
In the one-on-one interviews TIP asked users many detailed questions about units of technology installed at Year-End 2004, followed by "new units likely to be installed in 2005". The rise of interest in AMD systems was significant:
"Users described interest and excitement over AMD's 64-bit Opteron server capabilities, citing price performance advantages over Intel-based boxes, both for 64-bit Linux installations, as well as running in 32-bit mode running Microsoft Windows Server 2003," notes Bob Gill, TIP's Chief Research Officer. "With the 64-bit version of Windows Server, which is supported on Opteron, beginning to enter the market, users are hoping for even greater performance for Windows Server installations."Roughly 60% of reported NO standalone AMD servers installed at Year-End 2004, while only 20% expected to end 2005 without installing AMD servers. Over 50% of users expected to install between 1 and 49 new standalone units in 2005, while roughly 10% expected to add between 50 and 99 units. Over 15% expected to add between 200 and 499 standalone units in 2005. HP was the most often cited standalone AMD server provider, followed IBM and Sun.