Since this is my first post and don't want it coming out later and having people question my motives I am going to say the following. I work for Intel, in no way shape or form do I speak for Intel. The following is my personal opinion only and does not reflect the opinions of anyone other than me.
OK, having said that, I can, with all honesty, say I have never seen a single thing within Intel which would suggest they want AMD to go out of business. In fact, I have specifically heard(and believe) comments that having a real competitor in AMD is making us a better company. The fact that for many recent years Intel was complacent and executed very poorly while a great competitor executed crisply really stung many of us. We love competition, even internally, and it is well understood we simply did not execute well for many years. So what now? Intel has definitely turned the corner regarding ability to execute(3 years ago we couldn't decide our way out of a paper bag) and begun to operate effectively again. I only say effectively because the company is still not hitting on all 8 Cylinders (I'd personally say it is at 5 or six cylinders).
Did I begrudge AMD when they clearly had the best processors and drove Intel ASP's down? No. We are in competition and they won the round (quite a few rounds actually). Maybe Intel one the recent round, but I have no doubt that AMD will hit back with a great product and take the lead again at some point. Companies are very much like people...there are times when they seem unstoppable, but inevitably they stumble, or the competition comes up with a technology shifting product that changes the landscape. And then the cycle starts over again. I know it is very easy to get caught up in what is happening at any given time, but if people take a step back and look at technology historically you will see, there is almost always great competition, technology advances can quickly change the playing field, and what makes great companies great is their ability to adjust to those changes (and yes, I consider both AMD and Intel great companies).
hognose