Intel Inside

For some cheap chuckles, check the Web sites and consider the subtle differences between Intel’s spin and ours. I had no idea this was going to happen this week, but a few months ago I was in a room where Andy Bechtolsheim allowed that, yes, Intel was playing some damn decent catch-up, so the writing was pretty well on the wall. Andy’s explanation of the finer points of the trade-offs requires the best part part of two whiteboards to lay out and an alert well-caffeinated mind to follow, so I won’t even try. But... ain’t competition wonderful? For the foreseeable future, I bet almost all systems vendors will ship both Intel & AMD silicon. Hearty, honest congrats to Intel for getting back in the game. Both sides of the arrangement look to me like a win for both sides; as Otellini says, Solaris is a big deal in some markets that Intel wants more of, and if they say they can make it run better on the chips they build, I’d be inclined to believe them. Should be fun times in the server biz, hang on tight.

Contributions