Even though Intel is now getting a great deal of competition, CPUs are not commodities
Dennis Allen
It happens with every giant. You become the most obvious target for all your competition. So, before we get into a discussion about CPU makers who are squaring off against Intel, let's make something perfectly clear: As the present leader for desktop CPUs, Intel is not just a big target for CPU competitors--it's the only meaningful target.
If you've been following the business press, you've read about AMD's big win with Compaq. In a nutshell, Compaq announced that it will use CPUs made by AMD--not Intel--in some of its systems. Compaq was by no means the first manufacturer to make such a move, but Compaq appears to be the biggest customer of Intel CPUs.
Think of it this way: Compaq is in effect saying that it doesn't matte
r which engine you put in your car, as long as the car gets you where you're going. OK, maybe that's oversimplifying it, but you get the idea.
Meanwhile, all the industry pundits and gurus are trying to read between the lines to determine the real objective of Compaq in forsaking Intel for AMD. Some say it was a strong-arm tactic to gain better pricing from Intel. Others say it was simply a smart business move based on lower costs. Still others have as many theories as one can imagine.
But as they say down in Arkansas, it don't make no never mind. As technology experts, what matters to us is that in making a commitment to AMD, the leading PC maker endorsed--in no uncertain terms--a non-Intel CPU. And that, my friends, is the opening of the floodgates for all Intel's rivals.
That's both good news and bad news. The good news is that competition is good for everyone, particularly, end users. The move by Compaq gives a certain market credibility to AMD that will let it move beyond building so
-called 486 clones. It will likely change the perspective of nearly everyone involved in buying and recommending computer systems, and it will open a lot of minds as to whether a computer has to have Intel inside.
Until now, most folks expected that systems had to be based on Intel's chips. So no matter what technological advantages another CPU might have had, the concept of using a non-Intel CPU was next to impossible to sell to your organization. Now, that mind-set hurdle will probably vanish.
The bad news is that those same folks who once insisted that a computer had to have Intel inside may now think that CPUs are all the same--that they are commodities, and the only difference is clock speeds. Well, that's just not so. If you take a close look at the new CPUs from AMD, Cyrix, IBM and Motorola, and Mips, you'll see what I mean. We're not talking clones here. By using multiple pipelines, nonreordered instructions, CISC-to-RISC conversions, or wholly RISC architectures, for example, each CPU c
learly has its own technological advantage. Frankly, we're pretty excited about the prospects.
It's obvious to you as a BYTE reader that CPUs are not all the same. However, many people will simply not understand that. Unfortunately, some of them may be people who will exercise their ignorance and champion or buy inappropriate systems for your organization.
An education process is needed, and as a technical expert, you should lead it. Yes, non-Intel CPUs are credible. No, CPUs are not commodities. The debate should not be about whether a system has Intel inside, but it should be one of whether a system uses the best CPU for a particular job.
The time to start the education is now. Don't wait for other people to set the agenda. Remember just a few years ago when some folks got the crazy idea that PCs were commodities and that you just bought the lowest-cost equipment and plugged it in? Boy, were they wrong, and a lot of money was spent to correct that mistake. For the most part, businesses
learned their lesson--at least for a while.
We're on the verge of a recurring phenomenon. I guarantee that a lot of otherwise intelligent people will make the leap of faith that since Compaq endorsed a non-Intel CPU, CPUs are now commodities. Let's stop that from happening.
DENNIS ALLEN, EDITOR IN CHIEF
(
dallen@bix.com
)
The New CPUs
