I have to agree. Anyone who can go toe to toe with Intel and knock them on their pants (PCI-E vs AGP), deserves some credit. Especially if you go to Intels AGP webpage and they are only talking about PCI-E. Oh wait. We just came full circle. And the answer is - AGP IS dead (strategically anyway).
i know 3 people that still use isa modems,they still make pci video cards, and this sounds a lot like what they said when agp was released. agp is here to stay.
Well, I've said it before, I have a MoBo in a prominent position in my lab that has an ISA slot on it. But Intel OWNS AGP. Intel doesn't own PCI-E. If you go to Intel's AGP website and instead of information about AGP, you find information about PCI-E, its a real good sign that AGP is dead. If you are a new company and you WANT to make an AGP card, you have to struggle just to find the specification from some fringe place that kept it around. I know there are crazies and fringe people (like myself), that's why I added the caveat "strategically anyway". As far as the practicle implementation to the general public goes, AGP is dead. Just because there is some beast in some cave still playing Coleco Vision doesn't mean it is a viable product. Two things will help AGP along to its grave: 1- Unlike PCI and ISA, AGP is a specialized device that has now been superceded. 2- PCI-E also supercedes PCI and before long it will be more expensive to have both PCI and PCI-E. When that happens, PCI will be gone as well. And no, you're not going to impress me if you can find fringe applications for dead equipment. In a cube near me is a 20lb 10MB MFM HD. It's about 1/2 the size of an entire AT desktop case. I use 9 pin DIN keyboards every day. I just happened across a Pentium Pro the other day as well (wait I know someone running a 4 processor Pentium Pro system). Anyway - they are all DEAD things. For AGP, the writing is on the wall, its just a matter of time (depending on the stock piles of AGP parts and AGP cards in warehouses and how fast people buy them out).
4way pentium pro pfft, bow down to my 10mhz 80286 IBM PS1 with 1MB ram and 30MB HDD! with the PSU built into the monitor! it rox0r2 j00r b0x0r2!!!!!!!!111oneoneoneone
I actually remember reading that Intel did play a large part in designing the PCIe standard. But you are entirely correct Intel was solely responsible for AGP and owns everything to do with AGP, and with the sole exception of RDRAM, when Intel decides it wants something to be mainstream or wants something to die away, it does. Heck RDRAM only went as far as it did because of Intel. No other company has as much influence on computer hardware as Intel does. For the most part what Intel wants it gets, they are the microsoft of the hardware industry.
Oh, if you really care to know, I just found more information about this. AMD's official stand is that with the memory controller in the North Bridge, there is no need for anything else traditionally called a chipset in anyway what so-ever. So that is why they aren't making chipsets. Instead, the parts they are making are each directly connected to the CPU - they call it direct connect technology or something. But yeah, based on the new AMD topology, everything can be connected directly to the CPU and the whole idea of NB / SB can be tossed out the door.
Yeah Intel did play a part - how big I don't know, but they can only influence the PCI-SIG. RDRAM=Rimms=RAMBUS? Well, I can tell you this, had they gotten it to work, they would have shoved it down everyone's throat. It might have been nice though - its like the SATA or PCI-E of the memory world.
AGP is going to cease production soon enough. The PCI Express X16 bus allows for SLI and its a higher bandwidth interface. ITs the way of the future honestly; AGP is going the way of ISA because the graphics industry is pushing for it. Hard.
