Desktop Ratios Transition

Sorry for the lack of updates. There are many things happening in our industry which I can't speak about yet, but when I can I will. I have also been working feverously on our new product line and we’ll be sure to make some exciting announcements in the near future.

Business has been pretty good, many people are demanding Intel Core 2 Duo systems, and our OMEN average selling prices have gone up due to all the added accessories people are choosing for their systems. Intel has been great about keeping us up to date and making sure we have the inventory we need, albeit small in terms of mainstream numbers, it helps us tremendously. We anticipate that our high end desktops will transition from 100% AMD to around 50/50 with the possibility of more growth from either side. This should give you a good idea of where the high end market is going.

I am traveling to Switzerland next week for a few days and I’m certainly not looking forward to the flight. I will try to drop some updates when I’m there.

In the meantime I received a couple of interesting emails I’m going to share some of the thoughts and respond to them.

I've been eagerly reading your blog for some time and your take on the whole AMD + ATi business and the benefits that might arise with that. I agree with with most of it and with Charlie Demerjian from TheInq coming to similar conclusions i'm quite relieved that this merger will prove a right step for AMD.

Yes, I believe it’s a step in the right direction to firmly plant AMD as a long standing Duopoly competitor to Intel.

I've been pondering the benefits of DAAMIT (i just love it) and the possibilities that might just pop up and I came up with a nice thought:
why not using cc HT 3.0 instead of CrossFire?

I mean, further down the road both AMD(ati) as well as nVidia have to upgrade their GPU-2-GPU link thingie, if not for marchitectural reason then because of the next speed bump that's coming for sure.

First AMD has to ensure that ATI does not forget their roots, and they cannot lose site of the discrete graphics business. If they do, they’ll make a mess of the company, and it’s likely they already know this. Second, I believe the combined efforts of AMD and ATI will lead to some pretty wild product innovations. Such innovations will allow OEMs to build some pretty cool machines in various form factors.

Add one or two HTX connector to the GPU die (easier said than done, i know) and keep the PCIe. Use the first HTX for the GPU-2-GPU link and the second HTX for professionals to connect their Quadro/FireGL directly to the CPU(s).

Think about it, a 20GB/s link connecting two or more GPUs in a product like nVidias new toy Quadro Plex with direct access to the CPU(s) and even RAM.

Interesting thoughts, I know they are reading this, perhaps someone may comment on it.

Surely, AMD would have to do some serious persuading with regards to nVIdia, even offering ccHT to nVidia without the usual pay up, but both would hugely profit from this longterm AND it would open nVidia at least a door to AMD based CPU/GPU integrated systems. This way AMD wouldn't step on nVidias toes.

I don’t think Nvidia is too worried at the moment; their relationship with AMD is pretty good. It's still up in the air what they are thinking about doing long term, but I imagine they will find a way to the top of any challenge.