July 13th, 2007
According to AMD, Intel Core 2 Duo doesn't exist
[Update 12:40 PM - AMD updated the website to correct the error. The site literally changed as I posted this blog entry. I've also spoken with AMD since then and I've asked them to send me any links to Intel webpages that they feel need to be challenged.] Ed Stroligo of Overclockers.com sent me an interesting post about more marketing shenanigans this week and I’ve had a chance to ask AMD about this. When looking at AMD’s product comparison page for its mobile processor line up, several things struck me as dubious but the most blatant issue is that according to AMD, Intel mobile Core 2 Duo processor doesn’t exist.
When I emailed AMD about this, AMD informed me that the bottom of that page - which was lasted updated 6/24/07 per AMD’s search function - had not been updated. Upon closer examination, the bottom was only 2 months out of date for AMD since it doesn’t talk about AMD’s 65nm mobile processor that was launched in May of this year. But Intel’s Core 2 Duo mobile processor had launched nearly a year ago so that’s clearly a very convenient omission that makes it appear as if Intel doesn’t have anything better than a Core Duo processor that doesn’t support x64 64-bit extensions.
Another problem was that AMD makes it sound like AMD’s CPU supports 802.11n and Intel’s CPU doesn’t. But the CPU has absolutely nothing to do with what type of wireless technology a computer can use and Intel can at least claim that they have an in-house 802.11n solution whereas AMD uses a third party wireless solution on AMD-based computers.
Another thing I notices was the fact that AMD seems to have re-branded their NX (No Execute) feature as “Enhanced Virus Protection Capability” whereas Intel merely has the XD (Execute Disable Bit). NX and XD are essentially identical features that enable things like Microsoft Windows’ DEP. AMD’s reasoning for this name change is that AMD had NX first and Intel “emulated” AMD. While it’s true that Intel copied the NX feature verbatim, AMD copied the various incarnations of SSE. This is all due to the cross licensing agreement between Intel and AMD to have better interoperability and one could easily argue that AMD would be damaged far more than Intel if this cross licensing agreement wasn’t in place. [Update 4:50PM - AMD says that they've always marketed their NX feature as "Enhanced Virus Protection]. Intel says they didn’t “emulate” AMD because their Itanium product had the XD feature before AMD put NX in to their CPUs. As far as I’m concerned, this feature is a wash with no advantage for either side. However, calling this a “Virus Protection” feature is inaccurate since this is an execution protection feature.]
AMD’s response was, “This is a web content management error that is being quickly remedied, it’s not some new marketing push. To Characterize it as such would be wrong”. Well I’m not here to figure out what AMD’s reasons and excuses are, but the facts are what they are and the product information page on AMD’s website is clearly misleading.
George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
