February 16th, 2005
Paul Otellini, Intel’s President mentions some interesting things in the company’s internal blog, which got leaked.
The best line is,
“… our move to platforms, and server competition. We have a significant competitor to our Xeon product line in the Opteron line from AMD. This is the first significant competition we have seen with the market segment for “high volume serversâ€? that Intel invented. We identified this competitive threat over a year ago, and did a great job in 2004 by shipping record Xeon volumes, achieving a very rapid ramp of our 64 bit extension based product, and minimizing share loss. While I hate losing share, the reality is that our competitor has a very strong product offering. We did a good job in 2004, and cannot let up, as I expect 2005 to be even more competitive in this area. There is no quick fix or easy answer here. We will have to marshal all the resources and capabilities of Intel to compete here. This means using our advantages beyond the CPU as well. Our chipsets, compilers, ISS consulting teams, Field Sales teams in well over 500 end user accounts are all part of our response. This is what I meant in my first Blog about the shift to platforms in this area. As we make the Right Hand Turn in our cpu products, the platform is what gives the processor the “personalityâ€? to do the best job of computing for the task at hand.
Some other nice comments by Intel employees,
“…I’m somewhat disappointed that a “gaming platform” doesn’t appear to be a part of Intel’s new platform push. As a gamer & Intel employee, I find it frustrating that AMD products are repeatedly recommended as better for gaming by almost every gaming publication & online review site. While gaming isn’t as large or as critical a market as the corporate market, it does push the technology envelope for silicon based solutions. DirectX & the GPU market are a prime example. I sincerely hope that we can consider changing our view on gaming as a viable application for our products strategically rather than viewing it as only a means for “bragging rights.”…”
then some more
“…when I go into the Apple store I am blown away at the new technology that is constantly being developed for the Apple Ipod and the amount of people buying it. I know Intel is capable of developing exciting new and innovative products/solutions that have a strong market and following like Apple, I hope we get started in these new areas quickly.”
and some more
“…What are your thoughts on a couple of processors that have been getting some press lately, namely the Cell processor announced by Sony/IBM and the AMD Athlon64? The Cell processor is going to be used in the new PS3 gaming system and it was also stated that it would be used in everything from TV’s to media centers (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/) The Athlon chip is generally the most recommended processor out of high end gaming magazines. What’s being done to react to these threats and regain outright market leadership, both perceived and in terms real numbers?
