Before then – in the 90s both Intel and Microsoft used a lot of backroom deals to keep big vendors exclusive. If memory serves it took the Opteron’s crushing performance advantage before we started seeing that break for Intel servers; Linux users for years were stuck paying for OEM Windows installs which were never used.
Yes, but I've been around the industry a while. I specifically remember this happening during the late 90s and just in to the 2000s.
It was occurring at a time when AMD was fairly firmly beating Intel on a straight $/performance basis (~K6 era). If Dell had started shipping AMD based systems back then it could have been a big game changer.
The general narrative around the tech press at the time was that Intel knew this and were desperate to keep Dell as Intel exclusive.
acdha|7 years ago
Twirrim|7 years ago
It was occurring at a time when AMD was fairly firmly beating Intel on a straight $/performance basis (~K6 era). If Dell had started shipping AMD based systems back then it could have been a big game changer.
The general narrative around the tech press at the time was that Intel knew this and were desperate to keep Dell as Intel exclusive.
sitkack|7 years ago
ggg9990|7 years ago