[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Let's wait and see shall we?That's like sayig "There's no way Athlon 64's will be able to match anything in the Pentium 4 line"And we all know how that fight finished don't we?[/citation]
I'm never fond of anyone using absolutes, but AMD will probably not be able to match Intel. They passed the Pentium 4 because it was a chip that was designed badly, without taking into account thermal limitations (because they had not run into them before). It was also made to sound fast due to crazy clock speeds.
Neither of those are issues with Intel anymore. And let's face it, the Pentium 4 was WAY more advanced than the Athlon 64, but luckily, the flaws prevented it from beating the Athlon in most benchmarks.
The reality is, though, AMD doesn't have to match Intel in performance. Sandy Bridge doesn't look that great, and even if AMD get cut the gap by 60% or so, that changes the whole dynamic of it. I think they can get even closer than that, but the big problem is Intel's manufacturing, which is ALWAYS better than AMDs. That's what kept them in the game with the lousy Pentium 4.
I hope AMD keeps the size of the chip small too. It's OK not to match them in performance, if their chip is smaller and cheaper to make. I hope that's where they end up - it's a good place.