Big Brother Inside

...and everywhere else, seems to be the processor gaints motto. And competitors such as AMD with comparable processors seem to have missed the bus.

When Advanced Micro Devices (AMD to the layman ), a $ 2 billion company took over NexGen, it promptly scrapped its own sixth generation CPU project in favour of that companys Nx686. The Nx686 processor was marketed as the AMD K6. The K6, designed for high performance while running both 16-bit and 32-bit software, delivers performance competitive with the Pentium Pro for Windows 95 (Intels flagship processor ) and Windows operating systems and applications. In addition, the processor contains an industry standard, high performance implementation of MMX instruction set, enabling a new level of multimedia performance.

 

AMD designed the AMD-K6 processor to fit the low-cost, high-volume Socket 7 infrastructure. It has been designed to streamline multimedia processing like digitised audio, digitised video, 3 - D graphics, motion estimation and pixel manipulation. In fact, the new AMD - K6 MMX processor was voted the Best New Product-Hardware by retail buyers and vendors of consumer electronics who participated in Retail Vision 97 trade show in Los Angeles in April this year.

Retail Vision attracts the largest contingent of focused retail buyers, merchandisers, and management teams who represent 6,000 storefronts and purchase more than $40 billion in retail merchandise each year in the US. AMD has a long history of delivering compatible processor solutions for personal computing, having shipped nearly 100 million x86 processors, including 50 million Windows compatible CPUs in the last five years, said Dave Sheffler, AMDs director of channel sales and marketing at the time.

Inspite of this all this, the processor has not even made an minuscule impact in Indias PC market on which today Intel has a stranglehold. This is even more surprising, considering that India is a price-sensitive market.

David vs. Goliath

When India moved from the 486 market into the next generation processor market where you had Nx586, Nx686 apart from Intel processors, Intel moved in for the kill. Till that time, even AMD had a reasonable presence in India as a vendor of the x86 compatible chips. But with the media blitz that Intel launched, every competitor faded into the background.

Today, says Raj Saraf, chairman and managing director, Zenith Computers, even a 12 year old kid knows about the Pentium. But talk about the K6 and chances are that the question will be thrown right back at you. This can be gauged from the fact that the company has so far not received a single request for a K6-based computer.

For all practical considerations, Intel and its MMX instruction set have become that de facto standard. Even the government of India which is supposed to be a neutral buyer i.e. a buyer without any specific preferences (and who goes by cost considerations alone) makes a specific demand for Pentium-based PCs.

In fact, apart from the occasional assembler who would want to save a few bucks on his next PC, it seems that the only companies who offer the K6 seem to be those who have an axe to grind with Intel.

Like IBM and Digital. IBMs Consumer Division is using the AMD-K6 MMX-enhanced processor technology in selected models of the IBM Aptiva line of personal computers. AMD is excited about working closely with one of the worlds premier personal computer companies, said Vinod Dham, group vice president of AMDs Computation Products Group at that time.

Yet till date not a single computer based on this processor has been shipped to any of the ASEAN countries. The other company which has a presence in India and using this processor is Digital which is using it in its Venturis desktop computer family. Analysts say that it was frustration on Digitals part, who have been unable to sell their own Alpha line of high-performance processors successfully, that made them opt for the AMD chip. There is even a legal spat between the two companies, alleging patent violations.

The last lap

Price-performance ratio is something which the industry considers as benchmark to judge any processor. Reputed magazines like PC Week, PC World, PC Magazine, Byte etc. have reported that besides price and performance features, AMD also has in its favour its design strategy to fit in Socket-7 style slots found on Pentium motherboards, and at the same time are priced at half the expected price of Pentium II motherboards.

Yet till date no PC manufacturer in India has made an attempt to promote this processor to any of their clients. Not even Zenith, which at one time featured a Cyrix-chip equipped Pc in its line-up. Why should we do it, asks Saraf.

Abhijit Das of Tata Information Systems Limited (TISL) says that that the processor cost in the entire system constitutes only 5 per cent of the total cost, and that is not incentive enough to get into unnecessary hassles.

The need of the of the hour for AMD seems to be a very close interaction with the local PC manufacturers which is exactly what is not forthcoming. There are various reasons being cited for this. One of which is that at AMD, both the seller and the developer is an Indian, and this has led to complacency and the company has taken the market for granted.

The other important issue, says Ajay Soni of PCS is that of bringing in a comfort feeling that the PC manufacturers have to develop towards K6 via the back support for hardware to be provided by AMD. AMD claims that any warranty covering the AMD processor is provided to them at the point of purchase. All warranty requests on processors not purchased directly from AMD should not be directed to AMD, but should instead be presented to your point of purchase and in case the vendor has purchased the processor through the authorised channels, they are equipped to handle the full AMD warranty. But somehow, the message does not seem to have percolated in the desired direction.

An important aspect of any processor acceptance is the stamp it receives from the major software manufacturers like Microsoft, Novell etc. whose approval about the compatibility of the processor with various kinds of software acts like a jet engine on a bullock cart propelling it ahead at fantastic speeds. While Intel has managed to do precisely that, AMD has floundered.

While Intel will wield much more clout than AMD, by joining forces with compiler vendors, software developers, PC manufacturers etc. AMD can ensure that K6s multimedia extensions will survive alongside Intels. But this requires immediate action, and concentrating all its efforts on markets like India which have traditionally not cared about brand names.

But slow work would mean a quick death. Intel plans to introduce its Slot 1 architecture in 1998. This would be protected under trade secrets, and will effectively render all other processor designs redundant. Intel is using its chip design as a vehicle to further tighten its grip on the market for processors and other components used to run personal computers.

The new Slot 1 will connect the chip through a slot instead of the traditional pin structure, making current processors obsolete. PC manufacturers will be forced to use motherboards that will accept Intels chip, and AMD will be left with a chip that would run only on older computers. A sizable market share can make PC makers offer a choice in their motherboards -- that is possibly the only way AMD can stave off the big brothers threat.