AMD: From Follower to Leader
Monday, August 30, 2004 by BX | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Once a mere copycat, AMD keeps cranking out innovative products, to the point where it finds itself on the leading edge of processor and system bus technology. But should you bank on a company that has earned the wrath of the world's largest chipmaker.You just gotta love a Cinderella story. Advanced Micro Devices is the hardscrabble kid who came to Silicon Valley with a dollar and a pack of Luckies and ended up in a building with its name on top. AMD’s rapid rise from startup to $5 billion semiconductor powerhouse is, as Humphrey Bogart’s English teacher once said, the stuff of which dreams are made.
AMD went after those dreams with an unabashed moxie that would always be the company’s trademark, from its first clone of Intel’s 8080 to supercharged chips that enjoy a cult following among hard-core gamers. In the process, AMD has become known as the company that kept Intel honest, the Linux of the semiconductor world. Competition from AMD has reversed the trend of rising prices and stagnant innovation that characterize a controlled market. AMD is responsible for $500 desktops, $1,200 rack servers, and multigigahertz mainstream microprocessors, despite the fact that most of them have Intel’s logo on them.
Today, AMD’s pluck is paying off bigger than ever before. After decades of aping Intel architectures, the AMD64 architecture, rooted in Opteron and Athlon 64 processors, has actually been imitated by Intel in the form of Nocona, Intel’s 64-bit version of Xeon. In a stunning reversal of fortune, Intel was forced to build that chip because Opteron was invading a server market that the Intel Itanium was supposed to dominate.
Suddenly, Intel is feeling a breeze where its pants used to be. But with Intel mad as hell and hot on AMD’s heels, can AMD grab enough sales traction to hold up to the punishing onslaught everyone knows is coming?
Anyone shopping for servers needs to consider that question seriously because Opteron creates a new 64-bit path to follow one that continues the x86 tradition rather than, as Itanium does, consigning that architecture to the dustbin of history. To understand the crossroads at which AMD finds itself and what the implications are, shrewd observers must take a hard look at the company’s technologies and market position now and in the past.
Check out this Infoworld article for more details...
Geethor
Reply #3 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:55 AM
Reply #3 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:55 AM
Have an AMD Athlon processor & wouldn't trade it for the best Intel has to offer...I've always loved the underdog! Thx Sir Black Xero! 
GRJr.
GRJr.
DesignCaddy
Reply #4 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 6:36 AM
Reply #4 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 6:36 AM
very well written quip, xero. 
'cult following' is the perfect way to describe AMD users. myself included, i've noticed a growing number of people around here who have built their machines with AMD chips to save cash over pentiums - and have been very pleased. my xp1500 is a 1.5ghz which out performs my 2.6 p4 in graphics. my father took my advice when rebuilding an old computer and used an AMD 2300.. he says he cant believe how fast it is. when i began this job, the company offered me any computer i wanted. i told them to stay in budget and get me something with an athlon.. they got me an HP desktop with an xp 2600.. since it's an HP, they got it for a special price because of some license deal we have.. 2.13 gighz machine came in less than a grand. a toast to the underdog!
'cult following' is the perfect way to describe AMD users. myself included, i've noticed a growing number of people around here who have built their machines with AMD chips to save cash over pentiums - and have been very pleased. my xp1500 is a 1.5ghz which out performs my 2.6 p4 in graphics. my father took my advice when rebuilding an old computer and used an AMD 2300.. he says he cant believe how fast it is. when i began this job, the company offered me any computer i wanted. i told them to stay in budget and get me something with an athlon.. they got me an HP desktop with an xp 2600.. since it's an HP, they got it for a special price because of some license deal we have.. 2.13 gighz machine came in less than a grand. a toast to the underdog!
rkadowns
Reply #5 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 10:52 AM
Reply #5 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 10:52 AM
Well, if Intel moves away from x86 and the rest of the industry follows suit with Intel, (which is very likely), AND Intel has a lock on the design which could prevent AMD from cloning, I would have to worry about the long-time viability of AMD. Everyone take a step back and remember these times for AMD. These days may be the greatest days AMD will ever see.
Now lets kick back and see what history has in store for them.
Now lets kick back and see what history has in store for them.
dagwinn
Reply #6 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 11:10 AM
Reply #6 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 11:10 AM
My first Windows PC was a Pentium 100 (c. 1995). I upgraded that machine with a 333mhz AMD 
-2 processor (c. 1998). The last I heard, the machine was still being used some 6 years later, and 9 years after it was first purchased. I almost wish I still had the machine for my kid to use.
I've got a PIII system that's a little lagging (and a motherboard that keeps killing my floppy drives). Rather than buy a new PC, I'm planning on buying an AMD processor and motherboard - and a new graphics card so I can run WinFX. And it'll cost me less than buying a new machine outright.
Long live the competition!
-2 processor (c. 1998). The last I heard, the machine was still being used some 6 years later, and 9 years after it was first purchased. I almost wish I still had the machine for my kid to use.I've got a PIII system that's a little lagging (and a motherboard that keeps killing my floppy drives). Rather than buy a new PC, I'm planning on buying an AMD processor and motherboard - and a new graphics card so I can run WinFX.
And it'll cost me less than buying a new machine outright.Long live the competition!
dukeofchutney
Reply #7 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:58 PM
Reply #7 Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:58 PM
Back in the last century, 1999 to be exact... 
...I learnt a simple truth from a technical writer for a mag here in the UK, he said: "You get more bang for your buck with AMD"...
...and I reckon he's yet to be proved wrong.
...I learnt a simple truth from a technical writer for a mag here in the UK, he said: "You get more bang for your buck with AMD"...
...and I reckon he's yet to be proved wrong.
SelfExiled
Reply #8 Wednesday, September 1, 2004 2:56 PM
Reply #8 Wednesday, September 1, 2004 2:56 PM
I have a P4 3.0 Ghtz with 1GB of Ram, and 128 MB of video. Its more than enough "bang" for me. And, I put it together myself for less than $650.
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Reply #1 Monday, August 30, 2004 10:20 PM