[Allen Hallada]

As far as I know the HP 3400 AMD processors are redesigned to be 32 bit only to make them cheaper and to not confuse the mass public with new numbers.



HP insisted on having 32-bit AMD 64-bit chips

The customer is always right. Not


By Esther Tigre: Tuesday 09 March 2004, 09:45

AMD THINKS the customer is king, it has emerged, in a rare example of X86 semiconductor firms giving people what they want, rather than what they deserve or worse still, are allocated.
As Mario pointed out yesterday, our original story about AMD delivering a 32-bit K8 chip, which is really a crippled 64-bit chip was perfectly true.

And now we can reveal exactly what happened, according to a reliable source at AMD Taiwan.

HP told AMD that while it was suitably impressed with the performance characteristics of the K8, also known as Athlon 64 chip, it felt that its customers would be confused if they suddenly found themselves with 64-bittiness but without an operating system apart from Linux to run on it.

So apparently it said something along the following lines: "Look, we're having this chip, but kindly cripple the 64-bitness, we're not having any of that right now".

AMD rolled over on its back, waved its almost human like hands in the air, and waggled its almost human like feet, and said something along the following lines: "OK".

I don't understand why HP has to screw with a great product. What is the purpose? Big deal if it runs 64 bit software. Maybe they don't want to deal with the headaches of a new OS? I'm sure that is it as Tech support must eat these guys alive.

Allen