Errmmm...not really.
First off, you were definately 14 when you wrote this as seen here, "and will be releasing
like 4 different CPUs until the release the of the Merced." Hehehe.
Well, really what happened was that the K6-2 did fairly well but AMD still lost money because they had to slash prices to compete in that low end market. The low end market in almost any field is hard as as hell to compete in because the profits are so minimal and competition is rampant. Okay, Intel wasn't quite out of it at that point- well, really they have just floundered, they never have and probably will never lose it just because of that widely known "Intel" case sticker. It's sad, but true- some people will always buy Intel because they are familiar with it and "know it works" and that AMD's parts "have problems." Well, these uninformed people are living in the past- which Intel surely appreciates because I'll bet that they wish it was 3 years ago too!
When the AMD Athlon was first sent to hardware reviewers before it's release there was something wrong with it- I can't remember exactly what it was but if I dare guess it was that they didn't have all of the pipelines "enabled," if you will? Whatever the problem was, the Athlon was crippled like nobody's business in this phase! That did not help their cause! However, at release this lil ah heck could really fly! Everyone was in a stir because we were confused about what AMD had done to improve it so much in such a short time, then it started to click and some people started to accept that Intel had a real competitor for the first time!
The AMD train just kept plowing forward! AMD really had prepared well for their release and when Intel released (read: paper launched) a new speed P3, within the next day AMD released (read: released) their next faster speed! The best part was, AMD released their next fastest part which performed as well as a P3 clock for clock, if not better, for less green backs! Well, AMD grabbed 50% of the retail market quite fast- I think it was in February that they had 50% and it just kept getting better. Unfortunately, some people were still biased and some still are- oh well, their loss.
Then this summer the Duron came out! I would just like to ask in the words of Adam Sandler, who were the ad wizards that came up with that one?! This lil puppy was cheap (hell, just look at pricewatch) and could fly with the big boys! In fact in some cases it was about as fast as a Pentium 3! It performs about 150faster than the Celeron2, meaning that an 850MHz (100MHz FSB- overclocked of course) performs about on par with a 700MHz Duron. Pretty sweet, eh? But alas, for it to succeed in the budget arena it would need an "all-in-one" board with sound and video built in- something to compete with the i810 chipset. Well, it came too little too late from Via (in fact, I'm not sure you can even find them yet!) so the Duron missed the "back-to-school" budget computer spending spree. Oh well, it's still holding its own against the Celeron in sales for having such a disadvantage as no "all-in-one" motherboard.
This is a fairly condensed version- I didn't bother to talk about any of Intel's other problems such as the paper launches, most notably the 1GHz P3, the P3 1.13GHz problems, the i820 recall, and most notable of all the whole Rambus/RDRAM situation. As I look back upon AMDs rise it was like a skillfully played chess match. Almost like watching the world champion at chess play a 9 year old at chess. AMD planned everything on their end, they have no control over Via unfortunately, amazingly well. From having such high clock speeds in the warehouses ready for their disposal, having such good yields, selling almost all of the processors that they make, to keeping their prices so low but still making loads of money!
(copyright zippy 2001)
I actually have a P3 550e@808 with a Via Apollo Pro133A in my system believe it or not- I got a great deal on it in April so it just made more sense for me to get that than go AMD at the time.
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