Storage is rising to replace the processor as the key enabling component of data center hardware. Add to that the rise of SSD, and the next few years in this space will be dynamic.

As for GHz, yes, I know that’s issue that’s been covered for a while, but AMD is not the only chipmaker or server vendor looking at ways to optimize memory and IO on the chip, especially as it relates to web-scale applications and virtualization. Since those are becoming more common in data centers this is an issue we’ll here more about. Not all of our readers are on the cutting edge of chip design, so its worth repeating some older stuff as part of the new.

So let me get this straight, because AMD is having a hard time, and their CMO comes out with an earth shattering statement like, graphics are important for consumer facing devices, you immediately conclude that x86 dominance is weakening? I’m sorry, I don’t see the logic.

What I do see from the way you wrote this story is a couple of things. First, if this is as good as it gets from the AMD CMO, its no wonder they are in trouble. As the other commentors have pointed out, the GHz race hasn’t been relevant for several years now. And when was the last time a computer came to market without some form of graphics acceleration? AMD is bowing to the might R&D budgets that Intel has wielded to produce devices like the Atom. The whining I hear from them and Nvidia is them struggling to keep up as Intel looks in the rear view mirror of yet another form factor market, i.e. the netbook. That market grasp will only tighten as their newer SoC focused devices continue to roll out of their engineering departments.

Second, please, before you write another story about x86 going away, listen to what I’m saying. The IA and the software platform are symbiotically linked. x86 will never lose its grasp as long as Microsoft is dominant in any form factor. There’s just too much software momentum. Even Apple, with its gorgeous platform and swanky marketing had to succomb to x86 to keep going. Why? At least partly because the software/hardware link between Microsoft and Intel is so strong that the resulting evolutionary momentum is unavoidable. PowerPC just couldn’t keep up with its innovations because the lack of market (i.e. the lack of something like the Windows ecosystem), wasn’t enough to continue justifying the R&D investments in it. Its going to take a lot more than the whining of a few waning competitors to shake the grasp of x86. Please don’t try to convince me of that until you have something that’s actually real to justify it.