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amd cracked the market

We (should) all understand that yes the Opteron is the leader in the "server" market (at the moment). Most of the discussion here is about the desktop market, however bare in mind Sun is probably AMD's biggest customer, they do still sell either own SPARCS and SPARC64 boxes which account for at least some of their sales - but yes their x86 boxes are Opteron powered and are very successful. But server sales do not account for anywhere near the same amount of desktop sales. There have been some supply issues with Opterons (mainly S939 1xx series), but I still agree with the other points raised. AMD could not have supplied a large desktop vendor such as Dell or Apple with processors and still have such a big grip in the component market.

But if Conroe morphs into a server processor (A64 -> Opteron) then it should be very interesting. Yes AMD are leaders on the market, but if we are to believe the Conroe benchmarks, then it could change. We should all welcome this direct competition, it benefits us in the long run with competitive prices and pushes in technology.
 
Explicit said:
But then again...

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29890

Damn this waiting game!!! :(
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Err... the Inquirer are not famed for the accuracy of their reporting... ;)

Then again, we must remember that AM2 is basically A64 with DDR2 support, whereas Conroe is a whole new architecture. I'm sure AMD are already well into the development of their own next-gen core, but we're probably talking mid- to late-2007, and we won't even begin to hear rumours about it for a few more months.
 
Dunky said:
K8L = 65nm shrink. With this, it means less voltage but more die space to play about with, hence the potential for two FPU units and maybe more cache. Could be interesting...
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See what I mean? This is a bummer.

Do we get AM2 now and then upgrade again to the new 65nm K8L next year (hopefully that will also be socket AM2) or do we get Conroe later this year and just hope that AMD doesn't make a massive comeback in 2007 with K8L? Or do we wait for K8L? Arrrgggghhhhh, this is doing me head in.

Upgrading sucks.
 
The Reg article sounds like they've pulled it out of thin air (or are quoting someone who's pulled it out of thin air), and the interview was pretty elusive. I'm almost certain that K8L WILL be on the AM2 socket, but AMD have screwed their customers over by changing platforms in the past so I wouldn't bet the bank on it. S754 was initially marketted as the next-gen platform before they introduced s939 and consigned the s754 to the mobile market, after all. Furthermore, K8L will simply be the 65nm version of the current architecture, and while it'll undoubtedly increase performance, it will be an incremental improvement, like the switch from the 130nm TBreds and Pallys to the 90nm Bartons rather than a clean sweep like Intel is doing with Conroe.
I'm sure AMD have something coming in 2007 beyond K8L, but we don't know what and on which socket.
Personally, I consider myself lucky as I don't really need to upgrade atm. I can wait till December-January, when we'll have a clearer picture of where AM2 is going before deciding between Intel and AMD. For anyone who wants to upgrade this year though the best choice will probably be Conroe as we don't know where AM2 is going. It might seem sensible to adopt AM2 early and wait for better chips, but the early boards in every new platform introduced (for both Intel and AMD) have been problem-laden so you're probably going to have to change everything when the new chips eventually come.
 
Yeah I agree, info about AMD's future plans is scarce at the moment, which is a bad thing IMO. It leaves customers in the shade worrying about whether or not AM2 has any life in it. If there's one thing I hate about AMD, it's their lack of openess. Customers want reassurance and right now AMD isn't showing anything of that sort.

Dec 06/Jan 07 appears to be the "sweet spot" for upgrading. Conroe should be settled down, DDR2 should be stabilised, and hopefully AMD will tell us what they're doing/planning.
 
mine is an uneducated oppinion compared to most, but i find it hard to fathem that in a market where there are really only 2 main competitors that a company that is as large as amd would develop a chip wich looks to fall against its rivel.
so wouldnt you hope they would revise the chip to better compete in the market its being released into?
that is if its not going to be able to compete, dont get me wrong i like amd i havnt used a pentium for my self just friends machines and for the money id rather stick an amd in my machine so i hope they do well if just to keep the market thriving
 
I think the whole point of AM2 was not only for DDR2, but it gave AMD a platform which allowed it to have both 90nm and 65nm processors. I think that for AMD to move to another socket in such a short time is commerical suicide so I think, more so with Conroe as we see it, they will want to keep as much of their marketshare as possible and one sure way to lose it is to move to a different socket. They did it once with 754/939, but I don't think they'll get away with it again....

I agree Explicit, end of the year will be a very good time to evaluate a big upgrade. Although there are some people (I'm one of them), who can't really wait until then to upgrade so we're a bit stuck and may jump to Conroe / AM2 as soon as it's released. But for all those who are aiming for an upgrade end of year / start of next are in a very good position.
 
comradpoplin! said:
i find it hard to fathem that in a market where there are really only 2 main competitors that a company that is as large as amd would develop a chip wich looks to fall against its rivel.
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But don't forget Conroe is Intel's 'next-gen' chip, whereas AM2 is just A64 with DDR2 support! All the time that Intel have been lagging behind AMD through their move from Athlon to A64, stalling by trying to milk every last drop out of Netburst, they've been developing Conroe. I'm sure AMD are working towards their own next gen chip, which will in turn match Conroe or even leap ahead of it. It just goes like that in cycles, it's just that the last 2-3 years have been AMD's turn on top:p

Dunky said:
I think the whole point of AM2 was not only for DDR2, but it gave AMD a platform which allowed it to have both 90nm and 65nm processors. I think that for AMD to move to another socket in such a short time is commerical suicide so I think, more so with Conroe as we see it, they will want to keep as much of their marketshare as possible and one sure way to lose it is to move to a different socket. They did it once with 754/939, but I don't think they'll get away with it again....
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I hope you're right, I'll be annoyed if they switch again... :mad:
 
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