AMD Athlon 64 Draws TechXNY Praise

Advanced Micro Devices plans to introduce the first 64-bit Windows compatible processor for the desktop next Tuesday, said Hector Ruiz, president and CEO of the Sunnyvale, Calif. company.

Ruiz received enthusiastic response after showing a brief video about AMD's Athlon 64 processor to a large crowd of TechXNY attendees during his keynote address.

"We are introducing this because we work closely with people like you. We listen to people like you. Computer users and gamers wanted to open the throttle," Ruiz said.

"We listened to enterprise customers and business owners that want to migrate to 64-bit computing but have an enormous investment in 32-bit software but can't afford to migrate without that compatibility."

Athlon 64's compatibility with 32-bit software allows customers to migrate to the 64-bit technology a little at a time, Ruiz said.

Norm Hughes, president of Qvoice!, a biometrics software vendor, said the Athlon 64 processor could enhance his Andover, N.J.-based company's applications.

"We do a lot of encryption technology, which I can see how a faster processor would be a benefit. I thought it was an excellent presentation. I'm impressed with the compatibility of 32- and 64-bit," Hughes said.

Ali Ziai, a senior client support engineer with Information Resources, a Fairfield, N.J.-based systems integrator, agreed. "I think being able to migrate the software [at your own speed] is very good for customers. I was very happy to hear about that," Ziai said.

AMD plans to taut heavily the migration capability of the Athalon 64 over Intel's Itanium technology, Ruiz said.

"It is fair to say, a lot of today's new technology is missing something critical. Instead of focusing on customer benefits, the focus is on technology for technology's sake. Business and IT decision makers are saying those three little words: At what cost? Are there installation costs, maintenance costs, disruption costs?"

Athlon 64 and the Opteron 64 processor for servers reduce those costs, he said.

"As move from automation to replacement, we're moving from low-hanging fruit to harder to reach fruit. Returns are difficult to pin down, there is more focus on the ROI question. The important part is on the I, the investment," Ruiz said. "We no longer have the luxury of having something new and throwing away the old. We need to take advantage of things that work, to create a graceful transition path to the next generation."