Back in my early days as a technology journalist one of the most common types of story was, what we in the business referred to as, the football results. At the time I was living in London so the sporting metaphor of choice was soccer (American readers are just going to have to live with this).
Things have been a little bland lately, can the race between Intel and AMD help bring back those football result headlines?
We used to talk of home wins (say if Bull won a French government contract from Nixdorf) away wins (usually an American firm beating a European company), no-score draws (where all the tendering companies came away empty-handed) and score draws (shared spoils). In those days there was no such thing as a penalty shoot-out.
A typical headline would have been along the lines of ICL beats Digital Equipment to Ministry of Silly Walks.
As an aside, the three proper nouns in the last sentence give you a good clue about the era we’re talking about here - pretty much prehistoric for most people currently working in the IT business.
These stories were always popular with readers. However, we don’t see them so much these days. Technology companies generally don’t want to brag about sales wins - mainly because they worry about upsetting customers. Customers don't want to talk about them because, well I'm not entirely sure, maybe they worry about tempting fate -- the fear that the gods of technology tend to come down hardest on those who boast the loudest.
Either way, it’s great to see chipmakers Intel and AMD issuing their contrasting quarterly results more or less at the same time. We've got something that looks like a football result.
Intel has had a string of poor quarters; AMD appears to be on a roll. The story is a classic: the bloated stumbling giant getting its comeuppance and a feisty underdog making steady headway. It reminds me of the days when non-league football clubs like Leatherhead would give the (pre-Premier League) First Division clubs a run for their money.
Of course it isn't over yet. Intel could be on the comeback trail with its latest releases.
