Intel to Spend $2B To Stay In The Game

hexed_2050 writes "AMD has declared dominance in the gaming and server microprocessor market in 2004, and Intel needs to respond.. fast! This is why Intel has planned to spend 2 billion dollars to upgrade their eight year old, Fab 12 plant in Arizona. "Part of what I do is put the emphasis on how fast we respond," explains Robert Baker, Intel's top manufacturing executive."

Comments

Re:AMD must be loving this.

[Glock27]

I remember back when AMD announced a 64 bit desktop CPU. The common consensus was that they were completely daft, and other than the rabid early adopters who buy anything... it wouldn't do all that well, given that PCs are still tied to 32 bit software.

The only thing that saved AMD in this regard is that AMD64 chips run 32-bit code faster (for most software) than any of the Pentiums. Microsoft seems to have helped out it's old partner Intel by delaying Win64 until Intel managed to clone AMD64. Heh, that is quite a switch - Intel cloning AMD. ;-)

At least Linux for AMD64 has been available for some time...and it's great to see Sun pushing Solaris for AMD64 also.

Now fast forward a year or two, and AMD is on top, and Intel is trying to play catch up. I never would have dreamed this would happen. I really have to tip my hat to AMD.

Yes, all this and lower power consumption (than P4) to boot. There should be some sweet notebooks and servers coming out over the next few months also, as the true low-power Athlon64s and Opterons roll out.

Re:AMD must be loving this.

[DrEldarion]

Yes, they really did a quite incredible job with the Athlon 64. Not only does it run 32-bit code, but it runs 32-bit code better than their 32-bit-native processor? That is EXACTLY what's needed in the 32-to-64-bit transition, and they executed it excellently.

Story time

[buddha42]

AMD has declared dominance in the gaming and server microprocessor market in 2004?

What is this "make shit up for the headline" hour? Lets see what a professional news organization has to say: http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type =technologyNews&storyID=6960222

AMD trimmed Intel's share in PC-based servers in the third quarter, taking 8 percent of unit sales, up from 6.9 percent, according to IDC.
...
AMD also saw slight gains in unit share for desktop and notebook PCs. It now has 18.4 percent of the desktop PC market
...
Intel nevertheless held onto its overall dominance of the PC microprocessor market, retaining 81.2 percent of the overall share of units, off slightly from 81.7 percent.

Re:"...how fast we respond"

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they might respond by pulling legacy 16-bit support completely out of their chips (which I'm led to believe is costing them about 30% of their chips' "capacity" (as measured by power consumption and real estate) and replacing it with an emulator.

Um ... Intel has been doing something like that since the Pentium Pro, and all out that since the P3. The instruction set you put in and the instruction set it actually runs are totally different beasts. The internal micro-ops even get access to more registers (check out "register renaming")

Re:Nice

[Dot.Com.CEO]

The only thing keeping your economy afloat, despite of HUGE deficits and insane economic policies (cutting on taxes while increasing on military spending etc.) is the fact that all first and second world countries base their own economies on the dollar, partly because there was no alternative before the euro came into play, and partly because it was a Marshall-era remnant.

The moment the dollar loses that unique place, as a pillar of financial stability, economies around the world swap dollars for euros at an ever dropping rate. The dollar is 1.36 euros now, while two and a half years ago it was 0,85 or less, I cannot remember. Generally speaking, this trend has not been worse only because the Chinese (of all countries) are supporting the dollar buying enormous amounts of it on the markets.

The way your economy is going, and the way the euro guarantees its own stability through various WORKING mechanisms of the ECB, it is undeniable that in the next twenty years or so the Euro will be where the dollar is today. And since your whole economy is supported by outside economies, it is very probable it will collapse. Why? Well, its exchange rate will hit the floor and will bring huge price hikes to anything that is not made 100% in the US. Which is, everything.

So, when you vote for "less taxes", you put one more stone in the end of the great American empire. I, as a European, shake my head and wonder whether you Americans have any idea what is happening in your country...