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AMD 50% At Dell in 2007
A reader writes: "Reports from Taiwan chipmakers indicate that AMD may make a very large percentage of Dell's sales this year." AMD, of course, has made no comments in regard to this; but if the reports are correct, then it's another setback for Intel in the server market.
So there was no article but I found this online that I think I had caught on Digg once (can I say that here?).
Anyway, this all goes back to our friends IDC who have this knack for claiming to be the industry experts in everything. I don't really buy that but they make these reports and then the article gets published and Slashdot usually caries them. In the particular link above, they estimate that 55 million CPUs will be used by Dell in 2007 and that, according to Taiwanese chipmakers, 20 million of them will be AMD chips. So that comes to a little over a third, not half if those estimates are accurate.
Hemos, I know you're pissed because you have to edit Slashdot on labor day weekend but hang in there champ. You forgot a department on the last story and a link on this one but you'll get the next one right, I'm sure of it!
My work here is dung.
Umm... Where's the citation? How are we Slashdotters supposed to know who we're DDoSing next?
I hate printers.
... their sales will explode! ;-)
I'm sure this number was yanked out of the ass of some analyst somewhere, but last I checked Woodcrest is still faster than Rev F for 98% of the applications out there. Intel is doing a full court press from a sales perspective with their teams out there and are going to introduce quad core by the end of the year.
What makes someone think Dell can flip 50% of it's business to AMD? The best way Dell can do anything is to drop the price. I don't think AMD is in the position to want to go into a price war just yet...
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
IBM, HP, and Sun are all beating Dell in the server market. They all offer two things that Dell doesn't
1. AMD servers.
2. A server upgrade path beyond the X86.
I think the last one is over looked. If you need big iron IBM can provide a Power based solution, Sun can upgrade you to an Ultrasparc based server, and even HP has the Integrity and Superdome lines.
The other thing that IBM, HP, and Sun offer is real Linux and Unix support. IBM is heavy into Linux now and still is actively developing AIX, Sun has Solaris and more than a few FOSS projects going on, and HP has good support for Linux and not one but Two versions of Unix.
The difference is Dell sells boxes, IBM, HP, and Sun are computer companies.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
What? Is this such a loose rumor that you can't even link to someone spreading the rumor?
I think it's great that AMD is more in demand, but will they have the manufacturing capacity to keep their customers supplied?
This shows how well the AMD anti-trust case worked. Intel backed of their preditory discount schemes for fear of being ruled anti-competitive and then it no longer made sense for Dell to be an Intel only shop
I before you start calling your dell rep for details, or your broker to buy stock. Just remember one thing. Dell has been rumoring this for YEARS and they still aren't seriously carrying AMD products. They like to use this to try and negotiate the best possible deal from Intel. Incorporating AMD would in theorey be easy to do, but integrating it into its supply line would take some time... plus dell would have to pour marketing dollars in to make customers feel comfortable with the change (think of the experience with coca-cola classic and coke II).
Personally (and off topic), I would love to see this happen. But don't count on it any time soon.
Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
If Dell took AMD seriously in 2006 that would have happened, but not so sure about 2007..
Same with IBM, both only just now really started taking AMD seriously and did so just in time for Woodcrest to come and tip price-performance back to Intel systems. AMD still has the memory performance advantage, but Woodcrest/Conroe's 4 ops per clock and relatively aggressive pricing mean AMD has to do something. I don't know AMD's schedule for quad-core offhand, but know Intel Clovertown is supposed to be probably 2nd quarter of 07. It's possible that in going to quad-core Intel's memory architecture could choke them and give AMD a more thorough advantage, or that AMD also gets similar performance while going to quad-core as Intel gets with Woodcrest/Conroe and the scales tip to AMD again.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
If only Apple moved to AMD ...
http://sohilsblog.blogspot.com
Sure, the quad cores will be great for high end systems. Think E-ATX systems with two sockets and a total of eight cores.
But for the average buyer, I think AMD moving to 65nm manufacturing will be more relevant. It should result in lower manufacturing costs and hopefully higher clock speeds, making the Athlon X2 more competitive compared to Intel's Core 2 Duo.
The shrink to 65 nm will also arrive sooner than the quad cores. Others in this thread have speculated that Dell might be the first to get some of the new chips in September(did AMD convince Dell with that?). In the mass market, they might show up late this year or early next year.
C - the footgun of programming languages
4+ core Opteron systems blow 4+ core Intel systems out of the water because of Hypertransport; processors can communicate intelligently. Intel is still using a single-memory-controller model for their hardware design, while AMD using using NUMA. Like all the rest of the big boys.
I'll give this partial agreement. AFAIK AMD isn't making chipsets any more, which is sad because they made the best ones for the Athlon (original) processors.
Well, it's true that VW != BMW. For one thing, a new BMW is about ten times more likely to require warranty service. However, Audi == VW, and so does Lamborghini. Why don't you consider reality before you try making automotive similes?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20060904A1001.html
Dell reportedly to use about 20 million AMD CPUs
Celia Lin, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DigiTimes.com [Monday 4 September 2006]
Market sources say that about 20 million Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors will be used in Dell's servers, desktop PCs and notebooks between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the fourth quarter of 2007. Dell will use four million AMD CPUs in its notebook line while sixteen million AMD CPUs will appear in Dell's desktop and server products, according to the sources.
Sources in the Taiwan notebook industry pointed out that AMD has progressively expanded its presence in the notebook sector, by adding Dell as one of its major supporters in addition to Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer. Obtaining Dell's support would better convince domestic notebook manufacturers to divert more R&D facilities and resources to AMD-based products, the sources indicated.
AMD declined to comment on the report and denied to reveal any details of the company's relationship with customers.
On May 18, AMD announced that Dell stated in its quarterly earnings statement that it intends to offer AMD Opteron Dual Core processor-based servers. According to Dell's August 17 press release, the PC vendor will launch Dimension desktop computers with AMD processors in September and will introduce a two-socket and multi-processor server using AMD Opteron processors by the end of 2006. So far, announcements of Dell's notebooks with AMD processors have not yet been made, though various rumors have circulated that Dell's first AMD-based notebook will be introduced in the fourth quarter of 2006.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Dell shipped 37.78 million PCs (including desktops, notebooks, ultra portables and x86 servers) in 2005, up 18.9% from the 31.77 million units that the company shipped the previous year.
With an average annual growth of 20% in full-year shipments, Dell is aggressively estimated to hit the 45 million mark in PC shipments this year and 55 million units in 2007, according to market sources. Accordingly, the 20 million AMD CPUs are expected to be used in a third of Dell's overall PC shipments, jumping from 0% at present, the sources found.
According to Mercury Research, AMD's overall market share stood at 21.6% in the second quarter of 2006, with on-quarter growth in the desktop and server sectors reaching 0.6- and 3-percentage points, respectively. In the meantime, AMD's share of the notebook CPU market had a sequential drop of 0.3-percentage points in the second quarter to 13.3%, data released by the research firm showed.
In related news, market sources speculated that AMD may face a situation where demand exceeds supply. Instead of a tight capacity concern, a shortage is predicted to surface in the channel market, as the chip vendor will give priority to PC vendors Dell, HP and Acer, according to the sources. An August 7 article cited sources as revealing that AMD aims to ship 12 million notebook CPUs in 2006, accounting for 15% of the world's notebook CPU market.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...