[liquidgecka]

Sorry it is just not true that Google was AMD exclusive. During that time Google had a I/A release cycle where every other hardware platform cycled between Intel and AMD. I will give you that AMD had a huge issue launching and I still have my "Argo" bag that I got for helping with the hardware qualification trials, but Google was no way AMD exclusive before that.

[the-rc]

You're right. There were also not a lot of AMD boards at first, to the point that services had to prove "Opteron worthiness". Unless your load tests showed improvements of 70% or faster, presumably what the most important products were seeing, you couldn't run on them. Those were the days. The next generation Intel systems weren't a great improvement, but they still ended up being built in large numbers.

[cpeterso]

> Google had a I/A release cycle where every other hardware platform cycled between Intel and AMD.

Was the I/A cycle intended just to keep Intel and AMD on their toes, knowing that Google's data centers and software seamlessly supported both platforms? Was there any technical benefit, other than ensuring Google's software was portable?

[liquidgecka]

There was a delivery benefit. At the time we were one of the largest server manufactures by volume. Generally we were on the same scale as Dell or HP. Buying from only a single vendor had serious cost implications sure, but there was also a pure volume issues. If Intel can't get us 50k of a given chip fast enough we can fill capacity needs with an AMD platform instead. That was the goal at least.