What’s in a name: AMD vs. Intel

My “I bought a laptop” post seems to be drawing a lot of hits from an AMD message board this morning, so I want to follow up with a comment.

One of my main concerns in buying a new computer was making sure it could run the new 64-bit Windows that is supposed to be coming out by the end of 2006. So I started researching Intel processors – will they be able to run it or not? Couldn’t find anyplace on the web that simply says, yes, this chip will be able to run it, or no, this chip won’t. After an hour of reading, I think their dual-core chips will be able to run 64-bit Windows, and I think their Pentium M chips won’t be able to – but I’m still not sure.

AMD, on the other hand, put “64” at the end of all its chips’ names. No doubt they’ll be good to go. That’s a major reason why I went with a laptop with an AMD processor, rather than going for “Intel Inside” as I have in the past.

AMD’s marketing department is smarter than Intel’s marketing department when it comes to naming chips.