I wasted most of today powering up at the Renaissance Harbourside hotel in downtown Vancouver with AMD and Microsoft. The invite told me that I’ll be able to experience software and hardware solutions from AMD’s latest quad core processors and chipsets to Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Home Server and OneCare. And they’ll throw in a free lunch as well. I just can’t seem to say no to food.
The all day event is like a combination trade show and information session. Representatives from both AMD and Microsoft were there to teach why their products are the best and why you should be using and selling them. The event was designed for system builders and has a heavy OEM and resellers bent to it. While they talked about the technology behind their products, a lot of time was also spent on maximizing revenue from your customers by up-selling them to technology they may not need.
It’s The World’s First But It’s Not The Fastest
AMD bills their new Phenom processor as the world’s first true quad core CPU. Their reasoning behind this was Intel’s quad core CPU isn’t really quad core, it’s just two dual core stuck together. You can spin it however you want but it doesn’t change the fact that AMD’s quad core is slower than Intel’s quad core (or dual dual-core as AMD calls it).
The Mini Trade Show
While the main sponsors of the event were AMD and Microsoft, a bunch of smaller companies were there to show off their stuff in the demo room. I got a chance to catch up with friends from ECS, Kingston Technology, Sapphire and Seagate. I’m sure I’ll see them all again at the 2008 CES in Las Vegas.
Admiring The View
The Renaissance Harbourside hotel offers a really nice view of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour. The Harbour is a very busy seaway. There are sea planes and giant cruise ships going in and out of the harbour all the time.
The Coolest Lanyard In The World
This has to be the coolest name tag holder in the world. It’s a lanyard with an integrated 1GB USB flash drive with Ready Boost. A free lanyard went to the first 200 attendees but, being the evil one, I managed to snare two. If you want a chance to win the extra one, just reply to this post. I’ll draw the winner this Friday. Good luck.