AMD's Impact on Intel Pricing

Desktop CPU Forecast Chart

Possible delays?

What are some of the issues that may stall the introduction of new processors and/or chipsets? Well, we all know about 820's problems with RAMBUS manufacturing/pricing. What we've also recently heard is that Intel has a huge surplus of low-speed Celeron CPUs and leftover LX chipsets which is causing something of a financial burden on them (at least in the business sense), and these are going to have to be offloaded before Intel can begin pumping new chips in earnest.

AMD again

Again, even while considering the astronomical numbers posted by AMD for the K7, don't think that Intel is losing too much sleep right now. FiringSquad isn't in the camp that believes Intel has 10 different next-generation designs they're just holding back on because they control the market, but it's going to take time for AMD to establish market share and more importantly, credibility with the K7.

As much as we want to see a 40% increase in floating point, AMD is notorious for not being able to ship in necessary quantities. It's no longer an issue of "either they will or they won't," even their distribution and sales partners consider it a case of crying wolf.

Intel and AMD in bed?

We've actually heard from several sources that Intel actually needs AMD to be around and do fairly well to help them fight off their antitrust case. While Microsoft has gained notoriety akin to Standard Oil for their case against the government, most who are familiar with Intel's case cite them to be much more devious and threatening, and it is truly amazing that their actions to quash competition and maintain a monopoly are not as well publicized.

Think about it, Intel's deals with competing chipset vendors to produce BX-compatible 100MHz chipsets ins't just by coincidence! Allegedly, even if AMD flops with the K7, how far fetched would it be for the big I to do whatever they can to keep their only viable competitor alive? At this point, the government has a much higher chance of hurting Intel than AMD does, so a little "healthy competition" for the short term might be in order?