Why the Buzz on Hammer Just Won't Quit
http://www.viahardware.com/hammerbuzz.shtm
Author: Joel Hruska 07/26/2002

My guess is that they won't be able to match the hammer line for a long time. Because Intel is going to be segmented (32 bit P4 for home and 64 bit Itanium for servers and other high end applications), it will have a tough time fighting the unified hammer series.

Intel does have the chip fabrication advantage. They will have to rely on volume of supplies of their chips and hope that AMD will not be able to deliver high quantities of hammer chips from their factories.

There are other reasons why I think that AMD will be the market leader for the foreseeable future when hammer is released, but the above are good indications.

Intel will be using 300mm wafers for their 64-bit CPU, but I figure this would drive up costs at first and then allow Intel lower prices really cheap in the future. Intel does not currently use 300mm wafers, do they? If they do not, this means they would (or already) have to refit their fab(s) with the proper equipment.. Whch should cost a pretty penny.

The actual processor die of the Itanium 2 is huge.. It's something like 10 times the size of the current Athlon XP. This will just drive upo the cost more in comparison with the Opteron. I'm not sure how big the Opteron will be, but the Itanium 2 is going to be at a major cost disadvantage.

Of course, much like the P4 was horribly expensive, I guesstimate that the Itanium 2 will cheapen up as time goes on. The lower end P4s are fairly priced I think... And s ince it is coming out before the Opteron, the Itanium 2 might get enough of a head start to compete.. Who knows.

I'm interested to see what unfolds next year, but from what I've read, I have to say the Hammer gets my choice for what sounds like the best "deal". Native 32-bit and 64-bit support makes it the best mainstream processor, hands down.