ffakr

2 Comments

    • ON: Mon Mar 31st 23:31 PM
      Commented on:
      AMD Could Whiff Its Quarter - JPMorgan
      AMD's new products are here now. Intel is a full design cycle ahead of AMD and their aggressive Tick-Tock strategy means AMD is as good as dead unless they reinvent their business.

      There are a lot of zealots in the processor wars, and I'll admit I used to root for AMD myself but the facts are more than clear. Lets look at the facts shall we?

      Processors:
      AMD has been behind Intel since the release of the Intel Core2 line. Intel has been killing AMD on power while staying ahead of them on performance.
      As Core2 aged, AMD made some headway in the area of performance/watt but this was not due to processor advances but rather due to the hot system controllers in Intel systems.
      AMD had an opportunity to catch up with Phenom but AMD's release window was blown when Phenom blew it's release date.

      When Phenom did come out it was clocked lower than expected, performed worse than expected, and contained performance robbing errata that was just fixed THIS PAST WEEK! Hey, but at least AMD finally made 65nm fabrication with Phenom. Too bad the 65nm Core2 processors were killing Phenom in all but the rarest of benchmarks.

      In the same time frame:
      Intel released an inexpensive Quad core chip ahead of Phenom.
      Intel released a revised series of dual and quad core chips on their next die shrink, the 45nm process reducing cost and heat while increasing performance.
      Intel's new 45nm chips include some modest performance improvements/clock cycle except for Media applications (video in particular) where the new chips beat AMD processors by 50%.
      45nm Core processors overclock to 4GHz with air cooling indicating Intel is holding back to keep just out of reach of AMD. Intel could crush AMD in all but the lowest cost markets if they pushed the 45nm Core clock speed all the way. Phenom, on the other hand, overclocks extremely poorly.

      Processor future, this year:
      Intel's 45nm process is robust. Intel is looking at a core revision later this year with a significant core reworking.
      While AMD is poised to release their 3 core cpu, Intel is talking about a 2H 6-core and later a 4Q 8-core cpu with (wait for it)... another core revision bringing a new on-die memory controller 1H next year.

      Video Cards, ATI [AMD] v. Nvidia:
      NVIDIA has been ahead of ATI for well over a year. Their product release cycles were 9 months ahead of ATI and although the 9xxx series Nvidia cards are mostly an incremental upgrade to the 8xxx series, Nvidia is the performance leader and they will be the first with the next major revision.

      DRAM/SRAM:
      Oh yea, what about AMD's memory production? Memory is a loss leader. Vendors are almost giving it away these days.

      AMD is only alive today because it's against Intel's interest to kill them. Intel needs one vaguely viable competitor to prevent serious accusations of Monopoly.
      AMD pulled a fantastic rabbit out of the hat when they absorbed the Alpha processor design team and the result was the Athlon. Athlon saved AMD. Unfortunately, the hat is empty. Phenom was the next rabbit AMD needed to save AMD from the Intel Core design (and Intel's next processors) but Phenom is a failure. Phenom is rarely competative with Core.. only through extremely selective benchmarking. Core beats Phenom in nearly any benchmark, and Intel hasn't begun to tap the performance potential of the current 45nm chips.

      The next time we'll see a significant uptick in AMD stock is after the hostile take over.. of course they'll probably wipe out your holdings in the process.
      View article »
    • ON: Tue Feb 26th 15:48 PM
      Commented on:
      Apple Enhances MacBooks, Now #2 U.S. Music Retailer
      I understand that Apple is tracking other tech companies like Google but I can't understand how Apple in particular is taking such a Market beating. Apple's figures last quarter were fantastic.
      The projections were too conservative for the pundits but Apple's projections are always conservative. If anything they are more-so while they are under SEC investigation for the back-dating.
      The pundits have also been saying that Apple's iPod, and now iPhone business would run out of steam for 3 or 4 years now. Quarter after Quarter.. 'can Apple continue to innovate?'.

      Same old crap. Same people who have been predicting Apple's demise for their entire careers.
      View article »
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