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SANTA CLARA - Intel's top server executive recently acknowledged the disparity between his company's server processor road maps and Advanced Micro Devices, but said Intel plans to close the gap soon with a revitalized product line.
AMD released its first dual-core server processors two weeks ago, but Intel is not expected to follow suit until the first quarter of 2006 with its Dempsey processor. Intel's single-core Xeon chips will be well behind the performance of AMD's dualcore Opteron processors, but server customers weigh many factors when making a purchase decision, says Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.
Users will find dual-core Opteron servers intriguing when compared with single-core Xeon servers, Gelsinger says. "There will clearly be some tire-kickers, and maybe some losses,"he says, referring to Intel customers who might switch to servers based on AMD's chips.
However, enterprise customers are generally conservative when it comes to technology changes, Gelsinger says. Users interested in servers with four or more...