Chip Makers Selling Fewer High-End CPUs

Lt Wuff writes "CNN has a story about how the newest/fasted/latest and greatest processors aren't selling like Intel and AMD hoped. Maybe people are wising up to the fact that you don't need the fastest processors on the market in order to open AOL..."

Treason!

[fm6]

The money I would spend on frivolous things is now being shoveled into the bank so I can save for things I really need(TM).

Aren't we all supposed to be spending money to Help Stimulate the Economy(TM)? We Can't Let the Terrorists Win! (TM)

in other news

[geekoid]

AOL Intel, and AMD enetered into a secret agrrement, code named "Show me the Money".
In an unrelated story, aol will be adding new features into aol 9, its min. req will be dual 3 Gig processor, 512 megs ram.

Re:just get everyone to upgrade to win 2k

[NineNine]

Hey kid, you went from a shitty DOS-based OS to a rock solid NT based OS. If you don't think that that's an upgrade, you're a fucking moron.

Three years to death

[fm6]

Well, bear in mind that most machines are purchased by businesses -- and they follow some weird rules.

Consider the 3-year-old Dell 450 PII on my desk. High end when I got it, low-end now. I don't need to do any heavy processing, but some of the apps I use consume a lot of RAM, and I'm always short of disk. So I requested an upgrade.

It had almost gone through, when my boss told me that I was making things difficult by not requesting a new machine. Computers are amortized over three years (at least by anybody who pays federal taxes), and our IS department takes the attitude that a fully-amortized computer costs more to support than it's worth.

Of course, as soon as I changed my upgrade request to a new computer request, there was a purchasing freeze....

Re:I love when they use the Internet

[Kaz Riprock]

Even better than the computer companies are the broadband providers that offer "lightning-fast downloads".

Hello! Do you know how fast lightning moves? That's just not even close to ATT Broadband/RCN/@home speeds.

Re:I love when they use the Internet

[dillon_rinker]

But it's true! For example, those flash-animation ads suck up a LOT of CPU, and a newer processor would render them faster. Flash ads are the primary reason why I'm thinking about upgrading...from my P-166.

=)

GAME DEVELOPERS are the true terrorists!!!

[Directrix1]

You heard me right. The people who are responsible for our current economic slump, are the game developers. You might say, "Game developers, I would think game players because their not buying this newfangled technology, but not game developers." Well, its the game developers' fault you chump. Always developing crap that runs on all last-gen vid cards and never embracing powerful new technologies. Their slow integration of more modern technologies has made people so disillusioned with newer technologies that they frankly don't give a rats ass anymore. I agree with them. Most games out now can play on most old hardware. Because everybody is so damn afraid that their software won't sell because it won't run on existing hardware that they just limit its capabilities to hardware that has already penetrated the market. So why upgrade. If I have a computer that can play any game out there (and had it for the last 5 years), why should I upgrade.

Developers should stand up to their patriotic duty and develop games which thrive only on new hardware, only on the fastest, biggest, brightest boxes under the sun. Only on machines which took mommy and daddy twenty years to save up enough money for and will be outdated in the inverse of that time. Only on the biggest capitalistic ventures of all computer fabrication history. Only when the developers step up, will our economy recover. But there is still the problem with the throw away society vs. the persistent friendly environment struggle raging in our computing worlds right now.

This is where Microsoft needs to step up to the plate. Require an entire internal hard-drive ONLY for the OS. And require all programs and documents to be stored in an external storage mechanism which when plugged into any existing windows workstation will automatically load in the registry, shortcuts, desktop, and what not (applicable to the users security context of course). This way when somebody decides: "Hey I can't play new games any more I better upgrade." They won't have the laziness factor breaking in with, "Yeah but then you'd have to get that geek from next door to help install all your programs and stuff like that and its just not worth the hassle." Because people in America are lazy and are all about how much effort they have to exert to get a task done. Using the approach I have stated all they gotta do is unplug their drive toss out the computer. And say hello to brand spanking shining new computer, and good bye $2600 cash. With which they can finally play all those newfangled games, unlike everybody stuck with the last gen computer.

The End

Re:Lazy Programmer Syndrome

[unicron]

If lack of time due to deadlines is the only thing keeping software from being optimized to its full potential, then Duke Nukem Forver will run like the friggin wind on a 386.

It's cause were all F@CKIN UNEMPLOYED

[43PercentBurnt]

See subject.

Looking for advice

[PD]

I'm running a Z-80 computer system (1 Mhz) and I was wondering if I should upgrade to the new Z-80B processor. They go 2.5 Mhz, and supposedly really scream. But is the extra speed worth the $4 that the new processor would cost? Thanks.

Re:yeah

[VoiceOfRaisin]

.. and what if DOOM3/UT2003 is 75% of all software that you run?
it means youre pretty bad at math.

Re:Well Duh

[user32.ExitWindowsEx]

"(unless I go nuts and decide to run WinXP and play Doom3 while running a seti client with realtime priority). "

Just go dual-CPU then....cheaper in some cases.

Re:Looking for advice

[Stephen VanDahm]

I'd spend my money on a 2400 baud modem -- high speed internet access is the future....

Re:in other news

[Some Dumbass...]

Oooh, a post just itchin' for a punch line!

In an unrelated story, aol will be adding new features into aol 9, its min. req will be dual 3 Gig processor, 512 megs ram.

... and a dedicated electrical generator.

In an unrelated story, aol will be adding new features into aol 9, its min. req will be dual 3 Gig processor, 512 megs ram.

... for installation (Requirements for use may be higher).

In an unrelated story, aol will be adding new features into aol 9, its min. req will be dual 3 Gig processor, 512 megs ram.

... and a two-button mouse.

In an unrelated story, aol will be adding new features into aol 9, its min. req will be dual 3 Gig processor, 512 megs ram.

... and a 14.4K or faster modem (doesn't AOL have something to do with the Internet?)

Re:Free monitors

[sleeper0]

thats what dad said huh?

Re:Of course nobody's buying.....

[kyoko21]

I hear that. I have a ThinkPad 600 that is equiped with a P2-266 with 256MB of RAM running XP. It works fine and it works great. Aside from the speed issue, this little slow laptop performs much much better than my 1.6GHz at work that is running W2k. I don't know what all the garbage that is installed on my W2k after getting it from the IT guys, but for some reason they loaded alllll this unnecessary crap and it was just one lame computer after it came through their hand. I would reinstall the system myself but I just don't have the time to do all that at work. Unless I take a weekend off and come in and reinstall everything myself. Not bad for a guy who has 3 VALinux Servers running at home all three sporting dual processors and multi GB RAM capacity configurations. Yeah, I know it's an overkill but I was laid off so following the spirit of oddtodd, I got some cool sh*t. :-)

Re:GAME DEVELOPERS are the true terrorists!!!

[guybarr]

P.S. I know you were trolling.

he wasn't trolling, he was drolling. and very nicely so, IMHO.

lighten up :)