Bring it on
It's no wonder that we end up writing about the three big semiconductor companies the whole time; they just keep giving us stuff to write about. And I'm not just talking about product launches here, the frantic competition between the three means their executives have usually got a fair bit to say about the competition.
So last week we had NVIDIA speaking exclusively to HEXUS.channel, vowing to take back the graphics performance crown that AMD rudely stole from it with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2. NVIDIA appears to have moved on to Intel for the time being, with IDF about to start, but we thought it would only be fair to give AMD a chance to air its views.
For the second time in a couple of months we speak exclusively to VP of worldwide GPU and chipset sales, John Byrne (pictured), and start by asking him how long he thinks AMD can stay on top this time. "We believe that we are in great shape to remain on top of this segment for some time with our leading architecture and engineering strategy," he says.
Some time? That could mean anything. Any chance of something a bit more specific? "We are up against a worthy competitor and we will remain cautious to put a specific date on the ‘how long'," said Byrne.
This seems like a suspiciously measured and diplomatic answer in the context of the great graphics rivalry. Surely Byrne's got something more strident to say about NVIDIA. "I wouldn't be as bold or disparaging as to make the sort of claims that our competitor made about us prior to the launch of RV770 [4800 series], which has seen us gain considerable share and has caused it some embarrassment," he says.
That's better.
