Intel loves its margin on server chips, too. Check out Itanic prices, and Xeon prices versus desktop P3/P4 prices.

AMD seems a lot more interested in the volume market. I think the desktop market will most likely go x86-64; for one, the Itanic will simply cost too much (die size, heat, and p/s issues).

I don't think the current RISC server chips (SPARC, PowerPC/RS6000) will come down much in price -- or will have problems staying ahead of Itanic at least until Intel merges in Alpha technology.

And, I don't think you're going to see embedded 64-bit chips (e.g. MIPS) have an impact in the desktop market -- unless Linux really takes off in the desktop. Windows ain't going to run on them.

Basically, the PC business is pretty boring now and the excitement is in other areas. I'm more interested in the lastest DSP's than the latest Athlons.

Tony