A die shrink is a huge innovation. It's the culmination of years of R&D and numerous process breakthroughs. It's why AMD took time out of their day to piss on Intel's 32nm parade with their own 28nm GPU parade.

But Intel didn't just shrink the die from Conroe to Penryn. Clock for clock, Penryn is 10-15% faster than its predecessor. AMD heralds clock-for-clock improvements in evolutionary chips like the Phenom II as well.

Call it innovation or call it robbing, but Intel is winning with it. AMD isn't.

Regarding hyperthreading: It's an incredible idea. Really. It's truly brilliant. It's just a damn shame that it had a poor introduction because Netburst was awfulbad.