-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Interesting article on why AMD has been on the back foot.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/372859/amd-what-went-wrong/print [...] Yet comparison is inevitable ? and not very complimentary. Our review concluded that ?Intel still holds all the cards?, with pricier AMD FX processors delivering benchmark scores synonymous with Intel?s mid-range Core i5s. The verdict was unanimous; our sister title bit-tech dubbed the FX-8150 a ?stinker?. Light was shed on Bulldozer?s problems when ex-AMD engineer Cliff Maier spoke out about manufacturing issues during the earliest stages of design. ?Management decided there should be cross-engineering [between AMD and ATI], which meant we had to stop hand-crafting CPU designs,? he said. Production switched to faster automated methods, but Maier says the change meant AMD?s chips lost ?performance and efficiency? as crucial parts were designed by machines, rather than experienced engineers. AMD?s latest chips haven?t stoked the fires of consumers, either. Martin Sawyer, technical director at Chillblast, reports that ?demand for AMD has been quite slow?, and there?s no rush to buy Bulldozer. ?With no AMD solutions competitive with an Intel Core i5-2500K?, he says, ?AMD is a tough sell in the mid- and high-end market.? Another British PC supplier told us off-the-record that sales are partly propped up by die-hards who only buy AMD ?because they don?t like Intel?. [...] - -- Christopher Samuel - Senior Systems Administrator VLSCI - Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative Email: sam...@unimelb.edu.au Phone: +61 (0)3 903 55545 http://www.vlsci.unimelb.edu.au/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk9BvN0ACgkQO2KABBYQAh81OACfU+Lzu7NANVdGm8BJ1+mwuEp+ Z1wAnRKgNOby5Jn56W0LCSeVsn88bpih =c54h -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
