Where is AMD ?

[maximus]

The current state of PPC reminds me of the PC market during the 1980-1990, where intel was the true king of the jungle. I remember purchasing an IBM PS/2 model 30, Intel 8086-12mhz processor, 64 MB RAM, 20 MB harddrive, etc. for a hefty $3500 ... while at present I can build a dual opteron workstation with that amount of money.

I was wondering ... suppose AMD enters the PPC processor market, will we be happier ? will there be a significant price drops in the market ? will we see PPCs with 800 mhz Athlon-PPC processor and 256 MB RAM/ROM/strataflash etc. before the end of 2003 ?

[rzanology]

if that were to happen i could only hear the battle cry....along with the phrase "LET THE OVER CLOCKING BEGIN!!!!!!"

[bcaray]

Just out of curiosity, how would they be able to dissipate the heat that would be built up by the processor? The StrongArm gets warm during extended use and the other chipsets (from my understanding) run at significantly higher temperatures. If this is dumb please don't flame, I am just curious.

[Sslixtis]

Where is AMD...Trying to make money on a chip that has some profit margin! :lol: Intel is not making much on PPCs. The top of the line PXA255 400Mhz Xscale sells for a whopping $18.00ea in lots of 1000. That's total cost, not Intels profit on the chip. After production costs I'd be surprised if they made much of a profit at that rate!

Heck, the biggest portion of the cost of a PPC is the screen. Wonder how many different touchscreen suppliers are involved? That is where we need some good old fashioned competition! 8)

Cheers!

[maximus]

Agreed. AMD's marketing is always aligned with the source of the money. Hence we should not expect to see them in PPC market in the near future.

Sad isnt it ?

IMHO, AMD is the company who has bring us most of the latest advances in computer technology. I remember the day when AMD announced the first gigahertz athlon ... and hence the battle for faster processor / cheaper price is on. In the PC market, with AMD absent, intel will be a lazy dominant player, just like the current situation in PPC market, stucked at 400 mhz/128 MB ram+rom.

[[email protected]]

We finally got to the point where the hardware for the devices we use is standardized. the ARM processor won out, thank God. Now we don\t have to download different programs for different processors. Lets just let the dust clear before we start asking for more choices again. The ARM is a good processor with lots of room to grow. I think that this will standardize the industry, (which is what we really need right now). anyway that's my two cents.

[Gremmie]

Well, AMD has developed a mobile chip, I have forgotten the model number and name. I'll look around sometime for it.

[Sslixtis]

Well, AMD has developed a mobile chip, I have forgotten the model number and name. I'll look around sometime for it.

Yep, but it's based on the MIPs architecture, so it's not PPC compatible. There is no reason that AMD can't make ARM chips if they wanted.


with AMD absent, intel will be a lazy dominant player, just like the current situation in PPC market, stucked at 400 mhz/128 MB ram+rom.

Don't forget Motorolla, Texas Instruments, and Samsung all have ARM based chips. Intel has competition in this market, they are just beating them. I love how everyone still lets MS off the hook for not optimizing their software for ARMv5 (Xscale). :roll:

[Gremmie]

That brings up a good point, on the PC side Microsoft has went out of its way to create optimization of Windows for Intel (SSE, SSE2, etc). Its still too hard to judge Intel because Microsoft has failed to make good use of the speed and battery saving features.