Jon Peddie Blogs
AMD’s CPUs disappear from the workstation market
Posted by Alex Herrera on November 25th 2010 | Permalink
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Losing its final major workstation OEM customer, AMD seems to have essentially withdrawn from the workstation market for CPUs ... and it doesn’t seem to care. It’s still selling GPUs but not CPUs. The strategy might have me scratching my head, but when it comes to marketing its wares to the workstation market, that’s precisely where AMD’s head is at. Yes, AMD maintains a presence as a supplier to the workstation industry, plying its professional-brand FirePro GPUs, but as far as we can tell the company has thrown in the towel when it comes to selling its CPUs into the same…
x86 isn’t do-or-die for Nvidia
Posted by Alex Herrera on October 29th 2010 | Permalink
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...but pass on x86, and the company better execute flawlessly on its GPU strategies and technologies Intel’s Sandy Bridge and AMD’s Fusion are right around the corner, and the die-integrated combinations of x86 CPU and GPU have heightened the interest about how one very specific company will navigate this new landscape of SoCs. Nvidia, the dominant provider of discrete GPUs over the past decade, cannot make the same leap in silicon integration that its two key rivals will imminently launch. The simple reason: it has no x86 IP in its technology arsenal. The easy prediction made by many already is that…
Nvidia, CUDA, and x86
Posted by Alex Herrera on September 23rd 2010 | Permalink
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It’s not what you’re thinking. Announced last week at the company’s Graphics Technology Conference (GTC), “CUDA on x86” has nothing to do with Nvidia getting its hands on x86 IP, a notion that’s been the fodder for constant speculation over the past few years. Rather, what CUDA-on-x86 accomplishes is the ability to run CUDA-written applications on x86 hardware. The cross-compiler was the result of a collaboration between Nvidia and PGI (Portland Graphics). If one’s knee were jerking, one might assume such a thing would run counter to Nvidia’s long-term strategy. The company’s in the midst of trying to get applications off…
Different strokes: AMD and Nvidia’s approaches are diverging in more ways than one
Posted by Alex Herrera on October 6th 2009 | Permalink
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gpu
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It’s often hard in this business to draw clear lines separating two vendors’ technologies or products, as often they tend to converge on common solutions, the result of tackling the same problem with the same vision and set of priorities. And while it wouldn’t be right to say the latest generations of GPU technology from Nvidia and AMD are apples and oranges — they aren’t — the two companies are both very consciously differentiating themselves, both with respect to the goals that are shaping their technology decisions and in how they’re packaging up that technology to deploy products. GPU-compute representing different…
With Nehalem, OEMs Xeon — not Core — for entry level, single-socket workstations
Posted by Alex Herrera on April 8th 2009 | Permalink
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Intel appears to be consciously shifting brand strategy ... and pricing accordingly When it comes to workstation volume, Intel’s Core brand has consistently garnered the lion’s share of unit shipments, with its sibling Xeon brand commanding a relative minority. That long-time status quo is now set to change, however, as Intel’s introduced not only a new Xeon platform, but it appears a new strategy for the brand as well. In launching the first processors of the Nehalem generation to bear the Xeon name, Intel’s looking to extend the brand’s reach down into the entry-level, single-socket segment of the workstation market, pushing…
No longer in Dell’s rear-view mirror, HP now shares the workstation market lead
Posted by Alex Herrera on March 14th 2009 | Permalink
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With ’08 seeing long-time graybeard Sun drastically trimming back its workstation business and fellow industry pioneer IBM dropping its business altogether, the on-going between Dell and HP has become one of the more entertaining dynamics to watch in the marketplace. Dell’s been trying fervently to hold on to market leadership, while HP’s been working even harder to take it away. Not long ago, it was Dell that looked poised to dominate the workstation market the way Nvidia and Intel dominate the platform side: by a wide margin. Quarter after stellar quarter, Dell pleased stockholders and analysts alike. But a few years…
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Alex Herrera
For the past 25 years, Alex has been involved in the architecture, engineering and marketing of 3D graphics, video, and microprocessor chips. At Jon Peddie Research, Alex’s focus is fixed on the markets, technologies and products related to computer graphics and professional client computing. Alex authors JPR’s Workstation Report and writes for TechWatch, and as a consultant continues to advise companies competing in the graphics and semiconductor businesses.