And don't hold your breathe. A 6 month off announcement is a marketing ploy to scare Intel into selling Dell their new generation Server chips cheaper. And I bet it works!

If Dell was serious about this they would be taking orders now for June delivery.

The window to break into the AMD server market is now while AMD still has an edge. If the new Intel chips are as good as publicized (and ship on time) there is no reason to offer Opteron based servers at year end.

Either:
1)Dell is bluffing to improve pricing

2) Something hit the fan at Intel and the new server chips will be significantly late

3)Dell is bluffing to trick it's customers into holding off buying HP servers until the end of the year when it can offer competitively priced and performing Intel based servers.

Let's see if the grumpy old fart is right on this one. I expect to be inundated with "I told you so's" if Dell actually ships Opteron servers this year so save them up for me.

]Yes, why don't you apply for a job at dell and do all their engineering and get all samples and components approved by June.

I am sure Michael and Kevin would love your dilligence on a new product class being built essentially from scratch

Well, that was a rediculous statement. Dell's R&D dept. has a line of current prototype AMD machines sitting on the shelf at all times.

That is how you beat down suppliers. Show them a working prototype and tell them if the pricing isn't acceptable they will force you into marketing it.

I do it all the time.

If the prototype demo doesn't work then you turn on the factory sample line. If that doesn't work you kiss the old supplier goodbye and go into full production.

I can get production run PCBs in 2 weeks using the prototype artwork, populate the parts and have then tested in 3 weeks. Then you start sampling in the 4th week to your preferred customers. The CPU and bridge chip are the only non-standard part and I'll bet AMD would be happy to shuffle it's supply chain a little to get Dell on board.

There is not really any custom engineering involved. The servers have to run the same old bios, operating system, software and hardware that everyone elses machines do.

That leaves little leeway for optimizations. Of course you can still roll in those non-standard proprietary touches that OEMs are so proud of to force sole source buying.

Sorry Michael and Kevin didn't bother to bring you up to speed on how the corporate office works. Announcements are for leverage. Deliveries are for reality.

Sadly the entire computer industry has turned to using "pre-announcements and leaks" to try and drive the market before product is ready. And it is working. The PC industry is currently in a recession because sufficient numbers of people are holding off non-critical purchases waiting to see if last years announcements produce products as good as claimed.