Slashdot Mirror
AMD Subpoenas Skype
I_am_Rambi writes "AMD has issued a subpoena to Skype in the battle of the anti-trust case against Intel. From the article: 'AMD is now focusing on a feature in Skype 2.0 that enables the ability to make 10-person conference calls only with Intel dual-core processors. Users with AMD dual-core chips or single-core chips are restricted to hosting five-person conference calls because only Intel's chips offer the performance necessary to host the 10-way call, according to Skype. [...] Skype's software is using a function called "GetCPUID" to permit 10-way conference calls only when that function detects an Intel dual-core processor on start-up.'"
I guess that's probably why they're subpoenaing them (i.e. to answer that exact question). It's very hard to see what's in this for Skype though. It's hard to claim it is a "business partnership" if it is one-way, and AMD can't get in on the action. Disclaimer: just read the username.
You also need to look at what's best for the consumer here. Partership or not, if the consumer is losing out, then it's not good.
Processor usage for video/audio in a one-on-one convo in Skype ~85%
Processor usage in a camfrog chat room handling up to 100 camera streams (101 including your own video stream) and a dedicated audio stream (half-duplex) ~30%
Bear in mind that my Pentium 4 was one of the FIRST ever released, with a shameful 256KB of L2 cache (as opposed to the 512KB or 1 Meg in current-gen P4 processors.)
So, I call bullshit on Skype. They just don't have a clue about optimization and streamlined code. I see their program getting larger and larger with each update. Camfrog gets smaller. Camfrog used to be 4 megs, now it's 3.4 megs, and they're improving with each version as well. I paid my $50 for the ability to view 100 cameras at the same time (depending upon my internet pipeline, of course) and I'll testify that while Camfrog has no conference call features (AS OF YET,) it far pounds Skype into the dirt, video, audio, and general speed. Skype starts lagging after a while, Camfrog has yet to really do that unless I'm running many other programs at the same time, but it does manage to keep up.
*Uninstalls Skype from his computer*
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Not to defend Skype or Intel (I agree with you on the generalities), but Skype does have a right to arbitrarily limit its service and offer an upgraded experience for more money as long as the terms are clear. Many companies do that, even offering free vs. premium service.
It would have even been possible for them to ask, say, "$5 for 5 callers, $10 for 10." Intel could have then said "We'll pay the extra $5 upgrade cost if you use an Intel processor!"
But that scenario gives people the option of paying for 10 users if they want (regardless of CPU) and makes clear this is a marketing/promotional arrangement between two companies, not a technological limit of AMD.
And in that case AMD could also offer the theoretical $5 deal to match... which is what makes this whole Intel/Skype thing anticompetitive and grossly unfair (not to mention stupid).
iChat AV can support 10-way audio conferencing using the now ancient G3 processor.
Not quite. Someone using a G3 can participate in a 10-way conference, but the more intensive task of mixing those 10 audio streams requires (according to the very page you linked to) a 1GHz G4, dual 800 MHz G4, any G5 or Intel Core.
That Skype's requirements are so much higher is still a little curious, even with higher quality.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
They're talking about VoIP, not Ogg. The compression algorithms are different. The comparison is thus fairly silly.
Also, the VoIP conference bridge needs to do echo cancellation, not just compression. Another big factor is that it has to do mixing on the those ten streams. To conference, it needs to decompress, scale, and add the incoming streams, then recompress the outgoing stream. It's a lot more work than just compressing a single stream.