Can AMD survive another Intel Core 2?

This is a completely subjective impression, but at least to me, Nehalem feels like Core 2 Duo all over again. Back in spring of 2006, AMD had a similar marketing and PR strategy in place, discounting Core 2 Duo as a paper product that won’t be able to touch the Opteron and Athlon X2 in terms of performance and power efficiency. We all know that Core 2 Duo and its derivates almost bankrupted AMD, stripping AMD of virtually all advantages and market gains it had made in the 18 months before. Back then, I was concerned that AMD would underestimate Intel and I have the same feeling again.

So, is ignoring AMD an obvious threat? I doubt that AMD is underestimating Intel internally, but AMD’s public presentations leave the impression that the company isn’t taking Intel’s products serious enough. AMD may already have been at the mercy with Intel and its Core 2 Duo processor and Nehalem may feel like a reboot to Q3 2006 for AMD. Only now, AMD has a substantial weaker position from a financial point of view, but is prepared much better to deal with another hard hitting technology: Intel’s bases are loaded and AMD really needs to come up with a really good pitcher.