Within the next month or so we will be on the verge of another Intel chip release, the mid to low range Yorkfields. AMD just released their Phenom chips (Barcelona), and while they are solid performers and with some price adjustments they could be competitive, they aren’t really the Intel killers that some people hoped for. Plus if you factor in the
/articles.x/13741″>TLB bug problem which affects all of these chips, and their issues ramping up speeds so far with Barcelona, things are not looking very positive for AMD right now.

I know the hardware world has their fanboys, or brand loyalists depending how you look at it. But lets face it, the better AMD and Intel are overall the better off we the consumers are. Better competition breeds better prices. The game of oneupmanship produces better hardware overall, keeps new product flowing regularly and leads to choice in the marketplace. If it weren’t for AMD there is no way we would be on the verge of octo cores, or Intel now heading towards the memory controller on the CPU die with Nehalem. AMD has moved Intel to continually look over their shoulder. And at times thanks to the K8 architecture, even having to look forward.

So whats the point? Without the other, neither of these companies would be as well off as they are today. They make each better. Sure if there wasn’t AMD Intel could be the dominate factor in the marketplace maybe even having a monopoly. But that, as Microsoft knows so well, leads to regulation, government intervention and often negative consumer opinion. Just think if Microsoft had a AMD (And no Apple and Linux are not AMD, no offense to those users, but its not the same level of competition). So it becomes fairly clear that not only is AMD good for us consumers but also for Intel itself.

Intel has been on a roll ever since the Core 2 Duo release a year and a half ago. And by roll I mean without massive price cuts AMD would have been much worse off than they currently are. At this point it almost seems Intel can do no wrong. My main thought while writing is what if Intel is holding back? We had seen Yorkfields out in the wild a couple months back well before retail release. The same happened with the Core 2 Quads. Yes these weren’t massive quantities but almost seems like Intel has had these chips ready and could be rushing them out even faster and push AMD right out of the market.

I have seen rumors of this around the tech industry, that Intel is waiting on AMD to play the game of catch up in fear of putting them out of business. When you add up all the pieces it seems a viable possibility. If Intel were to push AMD out by pushing new designs, cutting prices beyond a certain level it could end causing more harm for them and us in the long run. Obviously Intel is in business to make money, but at the same time having AMD around keeps their Oligopoly going. Better for the two of them colluding indirectly than the government stepping in and regulating them as the case with Microsoft.

So my question to you readers; is this really a fight? What are your thoughts?

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