Of cource MS does WHQL certification (well they never did as far as I know -
it was some 3rd party companie(s)).
There are many factors - all cost benefit related:
1. Cost of time to achieve WHQL
2. Benefit in market of WHQL
3. Customer base not being aware enough of the value of WHQL - tolerance for
crap drivers.
4. Commitment to WHQL - if a driver performance improvement is conceived of
what happens to the WHQL driver? It gets rendered obsolete EG the 3Com one
below.
5. Windows 2003 Server: small deployed market (good product, very few
devices, very few certified devices - try looking for a modem).
Basically, assemblers & resellers should be more picky and send messages to
importers / distributors / manufacturers that crap drivers are not OK, that
WHQL is required. Non certified drivers cost consumers, retail vendors and
service people money. The term needs to be used by consumers, retailers,
suppliers, wholesalers, and importers: "Is it WHQL Certified? NO? Don't want
it then.".
There appears to be an issue where in the US the customer has to RMA.
Elsewhere this is not the case. IE if you buy a product off a retailer in
many countries it is the retailer that is responsible for the "fit for
purpose" aspect of the product. If a product is not fit for purpose (or not
as advertised) in the US then it appears to be a consumer problem due to the
RMA process. Elsewhere the "problem" is more apparent - crap cards get
returned and retailers refuse to stock them because customers return them
and expect (and are entitled to) refunds. Similarly retailers tend to end up
selling products that work reliably...
Recently there has been a lot of stagnation in the market. The top P4 chip
for 2003 was ~3GHz for the whole year. The only "improvement" was 800Mhz FSB
quad pumped... To put it frankly this would have to go down in history as
one of the worst products to get up and running in computing history. So
many bios, memory, and support issues. The costs on assemblers must have
been huge in some countries.
So what should have happened during this period of economic down turn?
1. Reduction in production costs?
2. Improvements in production yields & Improved Reliability?
3. Reduction of heat dissipation in CPU's?
4. Preparing for the future?
What did happen?
1. Probably some of cost reduction for existing products, but the new P4
uses more silicon so costs more.
2. Yields for existing P4 would be as high they are likely to ever be. New
P4 chips: this won't be the case at all.
3. Heat dissipation has gone Up not Down.
4. Introduction of a 30 something stage pipeline leg warmer replacing a 20
or so pipeline stage processor that does Less in the Same GHz!
Intel is heading in the wrong direction!
So, BTX is coming out. Whooppee. This is only likely to mean that new cards,
new drivers, new bios IE heaps of new production overhead for new mobos is
in the works (OK an economic down turn is the best time to do it - if ever)
& the new mobos will offer how much improved performance? How much cheaper
will they be to produce?
So, at the end of the day, Intel has been turning the cart over with
Prescott and bringing out the BTX. Meanwhile AMD plods on.
I am not an AMD fan, but I think Intel is stuffed this time around.
- Tim
