AMD and Intel computer server share partnership news

SAN FRANCISCO The battle between Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc for server market share heated up on Monday with AMD's release of a six-core Opteron server processor codenamed "Istanbul". But AMD's celebration may be short-lived: Intel is due to launch its own eight-core Nehalem EX chip in the first quarter of 2010. AMD, which gained server market share when it launched its Opteron family of processors six years ago, has struggled to maintain an edge since its much larger competitor released its own 64-bit processor in 2004.


Intel is hard to beat on performance benchmarks and has developed a technique that allows each core to handle multiple instructions at once -- something AMD has not done -- and says is not always useful, Kanter added. Intel and AMD have clashed in past years over performance and price, and squeezing as many "cores", or processors, into a single microprocessor has been one way to boost benchmarks.

Intel now supplies about 89 percent of so-called x86 server chips worldwide, while AMD supplies the remaining 11 percent. