Redbeard vs the World
Why? Why do so many still despise me.” A rueful red bearded giant reflected, sequestered in his cave of crimson silicon.
“Who are there those that continue to doubt my abilities, denounce my efforts, express such disdain or even indifference for the herculean task I have,thus far, undertaken with nothing save for supreme skill, profound courage, and fathomless defiance in the face of savage adversity.”
As he uttered these words he gazed up at the ceiling where, from amidst a stalactite forest of rich ruby ore shone two titanic clocks. The first, a gleaming emerald sphere that sizzled with verdant sparks in apparent protest at their scarlet surroundings. It’s neighbour, a portal of shimmering sapphire from whose darkened core emanated threads of binary incandescence that writhed and snatched at the air, meaning to seize and subsume all bloody luminescence within their tangled reach.
Besides an overtly supernatural appearance, one notable characteristic set both of these scintillating timepieces apart from more traditional counterparts. Their faces did not count from one to twelve, nor from twelve to twenty four. Instead a single spectral hand on each moved steadily backwards, past glowing figures of nodal significance.
An age old parable tells of an over zelous canine with a bone clenched between his jaws. Poised on the soft muddy bank of a tranquil mill pond he spies a four-legged foe beneath the glassy surface. By a somewhat foreseeable coincidence, this dog also possesses a skeletal relic. To the eager eyes of our furry friend, this bone appears larger and more shapely than his own. Hoping to scare his adversary into dropping his trophy he barks aggressively, thus releasing the bone he’d been bearing with unwavering dedication, which promptly plops into the lake and vanishes, along with his curiously reflective rival.
Why do I recount such hackneyed preaching? Because in the context of Redbeard’s monumental undertaking, the moral remains decidedly relevant.
One who covets all shall ultimately lose all.
It seems like yesterday that I was conversing with a jovial, if slightly smug sales rep at one of my trusted e-tailers who, after having identified me as a devoted disciple of Baron Von Intel and worse, the resigned keeper of what in the early 21st entry was one of his most extravagant “flag-chips”, couldn’t resist bragging about his own beloved setup which featured beyond doubt, the fastest processor that cash could procure. AMD’s FX-57. A single core colossus and the definitive solution for every compulsive gaming enthusiast. This range-topping Athlon didn’t even require Hyper Threading to handily overhaul my Pentium 4 Extreme Edition in a multitude of creative and recreational applications. Furthermore, It wasn’t just in the mono ranks that AMD was dominant. While those like myself struggled to disperse over 90 degrees of Prime induced combustion expelled by a pair of 90mn Prescott dies, acolytes of the Baron’s arch nemesis enjoyed equal or greater performance for lesser watts and smaller student loans with a tag team of Twin Toledos ?!
Now, time to reminisce with some retrospective imagery of an era when AMD formidable fabrications accounted for the lion’s share of a reckless gamer’s profligacy.
So, what happened next? Well, to render an epic saga stunted, approximately one year passed, AMD’s focus shifted from number crunching to pixel munching with its momentous acquisition of ATI. Intel made an architectural quantum leap from the cumbersome impediments of Netburst the clinical efficiency of Core and thereafter, AMD was consigned to the wilderness for over a decade, playing a very dissonant and humble second fiddle. But these seasons in the shade were far from squandered, for throughout them, Redbeard and his ruddy minions were trading textures and teraflops across increasingly vivid “Battlefields” against an equally bullish enemy. A green eyed monster dedicated to procuring the ultimate graphical glory with no pixel asked nor given. Events concerning this savage and bitter rendering race have already been exhaustively documented elsewhere within realm of Gigadenza and hence, I shan’t venture to cite such names as Cayman, Fermi, Hawaii, Maxwell, Fiji or Pascal. Too late.
As things stood towards the end of the second millennium’s secondary decade, AMD’s priorities had once again shifted and its foremost revolved around the development and release of a revolutionary CPU platform. Zen. Aside from being broadly responsible for nullifying the company’s operating deficit in the year of its lunch, this ambitious project germinated a family of powerful and keenly priced processors that all but eliminated the long-standing performance chasm to Intel and arguably surpassed its rival’s equivalent offerings for value within systems optimised for intensive multitasking. Unfortunately, confronting two of tech industry’s most carnivorous corporations and attempting to match the heaviest artillery that each can deploy is rather akin to designing a fortress capable of withstanding a tornado, a tsunami and an earthquake all at once. Having averted their attention from battalions of barbaric Cuda-cores hell-bent their master’s triumph and bristling with razor-sharp geometry, AMD soon felt them slicing a High-Def hole in their credibility.
The resulting and vitriolic criticism might have seemed unjustified to the objectively minded and downright scandalous to a hot-blooded groupie. Nevertheless, by seeking control over such vast and competitive markets there can be no denying that the red team’s fervent campaign, especially throughout this period, was regularly punctuated with embarrassing inconsistencies. These ranged from over-zealous keynotes, highly selective performance claims, limited availability of their products at launch, poor communication between their technical and publicity divisions and pricing schemes so convoluted that they exasperated e-tailers to the point of wilful improvising, frequently to the customer’s detriment.
My point in highlighting these negatives is not to tarnish AMD’s admirable efforts throughout what shall doubtless be a compelling and influential existence but rather, to empathise both the sheer magnitude of its challenge and the potentially pivotal crossroads at which the company was presently poised. Cliches evolve for good reason and in the context of brutal business, are more relevant than ever, yet still, the irrational lust for autocracy leaves many unheeded. By whatever date in history you’re reading these words, it will be interesting to find out whether or not Redbeard’s commander in chief (the resolute and impassioned Dr. Lisa Su) was able to forge a realistic road to prosperity, rekindle a trusting relationship with its customers, been proud to price aggressively on occasions when performance fell short and perhaps most crucially, make the most of the sizeable, succulent bone it was already holding.
A Parting Prophecy
Why seek dominance within false democracies? What control is procured with support from the common man when both he and those who covet his approval are themselves governed by one supreme entity? Technology. What journalist could function without a “surface” to scribble on. Is there a Blogger or a Vlogger content to convey their relentless narcissism through a natural means and with such ancient tools as pens, paints or paper pads? What cagey politician can resist the decadent lifestyle of a contemporary cyber-socialite and sinking into their sordid realm of sneering insults and shameless self-promotion. It is on my power their dreams depend and with miracles that I make them a virtual reality. Behold how Water becomes silicon and gaze in humble gratitude upon my Five Great Lakes!