Bulldozer (AMD's future chip) is going to compete with Sandy Bridge (Intel's current chip), but AMD has no answer for Ivy Bridget. 22nm construction with those trigate transistors? We're talking jet engines when AMD hasn't quite mastered the propeller yet.

hhmm...

My CPUs are running pretty hot. Hope I can fix that, otherwise, it's back to Win7.

And by "AMD's future chip" I mean what they promised Bulldozer COULD do. Intel only recently released what they promised Sandy Bridge would do.

But Intel's motorcycle doesn't have any wheels, suspension, brakes, or steering. It's just an engine right now.

I'm running a 2500k on air @ 4.5Ghz and at 100% load (can only achieve through stress testing) I never go above 70 degrees. Generally sits at ~54. We just had one of AMD's Zambezis in here and it damn near exploded trying to reach the same performance. And its the same price...

No Draugnar. Sandy Bridge has been out most of the year and it's already running the next race before chips AMD is releasing now even finish.

The X79 chips Intel is boxing up right now are better than anything AMD has on their roadmap through 2012 and they're not even using the new technology (3 transistors) Intel has been bragging about all year. And even if Intel handed AMD the blueprints to their Ivy Bridge chips, AMD wouldn't be able to manufacture them. They're barely starting to learn how to print on 32nm dies let alone even fathom 22nm.

I think what no one is understanding is that Intel is going to revolutionise everything from mobile processing to server cooking with these transistors. And what does GF say in response? "We don't need the future yet."

Late 2012, Globalfoundries tells AMD they just can't do 22/20 and AMD leaves the game.

See. Essays. Fuck I'm going back to watching the game.

But what platform (make and model) is running the sandy bridge chips? Every tablet I've seen with an Intel chip is the atom.

No decent tablet worth talking about is using an Intel or an AMD chip. Neither are really in the post-mobile market (yet, for Intel). The most you can compare AMD and Intel to in the mobile market are their low powered laptop CPUs, where Sandy Bridge is the only name worth mentioning. (As demonstrated by every notable notebook being released).

Intel will release Ivy for tablets when Microsoft gets serious about Windows 8 (which is going to be game changing as well, believe me.)

Well, did some Linux voodoo magic and my cores are now running at a nice 54 degC. Looks like I'm sticking with Ubuntu, D33. : )

As your main OS? =(
You could just virtualise it in a real man's OS. =P

That is a poor choice but there is nothing I can do. Note the need of "voodo magic". With Windows it would not be needed. :-)

Also, we're forgetting that Google and Intel are best friends. When people start demanding tablets that are computers instead big mobile telephones, they're going to turn to Intel and never AMD.

I'm with D33 here. Aside from the niche live-CD recovery and as a teaching tool, I'd just as soon see the whole Linux thing disappear. There isn't a flavour of Linux that comes close to being a primary operating system in any environment that uses a computer for real work.

I still have my Windows partition (unless I seriously fucked up the install).

I do real work on Linux. All of my coding and simulation is done on it. And, the cluster I use is also running Linux. Not sure you have any basis for your last statement, Geo.

=P
I'm just complaining because our education cluster is running CentOS and desperately needs a GCC upgrade. But I really do hate Linux and would never consider it a product for consumers.

@Geoff - No tablet... Yeah right. MSI WindPad. 4 GB RAM and 32 GB solid state drive running windows 7 and weighing about 2 pounds for under $600. AMD Radeon HD 6250 capable of playing WoW and STO better than many full size laptops. Simply put, you are uninformed in the tablet world.

At this point in time, I'd agree. However, it's been steadily improving.

And, if you understand computers and are willing to exchange a little extra effort for free products, I think it's a great choice.

@Draugnar, no I'm not. iirc: "tablets worth talking about." The windpad was a joke, so is Windows 7 on a tablet. We had the Samsung tab from BUILD in here a month or so ago and it blew that pos out of the water. (Guess what -- it was Intel)

Also, what the fuck are you doing playing PC games on a tablet? Going to carry around a keyboard and a mouse? I'm not uninformed about the tablet world, but you're misunderstanding what a tablet is for.

Tablets may eventually replace desktops. Some experts are saying that. It seems possible. And it is what Microsoft is betting on with Windows 8

I can see tablets replaced desktops within 5 years. They are great for content consumption, social networking, and arcade-style gaming, which is what most users use their computers for. With a BT keyboard/mouse and a real OS (such as Win8), you could do real work on it to.

There will, of course, be a number of niche markets for desktops, but I think the time of the desktop being the primary home computer has passed.

Not for me. I love desktop over tablet any-day and plan on getting a Win7 Ultimate gaming desktop to last me the good part of the decade.

there are games specifically designed for tablets already, right? the question is what % of the market will they capture from consoles... i'm already pissed off that the new elder scrools game is designed with a console in mind, i want an old-style PC game... :(

@Geof - No need for mouse or Keyboard, particularly on TSO (but also WoW). the touch screen is the mouse, and with multi touch, the only thing you need a keyboard for is typing in the chat, which I no longer do as I and my buddies all use voice chat. So a simple USB headset plugged into the side makes the tablet perfectly useable so I can play TSO or WoW out on my deck or, when it's finished, in the backyard gazebo.
Byu the way, what is the power usage on this new Intel processor of which you speak? The AMD Z series is very low at 5.9 watts.

Everything I see on Sandy Bridge processors list their lowest at 17 Watts right now and some new one coming out for netbooks that is still going to be in the 9 or 10 watt range. Sandy Bridge is *not* condusive to long battery life tablets *at alll*.

Microsoft isn't betting that tablets will replace desktops, they're betting that Windows 8 will be the best OS for your device regardless of its form factor.

Desktops are already a niche market, but nothing comes close to replacing them, especially not tablets. Tablets aren't even close to replacing laptops, right now they're just toys. And I think that until we find another method for input than a keyboard (physical or on-screen), tablets will remain at the bottom of the list of useful computers.

Let Dragon Naturally Speaking really take off and you might find that new input method making the tablet much more feasible.

I actually like Intel processors as well and was considering dells convertible crossover. It has a rotating multi touch screen that makes it a table when closed and a laptop with keyboard and button mouse (I don't recall if it had a glidepoint style mouse) when opened. But it weighs over 4 pounds. Light for a laptop, but way too heavy for a tablet. And that is mostly because it has a bigger battery and a 350 Gig traditional laptop hard drive. If they could get the weigth down to under 2.5 pounds by going with a SSHD, using the ultra-low wattage processor and therbye reducing the battery needs, I'd go for it.

To me, Windows is too important on my tablet to go with an Android (and I don't like the buggy aspects of Honeycomb anyhow) as I can use windows 7 to remote into the office and a USB/bluetooth keyboard when I need the full thing.

I also like that the MSI WindPad has a HDMI port, not the multithingamajiggie or DVI ports on the Dell laptops and hybrid.

@Geofram - Have you played/worked with the MSI Windpad 110W yet? I did the other day and it was quite nice. If all you've done is read reviews, then you might have been reading about the 100W which had some issues. They revised it and made the 110W and it is much better. And the one Buy.com sells is upgraded to the full 4 Gig RAM so it is nearly as capable as my 4 Gig Latitude E6500 that is my work machine.