Overheard at the Platform Conference in San Jose:

"Intel and Rambus? It's like a marriage gone bad, but the pre-nuptials stop 'em getting a divorce."

After Transmeta showed a hapless Pentium III getting roasted in the cause of scientific research, the question had to be asked: "How many P3s have you blown up?"
Transmeta: "Didn't you see the blip in Intel's stock price when we bought them all?"

"AMD has really got Intel worried with 3dNow – it's much better than SpeedStep," observed a somewhat confused delegate.

"Rambus - crap."

Intel dude: "So you're from The Register? Why do you have such a down on Intel?"
Reg dude: "We don't. We treat everyone the same."
Intel dude: "So you're an equal opportunity basher?"

And overheard as first prize in the Avnet prize draw was announced: "Who the hell here wants to win a computer, for Chrissakes?"

Kimball Brown, a VP at ServerWorks and previously an analyst with Dataquest: "People often ask me what the difference is between being an analyst and working in the industry. I always tell 'em now I actually know what's going on."

There must have been at least 30 Intel folks at the conference, but not a single speaker. One can only assume they were all on an intel mission to find out what was going on in the real world.

"If it wasn't for us, the fastest processor you could buy today would be 800MHz and cost $1,200," offered AMD's ever-modest Steve Polzin. ®