AMD cuts prices on its desktop CPUs
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In its ongoing battle with rival Intel, AMD announced the latest round of desktop CPU price cuts today. Check out this and other original content on CNET's blog network.
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AMD got some much-needed good news this week when Gateway announced that it's trading in Intel chips for AMD Phenom quad-core processors in two new high-end desktop machines.Gateway, which has been mostly an Intel-only company for years, unveiled Wednesday AMD-based GM and GT series desktop systems. And for a microprocessor company that has been struggling with missed shipment dates, financial woes and a slide in mind share, this is welcome news, according to industry analysts."This is very positive for AMD," said Dean Freeman, an analyst at Gartner. "Almost any wins are good news for AMD at this time. AMD has been beaten down pretty hard lately, and this says someone thinks enough of them still to put their chips in their systems."Focusing on "media-hungry users", the new Gateway GM5664 desktop is geared toward gamers and users interested in video editing or watching live TV online. Available at U.S. retailers for $1,149.99, the computer also sports a "Hybrid-SuperMulti" optical drive that reportedly can read both HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies as well as read and burn CDs and standard-def DVDs.The Gateway GT5662, which prices in at $749.99, is a multimedia lite machine. This desktop uses the lower power AMD Phenom quad-core 9500 proccessor, a 500GB hard drive, and its own SuperMulti drive to enable users to burn content onto DVDs or CDs.Both Freeman and Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64, noted that by getting some AMD processors into the mix, Gateway is able to buy some of its chips for a lot less cash. "This allows Gateway to go ahead and lower margins or offer lower prices for customers," said Freeman. "Gateway is looking to make strategic moves to increase profitability."Having Gateway buy into its quad-core family isn't going to put AMD back on top by any means, noted Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata. "No specific OEM, especially a second-tier one, is going to change AMD's market position dramatically," he added. "That said, this is how companies need to build their market position -- one win at a time, whether big or small."
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(InfoWorld) - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) began selling its top chip for desktop PCs made with a 65-nanometer design on Tuesday, continuing its efforts toÂ keep up with IntelÂ as the industry migrates from 90nm design to a faster, more efficient generation of processors. By manufacturing its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 chip on the smaller geometry, AMD will be able to increase manufacturing output while improving the chips' performance and power efficiency, said Jack Huynh, a market development manager for AMD. Some PC vendors are selling the new chip in computers already, and by the first quarter of 2007 that list will include Acer, Dell, Founder Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Packard Bell, and Tsinghua Tongfang Co., according to AMD. The move to 65nm manufacturing is crucial for AMD as the company strives to keep up with aÂ flurry of new processors from Intel. Intel had a rough year in 2006, losing ground to AMD in market share, but has rallied in recent months. The companyÂ launched its Core 2 Duo familyÂ of desktop chips in July and itsÂ quad-core Core 2 Extreme in November. Intel switched its chip manufacturing plants to a smaller architecture months ago, and already sells more 65nm chips than 90nm chips. A chip made with 65nm process technology has smaller features -- such as transistors and the wires that connect them -- than a chip made with 90nm technology, said Rob Willoner, a technology analyst with Intel's technology and manufacturing group. That progression is the engine that drives Moore's Law, the prediction that the number of processors on a microprocessor will double every 18 months. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, meaning that the wires on 65nm design chips are far slimmer than human hairs. Minuscule as that is, chip vendors already have plans to shrink the parts even smaller.Â Intel has already announced plansÂ to use chip features of 45nm by 2007, 32nm by 2009 and 22nm by 2011. As chip features continue to shrink, engineers struggle harder to take each new step. But as long as customers demand smaller, more efficient computers, there's plenty of economic incentive for the process to continue, he said. "There's bound to be an end at some point, but we can't see it yet," Willoner said. "At one point, people said it was 1 micron, which is 1,000nm, but the industry passed that without blinking about a decade ago. Now some people are saying it's 5nm. I don't see it happening before 2020 or 2025, and by then we could have radically different technologies to compensate." AMD chose to apply the new "Rev G" 65nm design to its high-end, dual-core desktop chip first because the company's midrange, single-core Athlon and Sempron chips are already fairly efficient, running at 62 watts using a 90nm design, said AMD's Huynh. The Athlon 64 X2 operated at a high 110 watts when it was first launched in June 2005, but this migration will bring it down to just 65 watts, he said. AMD will continue to produce both 90nm and 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chips until it phases the larger-design chips out completely by the second half of 2007. Next, AMD plans to apply the 65nm design to its single-core Athlon and Sempron chips, shrinking them by the end of 2007. And the company has already begun work on the next step, shrinking its chips to a 45nm design, although AMD did not give a specific date for that goal. AMD is selling the 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chips at prices of $301 for a 2.6GHz 5000-series chip, $271 for the 2.5GHz 4800 series, $214 for the 2.3GHz 4400 series, and $169 for the 2.1GHz 4000 series, all priced in lots of 1,000. Â
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Intel is moving to reduce its chip inventory and make way for new products by deeply discounting some of its Pentium 4 and Itanium processors.
