Intel vs. AMD

On November 19, 2007, AMD launched its first quad-core desktop processor based on the much awaited Barcelona microarchitecture. Two processor SKUs were launched: the AMD Phenom 9600 and the AMD Phenom 9500. No OEM officially responded until today. HP was the first OEM to announce that it would begin selling a consumer desktop, the Pavilion Media Center m8330f, that will use AMD's quad-core Phenom processor and will be displayed at CES starting 1/7/2008. AMD still has a number of issues to work through in 2008, not the least of which is delivering the chips to its customers on time and as promised. AMD has proven with recent missteps that this is no certainty. Its therefore no wonder that the rest of HP's desktops and notebooks that will be on display at CES will feature a combination of Intel dual-core and quad-core processors.

Intel's current quad-core processor that has been shipping for some time now has already shown superior clock performance compared to Phenom. In fact, the current Intel bottom bin quad-core proc has outperformed the top bin AMD Phenom 9600. Further, Intel's imminent 45nm offering will further extend the lead.

One of AMD's more notable woes was a bug within the chip's translation-lookaside buffer that caused problems from data being transferred from the Level 2 to the Level 3 cache. Still no word of an official OEM quad-core Opteron announcement.

Expect AMD to divert attention away from its performance deficiencies and towards its perceived advantage in graphics.