Quickie On Bulldozer Threads

Here's a brief missive about the upcoming Bulldozer line of AMD APUs:

At this point, AMD is staying silent on an official basis regarding the performance, potential capabilities, overclocking prowess, pricing, and any and all other information regarding Bulldozer. Perhaps as a consequence, performance computing websites and forums everywhere are alive with speculation and conjecture regarding AMD's upcoming offerings.

Speaking purely for myself (and not necessarily as OCN's AMD section editor), I find the spread of rumors, conjecture, and speculation to be tiresome and utterly useless. If there's a type of discussion thread on any forum that I find myself feeling a strong aversion against, it's discussions of a product that isn't yet available.

Here's my biggest problem: All the discussions do is 1) inflame both sides of the Bulldozer question, both pro- and against-, which makes for a fine explosive recipe for flame wars, troll posts, and other unsavory elements on the forums, and 2) speculations and rumors only obfuscate whatever the true facts are going to be.

There are sadly too many people who are all too willing to take rumors as fact and run with them in an environment where there is a definite vacuum of information. All too often, even after a so-called leaked fact about a yet-to-be-released product has been completely exposed as incorrect, there will still be people who cite this incorrect information. It feeds a vicious cycle of the worst kind; misinformation breeds more misinformation, making it far more difficult to correct when actual and factual data becomes available.

I therefore implore all of OCN, especially those most interested in Bulldozer, to simply just refrain from spreading rumors, speculations, or even just your desires regarding Bulldozer and its performance as it stacks up against Intel's best. From what I can see, Bulldozer-themed threads are just fuel for people who can't resist to stir up trouble. Fanboys from both sides just cannot resist such tasty bait.

I think it's fair to say that we're all getting anxious for Bulldozer to break through the wall and see a firm release date. Tom Petty sang that "the waiting is the hardest part." And so it is, when it comes to AMD's latest.

All waits come to an eventual end. It won't be too long before Bulldozer lands in the hands of those who are just itching to buy it.

I just wish people would stop publicly discussing rumors and conjecture as if they were fact and simply wait until Bulldozer is finally available.

It won't be too long from now.