You may have noticed Intel is being far more gracious towards its main rival AMD than it has been in the past. It seems Intel has a far more confident air about itself these days. After a year or two of having to suffer upstart rival AMD yapping about its “technical superiority” and its “stealing market share”, Intel is, it seems, now quite willing to concede things were less than rosy.
In fact, part of its new marketing thrust appears to quite openly draw attention to its past technological woes. In recently published discussions, Intel’s apparent honesty about the “olden days” is only matched by its eagerness to point out that the shiny new shoe is now on the other foot—laced up firmly with some very high-tech cushioning.
In Q1, Intel announced US$8.9 billion in revenue for the period, down US$500 million for the same period the year before. During the same quarter AMD grew its revenue by US$550 million, which (according to Gartner) possibly suggests that in a relatively flat growth market, AMD had eroded much of Intel’s market share, notably in the
server space.
No one would expect a company with the size and resources of Intel to sit idle and Intel’s announcement of the new range of x86 64bit chips is really its response to AMD’s 64bit move last year, says Chris Ward, market analyst for servers and workstations
at research firm IDC.
AMD doesn’t appear to have its new line up due until mid-2007, so at the moment there is some space for Intel to strut. The first of the new Intel chips released was the server-based processor named Woodcrest (announced in June). These are now beginning to filter into the Australian market and, according to analyst and community response, the reception has been positive, if not impressed.
In the server market, where AMD had been taking business away from Intel, the technology gap has closed. Intel has smugly been releasing independent benchmarking results from varying sources and orientations, all of which point to the source of
its confidence.
Intel’s release of the new architecture chips for desktop (Conroe) and mobile (Merom)—also with flavours tweaked for virtualisation pundits and media enthusiasts—is due by the end of August.
There are more than a few enthusiast and industry blogs in which AMD stalwarts have voiced their compulsion towards the new breed of Intel, and with the first preview examples of the Intel Core2 Duo desktop chip “Conroe” already beginning to appear here in Australia, there are a number of noticeably raised eyebrows. In one swoop Intel has made its own Pentium D series obsolete—and some of the preliminary US-based benchmark tests have produced indications in clear favour of the reinvigorated
Intel brand.
In the analyst camp though, there is a little more caution—no one we contacted would be drawn to give an absolute market prediction or detailed statement of one chip’s specific technical superiority over another, saying the evidence at this early stage is still patchy. But the consensus does, once again, suggest that Intel has a fine product that has addressed its previous
shortcomings.
To AMD’s credit it has not been silent in the interim. Quick to acknowledge the keen interest in its competitor, AMD spokespeople remind anyone who’s listening that it still has the best performing desktop chip available today.
AMD is also pacing a steady flow of tidbits which include a roadmap for its new energy-efficient desktop (Athlon and Sempron) processors, a transition to a new socket (AM2) and its curious 4 x 4 “enthusiast” project—a four core, multi-socket processor tipped for gaming and media-intensive applications. And despite Intel’s recent noise, AMD announced quietly at the start of August that it now holds a quarter of the whole x86 server processor market. According to market tracking firm Mercury Research, AMD also holds 21.6 percent of the entire global x86 chip market—up from just 16.2 percent in early 2005.
Another last-minute announcement by AMD surprised many when it revealed it is taking over graphics-card manufacturer ATI. AMD announced that it hopes to release processors and chipsets with integrated graphics by 2008. It is a move that has puzzled some, but Hector Ruiz, AMD’s chief executive, points out that visual computing will play a larger role in what AMD is doing going forward. Intel has tried similar things in the past, without great success, so AMD will be closely watched.
Dell’s recent announcement that one of its server platforms would run AMD Woodcrest units may also prove a key indicator. Since Dell is running both vendors’ products Dell may leverage its strong position for advantage with both camps.
But overall, Gartner agrees that the new Intel fleet returns it to pole position for performance, and that may well firm up Intel’s hold on the corporate market.
In response, AMD has recently cut its prices. Gartner says that it anticipates continued aggressive pricing from both vendors, a fact which is very good news for customers.
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