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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Engel who wrote (136682)	6/5/2001 5:34:18 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

AMD unveils speedy Athlon server processors BY DUNCAN MARTELL SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Tuesday announced two new Athlon chips and a chipset as Intel Corp.'s main rival in microprocessors seeks to gain a foothold in the lucrative computer-server market. With the introduction of the Athlon two years ago -- the first time AMD had a processor that matched Intel's toe-to-toe on performance -- the company is now seeking to gain market share not only in desktop personal computers, but also to mark gains in its new markets of notebooks, servers and workstations. The chips announced on Tuesday -- the Athlon MP processors running at speeds of 1 gigahertz and 1.2 gigahertz -- coupled with the AMD-760 MP chipset give AMD an advantage against its larger rival Intel, analysts said, because on certain performance benchmarks, AMD's new chips best Intel's current offerings and are less expensive. The two processors, for now, are designed for the entry-level server market, which contain one or two chips per server and typically cost $6,000 or less. AMD's performance lead may be short-lived, however. Intel said on May 21 that its new Xeon chips, using the Pentium 4 core, running at 1.7 gigahertz will be available by the end of the second quarter, though they will still be more expensive -- by about $130 -- than AMD's Athlon offerings. ``If they continue to execute as well as they have over the past two years, their reputation will extend and allow them to sell into these new segments,'' said analyst Nathan Brookwood of market researcher Insight64, Saratoga, Calif. ``But that takes a while.'' Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said that, in quantities of 1,000, its 1.2 gigahertz Athlon MP processors will sell for $265 while its 1 gigahertz Athlon MP chip will sell for $215. The Athlon MP chip also boasts some 52 new instructions that help boost floating-point performance, which is one measure of gauging a processor's ability to crunch data. Better floating-point performance means a faster delivery of multimedia files and also decreases the time required for a workstation or system to render complex designs of rockets, aerodynamic performance and other number-intensive applications, for example. ``This is the first and fundamental step into the server market,'' said Bob Mitton, a marketing manager in AMD's server and workstation group, in an interview. ``This is where the full-court press starts.'' While AMD said that more than 20 different computer makers will be selling workstations and servers based on the chip starting immediately, the biggest PC makers -- such as International Business Machines Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Gateway Inc. -- were absent from the list. ``There wasn't a household name on that list, which is really disappointing,'' Brookwood said. ``But then, when they announced the Athlon two years ago, they didn't have any household names on that list, either.'' Now, H-P, Gateway and others sell PCs using the Athlon chip. Dell Computer Corp., the world's biggest PC maker, remains the lone hold-out. Eventually, though, Brookwood said he expects major PC makers, such as IBM, Compaq and H-P, to start buying AMD chips for use in their entry-level servers. ``This is a stage AMD needs to go through to build some credibility'' in a market where they haven't yet participated Brookwood said.