Top Ten Reasons Why Intel Delayed Announcing the P5

by Paul Israel

• 10. Ad managers wanted time to think up a better name for “MESI” cache coherency.
• 9. Hoped to outfox AMD this time by waiting for them to release their “P5” first.
• 8. Still trying to figure out how to mount a 3 foot high cooling tower on a 2 square package.
• 7. Marketing's prediction that all of IBM's top executives would be killed by space aliens, followed by IBM engineering's insistence on a return to an Intel strategy, did not appear to pan out.
• 6. Sales force needs to be retrained to sell a processor that doesn't end in “86.”
• 5. Can never seem to squeeze in enough byte enables.
• 4. Military insisted at the last minute on 8080 compatibility mode.
• 3. New “Break on stupid code” exception not popular with programmers.
• 2. All those millions of dollars in processor R&D were cutting into the CEO's Christmas bonus.
• 1. Needed to hire more lawyers first.

Original email