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Blog: AMD announces its quad core server chips will ship in August
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Earlier this week, AMD's introduction of the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor at the $464 suggested price point signaled the start of CPU price reductions in its midrange segment. But since that time, pre-order prices for the 6000+ have risen, not fallen; and meanwhile, street prices for Intel CPUs have declined a tick or two, according to Pricewatch.
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Dell has reduced the number of AMD laptops it sells through its Web site, although it's still flogging a range of notebooks based on AMD's Turion chips at retail.
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Intel has rejigged its Pentium 4 processor pricing - hyper-threading desktop models, mobile models and the new Pentium 4 chips with 64-bit extensions have all been cut.
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In a move that was successfully kept secret, for the most part. AMD is making an unprecedented, near-term adjustment to its technology roadmap. As soon as the first half of next year, the company plans to introduce into the desktop CPU market a new line of Phenom triple-core processors, whose architecture was christened with the code-name Toliman just hours ago.
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(InfoWorld) - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has pumped up the performance of its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor and cooled down two single-core Athlon 64 processors. The top-of-the-range AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor is now the 6000+, with a clock speed of 3GHz and 2MB of L2 cache. It sells for $464 in quantities of 1,000 or more. The previous fastest model, the 5600+ with a clock speed of 2.8GHz, now sells for $326 in quantities of 1,000 or more. With its high-performance dual-core systems, AMD hopes to profit from the introduction of Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista, which places greater demands on computing hardware. There's no speed boost for the single-core Athlon 64 processor, but AMD is now manufacturing the 3500+ and 3800+ models using a 65-nanometer production process, reducing the chips' die-size and energy consumption while offering the same computing performance. The latest versions consume 45 watts, compared to 62 watts for the previous generation, in which the smallest features etched on the chips had a spacing of 90nm. The 3500+ sells for $88 in quantities of 1,000 or more, and the 3800+ for $93. The faster dual-core chips will appeal primarily to gaming enthusiasts, and will appear shortly in PCs from Alienware and Voodoo, the gaming PC divisions of Dell and Hewlett-Packard, respectively, said AMD. Fujitsu Siemens Computers (Holding) will use the lower-power processors in its Esprimo enterprise desktop range, which it promotes as an energy-efficient range, the company said. Two weeks ago, AMDÂ introduced new dual-core Opteron processorsÂ for servers that are either faster or consume less power than previous chips. While AMD had begun to pull ahead in the market for low-power server and desktop chips, IntelÂ is fighting back. Last month,Â Intel persuaded Sun MicrosystemsÂ to use its Xeon processors in future servers and workstations based on the x86 architecture. Sun had only used AMD chips in those machines in recent years, and will now use chips from both manufacturers. At the top of the scale, Intel took the lead in the market for quad-core server chips last November, with the launch of its Xeon 5300 series, previously known as Clovertown. AMD won't introduce its range of energy-efficient quad-core server processors, code-named Barcelona, until the middle of this year.
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Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is giving its corporate customers a break, announcing price cuts on hardware ranging from enterprise servers and workstations, to desktops and notebooks for large business and institutional customers.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corp. has cut prices on its computer chips by as much as 35 percent, though analysts on Monday said the cuts were probably unrelated to swelling inventories of the world&#39;s largest chip maker.
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Quiet - someone might notice... AMD has quietly added a pair of top-of-the-line Athlon 64 X2 processors to its public price list. Missing from the list when AMD introduced its 65nm processors on 5 December, the 5400+ and 5600+ have now been added to the line-up. Shhhh, don't mention it - someone might want to buy one...â¦
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The good news, analysts say, is that price cuts will keep the PC market afloat. The bad news is that revenue will decline.
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Advanced Micro Devices significantly reduced prices on its high-end desktop CPUs; mobile chips remain the same.
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Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices  Inc. AMD.N on Tuesday reported a quarterly loss from a  year-earlier profit following a reduced forecast it gave last  week.
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Loved and lost AMD's obsession with top server and PC makers has proved costly. The chip maker claims to have focused on so-called Tier 1 OEMs at the expense of its longtime channel partners and now blames declining channel sales for its expected first quarter revenue miss.â¦