AMD Responds to IDF with YouTube Videos

AMD IDF commentary this week and new AMD videos

Every year at the Intel Developer Forum, the folks from AMD have a limo sitting just outside the show floor to let select press members escape from the dog and pony show to come see what AMD is up to. For years this has happened and it was almost amusing to watch people jump into the AMD limo as quickly as they could to avoid being seen by the Intel crew. It seems this tradition has ended as AMD responded to the Intel keynote by Intel CEO Paul Ottelini this morning via a YouTube video and the following statement sent to members of the press.

This morning, Intel kicked off its annual IDF conference in San Francisco. We hoped you might be interested in AMDs view on the morning keynote, given by Intel CEO Paul Ottelini. Entitled “Extreme to Mainstream,” this address seemed focused on all of the new technologies scheduled to come out of Intel over the next few years. What’s amazing is that many of the “groundbreaking, innovative new technologies” are close facsimiles of technologies AMD pioneered, is already shipping, and in some cases, has been shipping for years.

For example, products that are more than a year away, like Nehalem (compare to native Quad-Core AMD Opteron), and QuickPath (compare to AMD Direct Connect Architecture and HyperTransport) are simply Intel’s admission that AMD was right all along about an integrated memory controller being the key to a superior processor architecture. In fact, earlier today AMD posted two videos to YouTube that underscore the elegance and importance of AMD Direct Connect Architecture. The first features Randy Allen, AMD corporate vice president of server/workstation, and explains the AMD architectural advantage, and how that leads to a superior product like Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. The second, featuring Leslie Sobon, director of desktop marketing for AMD, unveils an innovative upcoming product, AMD Phenom triple-core processors, possible because of our advanced, native-quad core architecture. AMD will offer native dual-core, triple-core, and quad-core AMD Phenom processors.

Later, Intel talked about its efforts to integrate graphics processors and CPUs with its Larrabee project, which should be seen as nothing more than proof positive that AMD had it right with its acquisition of ATI and continuing development of AMD Fusion processors, due in 2009. AMD is focused on delivering the ultimate visual experience to customers, and while Intel may talk about the visual experience, the mainstream PC platforms with Intel CPUs and chipsets leave something to be desired in that department. In illustration, AMD recently posted a video underscoring that mainstream AMD PCs deliver a superior visual experience today. Despite Intel recently announcing driver updates to the 965 chipset and claiming graphics performance improvements, seeing is believing as AMDs Pat Moorhead puts them to the truth test in this side-by-side comparison. Discover which systems offer the best gaming and video experience with this video:

If you’re shocked to see AMD producing videos for YouTube, so are we, but it seems like the most popular form of viral marketing these days. Just yesterday AMD announced triple-core Phenom processors will be coming out next year and AMDs official stance on the Triple Core processors can be seen here:

The triple-core Phenom processor has left many scratching their heads as to why AMD is launching a three-core processor and Kyle Bennett over at [H]ard|OCP was one of the first to publicly question the upcoming triple-core processor in this news post. Only time will tell, but it sure does sound like a neutered quad-core if you ask me. I’m sure we will find out all the juicy details and if the other core can be enabled once the launch gets closer. In the mean time, we will keep an eye on the blitz of YouTube videos while attending IDF here in San Francisco.