AMD to announce Microsoft support for new chip family
Posted by Sleeper on 24 April 2002 - 08:39 · 7 comments & 234 views
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The development comes on the heels of testimony last week by AMD's feisty chief executive, Jerry Sanders, on behalf of Microsoft during its antitrust remedy trial, at the behest of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
AMD is also expected to unveil the brand name of its new chip line, which will mark the Sunnyvale company's entry into the more powerful realm of 64-bit computing and its attempt to compete with Intel in the high-end desktop and server market.
Intel has already launched the first versions of its Itanium chip family for very powerful servers, and Microsoft is developing a version of Windows XP that runs on Itanium. Currently, the 64-bit version of Windows is a limited edition.
AMD is hosting a conference call today after the stock market closes to make two significant announcements, a spokeswoman said, declining to provide further details. But a source close to the company said that AMD will announce Microsoft's support with a 64-bit version of Windows that will run on AMD's Hammer chip line. The first chips in the Hammer family, code-named ClawHammer, are due at the end of the year, for the desktop market.
Jim Cullinan, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.
Last week, in his testimony, Sanders said that a proposed antitrust remedy, especially one that would require Microsoft to develop multiple versions of Windows, would harm AMD, the computer industry and consumers.
During cross-examination, Howard Gutman, an attorney for the nine states seeking a tougher remedy against Microsoft than the one proposed by the Justice Department, implied that Sanders was testifying because he wanted to get Microsoft's support for the Hammer chips. But Sanders later told analysts and reporters that ''there was no quid pro quo,'' adding that AMD has been working with Microsoft on its 64-bit operating system for years.
''The work had already been done,'' said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight 64, a consulting firm in Saratoga. ''This is a big deal. It is important for Microsoft to come out and say this is something they are behind.''
In the high-end desktop market, analysts believe that AMD's Hammer line could prove to be a serious threat to Intel's fastest Pentium 4, which is a less powerful 32-bit computer chip.
But in the big server market, where a dwindling number of computer vendors have mostly decided to support Intel's Itanium, AMD faces a tough battle.
''As much as they may be knocking down the technology barriers, they still have some marketing challenges ahead of them,'' Brookwood said.