For AMD Success Means Problems

An anonymous reader writes "AMD's success with its dual-core Opteron and Athlon processors has created something of a happy problem for the company. It can't make its products fast enough to meet demand. Just the same, with the Intel price war heating up and new 65-nanometer manufacturing technology being implemented in its factories, AMD has a lot of balls in the air right now." From the News.com article: "AMD's current pickle is the result of its success, which makes it a little easier to swallow for company executives. Demand is high, but the company's dual-core processors still use its 90-nanometer manufacturing technology. Intel's chips, on the other hand, are built using the smaller transistors provided by its 65-nanometer manufacturing technology. Not only is AMD using larger transistors, but its dual-core Opteron and Athlon 64 processors contain two processing cores integrated onto a single piece of silicon, or a die. This design has given AMD great performance during the past few years, but resulted in processors that were almost twice the size of its single-core chips."

I hate it when...

[MightyYar]

I hate it when my balls are in the air.

No wonder AMD is having problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the News.com article: "AMD's current pickle ..."
Well, *No wonder* AMD is having problems... they should NOT be making pickles, they should be making chips!

TDz.

Re:Balls in the air?

[MyEyesTheyBurn]

Obviously we are outside the box if our balls are in the air.

Re:I hate it when...

[nschubach]

Both quotes are laced with falic symbology:
"AMD has a lot of balls in the air right now."

"AMD's current pickle[...]"

"[...]makes it a little easier to swallow[...]"

Watch out for an Axe...

[Numbah One]

AMD has a lot of balls in the air right now

Hopefully, they won't get them chopped off.

Re:How long?

[chrismcdirty]

Screw that. They'll come out with 5nm, then right after I buy it, they'll announce their 900pm chip.

Re:Poor grammer in parent subject

[bmin]

News Flash poor spelling! It's grammar

Oblig. Boondock Saints

[MrSquishy]

Symboligy? I think the word you're looking for is "symbolism"

Moo

[Chacham]

It's better than Intel's Pentium problem. They simply couldn't do the math!

Q: Why did they call it a Pentium instead of 586.
A: When they booted up the first Pentium and added 100 to 486, it answered 585.32752365107239874

Re:Oblig. Boondock Saints

[value_added]

Symboligy? I think the word you're looking for is "symbolism"

He lost me at "falic".

Re:If I had a nickel...

[painQuin]

would you have 1 nickel?

Re:Moo

[TheRaven64]

At that time, some people at TI wrote a script for a spoof of the 2001 scene with Dave stuck outside. The problem with HAL was, of course, that he was built with a Pentium. It ended with HAL singing:

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.
Getting hazy, can't divide three by two.
My answers, I can not see 'em,
They're stuck in my Pentium

It would be sweet, my answers fleet on a workable FPU

Re:Does size matter?

[Bing Tsher E]

A fully-functional die is an 800-series Opteron. It has loads of cache and four working HyperTransport links. If some of the cache doesn't work (most likely, since most of the die of any modern processor is cache) then it becomes a cheaper model. If some of the HT links aren't working, then it is downgraded to a 400, 200 or 100 series. In the worst case, it becomes an Athlon 64, or even a Semperon. If an entire core is too defective to use then it becomes a single-core part.

[putting on clownish AMD fanboy hat just for fun]

"At what point does the die become defective enough that they ship it to Intel to be a Pentium IV?"

[rim-shot]