“AMD Inc. and IBM Corp. sailed into the Microprocessor Forum
here last week with CPU strategies that could put a competitive
squeeze on Intel Corp.’s IA-64 Itanium (a.k.a. Merced) processor in
2001 and beyond…”
“Slater predicted that Sledgehammer will be combined with
the Linux operating system in computers that could either be
high-end desktops or PC servers, perhaps with four-way
capabilities.“
“For the guys who build big servers, it is hard to pull them
away from Intel,” he said. “The perfect market is the people who
want to buy a high-end desktop and turn it into a server costing
maybe $3,000 or less. My guess is that a lot of those people will
use Linux [with Sledgehammer],” appealing to both “the
anti-Microsoft and anti-Intel sentiment.”