AMD has made inroads into Intel's market share only to see Intel strike back with steep price cuts and faster introduction of new models. AMD has historically trailed Intel as the distant second in the semiconductor industry. Compared to Intel, AMD is financially weaker and does not have the R&D capabilities of its formidable opponent. The major server vendors have lined up to use Intel's chips. Can AMD emerge as David in the war with Goliath?
For more than 30 years, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) had been battling Intel, the leading manufacturer of microprocessors in the world for the top--spot in the semiconductor industry. In 2002, AMD still ranked a distant second in PC microprocessors with a market share of about 15%, far behind Intel's 82.8%1. AMD had made inroads into Intel's market share only to see Intel strike back with steep price cuts and faster introduction of new models. AMD's new product, Opteron marked the company's ambitious foray into 64--bit computing. But Opteron also faced severe competition from Intel's Itanium 2. AMD realized competition with a rival like Intel with deep pockets was not going to be easy.
Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had emerged as a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD manufactured microprocessors, flash memory devices, and silicon--based solutions for communications and networking applications. |
