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Quoting Mark Harrison:

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Quoting Rifter:

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Everybody counted AMD out, too, in the CPU wars.  Same old lines about too late to the party, and can't possibly catch up, etc.  Well, they ended up putting some serious hurt on Intel, and we as computer users are all the better for it.

That's very true.  But don't forget that AMD was basically trying to create a clone of the Intel chip.  This new format is trying to create something new and different.  I think it's way to late to introduce something completely different at this point.

Their initial venture was to create a cheaper Intel clone, true.  But that very quickly divurged and took its own path.  The only similarity between them is that they both use instructions based on the X86 architecture.  There are two things though, that I suspect may allow them to really put the whammy on Intel.  AMD bought ATI, which will allow them an unprecedented integration of CPU and GPU that will have a major impact on the industry.  And, their quad core CPU is actually a single wafer with a true quad core (which will allow much greater processing increases), while Intel is using two dual core modules piggybacked on another wafer because of heat problems.