I suspect so. A lot of the commercial market wants stability. Once I've validated a server config for a particular use, I want to be able to continue building those servers for a long time (often long past obsolescence).
That may seem odd, but a lot of safety-critical applications (e.g. medical, military, aerospace, etc.) require spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars (not to mention months of time) re-validating a system with any substantive change.
Even for less critical applications, spending $2000 extra on each CPU is a bargain compared to re-validating a system.
If AMD wants to be a credible presence in those markets, and I'm pretty sure it does, it needs to chips with many year lifespans before EOL.
Some companies manage this by having a subset of devices or of software which is LTS.
Rather than buying new-old-stock CPUs, why not just buy all the CPUs the long-term program will ever need when they're still cheap, and stockpile them? It's not like they go bad.
There are exceptions of course, but computers are a depreciating asset. You should never buy more computers than you need at any given time, because next year offers better computers for cheaper. Similarly: don't "invest" into a car. They also depreciate.
In contrast: artwork, houses, and a few other goods (Magic: The Gathering cards?) seem to appreciate... or increase in price. These stuff you want to buy before they get more expensive.
Yes, but isn't this exactly one of those exceptions?
You need this exact model of X, Y, and Z, because those have been validated as a working combination through a huge one-time capital expenditure; and changing anything would entail going through that again.
Vendors tend to not mark down prices for components, but rather just sell them for MSRP for as long as they can, and then immediately stop producing the item. The margins on each component were usually thin enough that there's no way to sell the component any cheaper but "make it up in volume." It's either "sell it at the MSRP" or "don't produce it at all."
As such, the only place to get the component after the original vendor ceases production, is the secondary market, e.g. new old stock. This is where you see governments buying old 5.25" floppy disks for huge markups.
In that case, like I said, why not just buy all the 5.25" floppies you'll ever need in advance? They know they'll be using them for 50 years, because that's the decomissioning schedule for the system they just built, and they'll be unlikely to ever get budget to replace/upgrade it before then. They also know how long a floppy lasts in use. So, do the math, buy that many floppies early, and toss them all in an airless vault. Right?
And the same thing would be true here with particular-model CPUs, no?
Old process nodes (such as 130nm process, which is 100x larger than today's 12nm or 7nm processes) are still useful today. They're much cheaper to operate, because all the equipment is old and better understood (while 7nm and even 12nm processes are highly proprietary). Case in point: the Perseverance Rover that just landed on Mars is literally built from the ancient 130nm process. (POWER architecture)
Instead of ordering all the chips you need, you instead want to just ensure that the 130nm (or 45nm process, or 22nm process or whatever) will remain useful for 50 years into the future.
Lets say you base a modern government project (a spaceship, a jet fighter, a naval super carrier, etc. etc) off of a modern 14nm process node today.
1. You can order all the chips you'd "ever need" today, which is expensive today because tons of people are still using 14nm nodes.
2. Alternatively, you can order the company to continue to support the 14nm node for the next 50 years. This seems like the superior option. You order the chips you need later, when you need them. And 10 years from now, people will be on 3nm or maybe even 2nm process, so it'd be cheaper to order 2020-era 14nm chips at that point.
> Rather than buying new-old-stock CPUs, why not just buy all the CPUs the long-term program will ever need when they're still cheap, and stockpile them?
You might not know how many you need. Suppose one of your data centers burns down and has to be replaced or you have triple the expected customer demand.
That may seem odd, but a lot of safety-critical applications (e.g. medical, military, aerospace, etc.) require spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars (not to mention months of time) re-validating a system with any substantive change.
Even for less critical applications, spending $2000 extra on each CPU is a bargain compared to re-validating a system.
If AMD wants to be a credible presence in those markets, and I'm pretty sure it does, it needs to chips with many year lifespans before EOL.
Some companies manage this by having a subset of devices or of software which is LTS.