgements. While i would not comment on his personal view, but will try to prove some fact here by using logic, in funny way :)

Sharikou think that AMD manufcaturin capability is far superior than Intels. He would Intel has bad yield as compared to AMD, use 65nm with unmatured yield, etc. The list is quite long, if you are really interested, can visit his blog.

Below is the logic to prove him wrong

quote from informationweek
In some cases, executives said, AMD walked away from business when price points became so low the deal was deemed unprofitable.
Henri Richard, AMD's executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, said AMD would only take business that makes sense for the company. "We are not going to chase what I call lighting a cigarette in front of a gas leak," he said.

CPU prices from below
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=633569
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=632181&starttime=0&endtime=0

Minimum AMD CPU price is USD51
Minimum Intel CPU price is USD39

Please allow me to use my limited logic analysis here:

1) AMD is a GOOD company, and will do good thing for humanity
2) Selling CPUs is to gain money, no matter how little, is true for both Intel and AMD
3) Hector is good man and won't lie

Assume everyone want to make at least 10% for profit but AMD can't push it below USD 51. So, i'll assume its low end CPU cost is USD 46, and intel low end CPU cost is USD 35.

Should AMD make more than 10% on it and so that can prove Shariko's point AMD's APM is far more superior than Intel's Copy exactly? it can't without violating point number 1 and 3. Since AMD is so good and supportive to the humanity, of course AMD would support USD100 PC initiative. The key is low CPU cost. A GOOD AMD would definitely sell cheaper CPU when it can and a good Hector would not lie.

So, can intel actually selling at lost? it can't either since Sharikou think that intel is so evil and thus it would simply will not make its CPU to support the PC USD 100 initiative or to sell it at lost.

So, the conclusion is what the industry has recognised except for Sharikou, his fren mike and the AMD marketing VP, Intel has far more superior manufacturing :)

Btw, in his post, there are endless joke. From the Dell Laptop explosion to be cause by the Intel CPU (he managed to related the 2 explosion sound to dual core ...), to Intel will bankrupt in 7 quarters.

Anyway, I'm not predicting AMD to gobankrupt here and I believe AMD will continue to be a strong competitor to Intel, despite the fact that Intel is taking the lead currently.