The current state of computer processors

Q: It's generally assumed that with AMD64, Intel was wrong-footed, at a time when it was preoccupied with thermal issues. Intel’s assumption seems to have been that 64-bit performance could wait for a while, until a suitable 64-bit OS and 64-bit applications showed up in the market. What is your own perspective? Does AMD now have the design initiative and performance edge with AMD64?

A: In terms of the architecture itself, AMD's Athlon 64 platform, at the stage it is at right now, does not offer that much of a performance advantage, and AMD should not be resting on its laurels. This is because on the desktop, interconnects as such play less of a role. It's on servers and multi-processing systems that you can take advantage of scaling, and that's where interconnects such as HyperTransport have a role. But when you talk about a single-chip desktop system, whether it's one, two or four cores, the efficiency of the chipset still plays a very important role..