[citation][nom]Daggs[/nom]mmm let see, first to get 64 bit desktop cpu out, first to get true quads (intel's first are two dual ducted taped along side) without amd, your current line of cpus would have been in the best case second generation pentium 4...until next survey, the world's 3 strongest computers are amd based...so your right, amd has stole all of it's breakthroughs...[/citation]
Native quad core isn't exactly a breakthrough. It's more of a logical next step in multicore. Owning the three top super computers isn't exactly a breakthrough. It just means the computer architects are good at what they do. Processor type is only one criteria in this design. While this does suggest AMD has a very good product, I'm not seeing the breakthrough here. However, there are plenty of breakthroughs that AMD does have.
1) AMD64 - AMD wasn't the first to 64bit computing out, but they did do it in such a way that the existing x86 software library wouldn't become instantaneously unusable. This is a breakthrough of sorts. Intel license this as EMT64, but they were not alone in their belief that the consumer market would be better off with a new (read not x86) architecture. However, the majority has spoken and IA64 has been relegated to specialized professional applications.
2) IMC - AMD was the first out with an integrated memory controller. The fact that Intel later embraced this advancement speaks to its significance.
3) Hyper transport - AMD wasn't inventor of this technology, but rather part of the group that specified it. Nonetheless, using it to supplant the aging front side bus was noteworthy. Intel's QPI is an ill conceived knock off of HT. It has a single improvement over HT that saves it a hop of latency in relatively small number of situations, but apparently Intel missed something in implementation making multiprocessor motherboards scale less than optimally (WashU case study). Further, there was nothing but pride preventing them from using HT in the first place. Well, I suppose there are interoperability concerns, but that's a complicated topic.
4) There are more, but I think this gets the point across nicely.
On the other hand, Intel has a number of firsts as well.
1) MMX - more of a clever trick than a breakthrough, but still somewhat significant.
2) SMT - Symmetric multithreading wasn't exactly Intel's pet project, but they did use it to good effect in the P4 line and made major improvements to it in the Core i7 line. They renamed it hyper-threading to make it sound new.
3) Powergating - rater than develop a more expensive fabrication process like silicon on insulator SOI, Intel chose the use of powergating as a major mechanism to get their leakage currents under control. While far from the only mechanism in use, powergating is in large part responsible for the ability of Intel's latest processors to shutdown unused cores and overclock the others. If powergating hadn't been developed to the point it is, shutting down a core wouldn't save enough of a power/thermal envelop for Intel to be comfortable overclocking the others.
4) Again, further examples are available, but unnecessary.