Intel vs AMD vs . . . Dell? CPU Wars!

The latest scoop from the busy kitchens at Dell Computer, courtesy of IDG News, PC World and others, is that Dell has (slightly) reversed itself and told all the financial gurus that it will, in fact, not be using AMD processors in any Dell server products in the near future after all. Well boo-hiss to that. At the end of this piece I'll tell you how Dell's decision (and similar decisions by Gateway and other server makers) affects your home, SOHO and small office desktop.

The stated (and deduced) reasons for Dell's retreat from AMD are obscure. As a matter of fact, since December 2003 Intel was forced to copy AMD's philosophy of bringing 64-bit extensions to the x86 processor, scrap two future processor cores, and fix several manufacturing and design glitches across a wide variety of products. Big boo-boos on Intel, and not the kind of organizational and technological planning screwups that customers (read: Dell) tolerate mildly. So why is Dell still 100% loyal to Intel? Must be something in the coffee.

As Intel messed up its product roadmap in the shadow of AMD's clearly more aggressive and forward-looking development, Dell's attitude appeared to be one of contentiousness, apparently forcing Intel to fully re-evaluate its direction, processes and quality controls or suffer the ignominy of serious financial losses at the hands of a single customer. At least, that seemed to be the veiled threat. Could be just coincidence. More . . .