actually, the hammer will be cheaper to fab then the current modified (overclocked) barton core chips, i.e xp 2800, 3000, and etc..... for the most part the cost is factored in on how many cpu's fab facilities can crank out in one standard eight or ten inch Si wafer. Supposedly , AMD can crank out more Hammer processors on a standard size wafer then they can of the Barton core line. The more then can make on one standard wafer the less the price will be. Obviously with it being new to the market it will be pricey, but not as high as most of you think. The only chip that can possibly compete with the Hammer ( though it would lose bad) is the Xeon by Intel. but at 2K+ per pop, who the hell wants to buy that shit. Supposedly, after doing some research, AMD is looking to sell the Hammers at first market price any where from 500 to 700 US dollars a pop, but there has been speculation of it being cheaper then 500. So lets all cross our fingers and hope. This chip will be an animators dream, or graphics artist dream, how ever you tend to look at, and it will be Intel's nightmare.

Lets hope for the best


Regards,

Andrew