AMD stock rises amid buzz for new 64-bit chips
Reuters, 08.18.03, 10:08 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shares shot up 8 percent in early trade on Monday following bullish projections from influential technology strategist Fred Hickey on AMD's new line of 64-bit microchips, the Opteron and Athlon64.
AMD, a distant second to Intel Corp. in the business of making microprocessors, the brains of computers, has already signed up International Buiness Machines Corp. as a user of its new line of Opteron chips, and Hickey told Barron's he expects Sun Microsystems Inc. to use the chips as well.
Hickey also said he expects major PC manufacturers to use AMD's new Athlon64 line of chips for desktop computers. The Opteron and Athlon64 chips can run today's software, which is written for 32-bit computers, as well as applications for 64-bit computers.
The new chips are "the most significant threat Intel has ever faced," Hickey told the financial weekly Barron's.
A 64-bit processor can crunch numbers more powerfully than a 32-bit chip, the standard for personal computers, and accommodate far more computer memory.
Shares of Sunnyvale, California-based AMD rose 64 cents, or 8 percent, to $8.44 on the New York Stock Exchange. Intel shares were up less than 1 percent, rising 23 cents to $25.28.
Opteron chips will be used to build the fastest supercomputer in China as well as a supercomputer that will monitor the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons. But the Opteron has yet to garner any definitive support from most of the largest computer makers, such as Dell Inc. or Hewlett-Packard Co.
Intel's Itanium 2 brand of 64-bit microchips for business computers are used by many of the major computer makers. Intel has said it does not expect home computer users to require 64-bit chips for several years.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service |
