AMD's 64-bit processor turns one today, but is the chipmaker's marriage with Microsoft on the rocks?
As a swat at the Windows software developer, AMD issued a press release last week stating that it has joined the Open Source Development Labs. OSDL is a consortium dedicated to overseeing the growth and adoption of Linux as well as other open-source solutions in the data center and on the desktop.
In doing so, the CPU manufacturer recognises the ability of the open-source community to develop software that taps the 64-bit power of its processors today. To date, while various flavors of Linux already have fully supported 64-bit distributions, Microsoft has merely offered beta versions of its Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems.
We've remarked before that 64-bit computing requires both hardware as well as software support. We're sure AMD appreciates this fact and likewise realises that without a readily available x86-64 OS out, it'll find its one-year-old 64-bit computing pitch pretty much a hard sell. So, with the open-source developers eager to optimise AMD64 technology, the CPU vendor may have found a temporary solution.
Before the penguins jump in, let's be honest, while Linux is perfectly capable of being a desktop OS, it's not going to make any prominent headway into this region of the market anytime soon. Windows, in all its flavors and distaste, will remain top dog for a good while more.
In all fairness to Microsoft, it isn't sitting around doing nothing. The more extreme AMDroids will be wailing Wintel conspiracy theories for the delays, but if the number of misses in deadlines as well as patches are anything to go by, we think the software giant may just have too much on its plate and -- hopefully -- is taking the issue of security seriously. Alas, despite securing Microsoft's support on x86-64 a year ago, this hasn't helped AMD's cause, especially in the cutthroat CPU arena where it's very much a minority player compared with Intel.
Still, AMD's been doing pretty well as of late, posting profits for two consecutive quarters despite the absence of a x86-64 OS. Undeniably, this is a result of the AMD64 processor's impressive 32-bit performance. Much of the speed can be attributed to the built-in memory controller. The CPU vendor will be releasing its Paris core next quarter. Essentially an AMD64 processor with only 256K L2 cache but without the x86-64 extensions, this new chip will replace the aging Athlon XP line. So, perhaps when AMD begins to find the 64-bit swan song a little long in the tooth for its Athlon chips, 32-bit processors will stay the course for this company.
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