IDF puts AMD on defensive, YouTube acts as outlet for little dog
It’s Intel Developer Forum week in San Francisco and AMD, never a closed mouth company, is putting in its two cents.
The company’s public relations staff sent out an e-mail yesterday after IDF’s opening day to share its view on what was presented. Big surprise, AMD is bucking the validity of Intel’s statements.
“What’s amazing is that many of the ‘groundbreaking, innovative new technologies’ are close facsimiles of technologies AMD pioneered, is already shipping, and in some cases, has been shipping for years,” the e-mail stated, specifically targeting the morning keynote, given by Intel CEO Paul Ottelini.
“For example, products that are more than a year away, like Nehalem (compare to native Quad-Core AMD Opteron), and QuickPath (compare to AMD Direct Connect Architecture and HyperTransport) are simply Intel’s admission that AMD was right all along about an integrated memory controller being the key to a superior processor architecture.
“Later, Intel talked about its efforts to integrate graphics processors and CPUs with its Larrabee project, which should be seen as nothing more than proof positive that AMD had it right with its acquisition of ATI and continuing development of AMD Fusion processors, due in 2009. AMD is focused on delivering the ultimate visual experience to customers, and while Intel may talk about the visual experience, the mainstream PC platforms with Intel CPUs and chipsets leave something to be desired in that department.”
Gee, AMD, tell us what you really think.
The battle between AMD and Intel has always reminded me of the classic big dog/little dog scenario. Big dogs like Intel may have the weight (or in this industry’s case, the marketing pull. Intel’s launch and successful following promotion of Centrino is an excellent example.) to lead the pack. But it’s often the scrappy, little dog that makes the most noise. I particularly love the quote “Intel’s admission that AMD was right all along.” Bark, yap, woof – I can hear California’s AMD from New York.
I’m not a tech editor. I make it clear when I conduct interviews that I cover news and the electronics supply chain here at Electronic News/EDN. And I’m in no position to say what technology is better than the other at this time, especially as I’m not attending IDF this week. But if you are interested in AMD’s views, go ahead and check out their YouTube videos (links below). And if you like YouTube, stay tuned here at EDN. I won’t go into the details now, but we’ll soon be offering a feature I’ve been calling “YouTube for geeks” behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, I am not calling Intel for comment at this point. I think they have made their position clear in their IDF keynotes this week and as a company make a point of standing behind their technology. Meanwhile, I am interested in your views on AMD’s statements. As always, comments from all — users, customers, AMD and Intel themselves — are welcome on this blog.
AMD generated content:
YouTube video 1: AMD’s Randy Allen “explains the AMD architectural advantage, and how that leads to a superior product like Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors”
YouTube video 2: AMD’s Leslie Sobon talks about the Phenom triple-core processors
YouTube video 3: AMD’s Pat Moorhead runs a side-by-side comparison for gaming and video experience
Related IDF EDN content:
Intel’s 45-nm Nehalem hits silicon, Otellini says 32-nm test chips in production
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