CPU speed- Please read

[Thooor]

<< I know that marketing and profits still affect when we see the cpu's, although with much less impact than I had previously conceived. >>



Just a layman's comments here, not a flame.

Rather than looking at the "marketing" blame as a deceptive and manipulative process, think of it more as them wanting to release products before they are "finalized". This is not to say that Intel/AMD release products that are not ready, their potential is just not fully realized. As PM documented so completely, this process takes time and alot of effort.

As I am in the industrial manufacturing industry, I liken it to the process each company goes through with a product release. A Dodge Viper is released in year 1 for 75,000 : with a profit of 2,000. As years 2,3,4, etc.... come to term, they have found ways to streamline and continue to increase the profitability of the product. In the case of chip manufacturing, the advances come by way of performance increases, not profit increases. Either way, the gains realized are a result of each company maximizing a core product.

So the point of all this is to say that marketing pushes products out the door thanks to the tireless work of the engineers/designers. They do not hold back products as a result of some 'master plan'.

$0.02
Thooor

 

[Mookow]

(aside to pm: when you read this, I hope you are sitting down. A post accusing, not Intel, but AMD of, at least according to the average AT member, one of the greatest crimes that a company can commit... MARKETING!!!!)

What about AMD back when the T-birds were top of the line? I'm not talking about when AXIA just came out, but rather when they were stuck at 1.2 and 1.3, when most people, even with stock cooling, were hitting 1.4-1.5? They could have officially released the 1.4's earlier IMHUO, but chose not to, most likely because they didnt want their top bin product to stay constant for too long (ie the time it took them to ramp the Paliminos, I understand why they didnt want to release a 1.5GHz T-Bird). Even then, it seemed like AMD was stuck at 1.4 for quite a while. Anyway, I think Anand speculated something like this at the time, so I might not be too original in bringing it up.

Clarification for those who didnt understand my opening: pm and I used to argue back and forth between each other about stuff. I asked a few questions that the answers to are TOP SECRET, as in we'll rape your dog and kill your wife if you talk about it TOP SECRET. This irritated my natural curiousity. Heck, looking back at some PMs he sent me, at least one of my questions irritated him because he couldnt answer. Here was the PM, so I know I dont misquote him (its 4:40 in the morning, I'm rereading some of my stuff and it doesnt make sense... also if my spelling sucks, I dont apologize):


<<

<< pm, are any of those dual core CPUs? >>



It's dumb but I can't say. I can repeat what the executives say about future products, but I can't comment directly on them. I just was reading through it and thought it was interesting enough to post. But I can't even explain what any of the code names mean.

It's one of the more frustrating aspects of my job. >>


Anyway, I respected back then, and still respect now, his reasons for not divulging the answers to my questions (they were mainly stuff like wafer cost and yields, which I noticed there is recent thread regarding). Getting fired just so you can answer a technical question about CPUs to some guy who: a)wont really understand your answer, b)you dont know, and c) you will almost certainly never meet is not the best idea.

EDIT: OH, pm, glad to see you are still posting. I hadnt seen you in a while and thought you had stopped along with Wingz. I'm kinda sorry to see that Wingz is gone , but there is one thing about him I didnt like: he was a Michigan fan! (I'm going to Ohio State, you'd have to be here to fully understand) Anyway, he and I did have quite a few chuckles in PMs over the zealotry.

 

[Eskimo]

<< I'm not sure if I can think of another billion dollar company that sells a commoditized product (as opposed to non-commidity items like heavy machinery) that does not have a "huge marketing machine" behind it's doors. >>



Yes but it was Intel that made a non-commodity product like the microprocessor into one.