PM Forum - Q3/2003: Part 1

5. Opteron will have applications in both the server and the high-end desktop market due to its low cost. Do you expect the high-end mainstream market to be receptive of it?

PM #1: But it depends on its yield rate.

PM #2: Yes, as long as the operating system and server manufactories can prove how reliable and stable the Opteron system can be. We believe AMD will step into this niche market successfully.

PM #3: The high-end mainstream market will be receptive of the AMD 64 (939 pins).

PM #4: The latest information from AMD shows that there will be 939-pin Athlon64 with dual channel support in 2004, with new ball out the 939-pin is optimized for 4-layer M/B, which may have a better chance for the market.

PM #5: People expect good technology to enhance their productivity. Also, high current/projected value is a key to the success.

PM #6: It’s expected that Opteron will be embraced by the high-end mainstream market, especially since support for the platforms will be coming from vendors such as NVIDIA, who have the expertise and branding to provide muscle behind educating customers on the benefits and applications of the AMD64 architecture.

PM #7: The cost of Opteron is around 400-500. This factor is due to the cost register-DIMM. This will hit the niche market, but will not go to the mainstream.

PM #8: Open architecture is must and more popular OS can share common resource.

It is hard to tell how the Opteron will fare in the high-end mainstream market. Certainly, the price point is and will remain to be one of the big issues, and most of the product managers seem to be indicating that Opteron will not cross over in this respect. Instead, Athlon64 will be the choice for this borderline market. AMD hasn’t really clearly defined which product will be marketed towards the high-end portion of the mainstream market. It has been suggested that game enthusiasts and those types of people that wanted to use RDRAM but were looking to an AMD product will choose Opteron. What is more likely is that the high-end market will pick up Athlon64 when cost is an issue, and the smaller segment of that which is concerned with performance will turn to Opteron. Cost is a relative issue, as Opteron is cheaper than Intel server processor solutions, but it still is going to have a good cost premium on Athlon64. For this reason, reception for Opteron in the high-end mainstream market will likely remain low but much of this still will depend on how Athlon64 pans out. From a cost perspective, Opteron will be better suited for four and eight way servers, even though eight way servers make up less than 5 percent of the market. Dell has already cut their support for this segment because it is too small. Opteron will have a clearer advantage at these segments because the cost of multiple processors will quickly add up, as well as due to the reduction of competition.

On a side note, Intel has recently announced their new budget Itanium processors, officially dubbed low voltage Itanium 2 (1GHz with 1.5MB L3) and Itanium 2 1.4GHz (1.5MB L3). The low voltage and 1.4GHz price point [in the mid $700 US and lower $1000 US range, respectively] is Intel’s response to help close the price gap that Opteron created an issue of. The high-end Opteron is also in this range, so there will be higher competition compared to the earlier Itanium 2 processors that were just shy of $5,000 US.

Final Words

We would again like to thank the participants and their respective companies for helping make our PM Forum a reality. Your time, effort, and cooperation are greatly appreciated. Our dream to help create a better industry will continue to be a reality, so long as we work together.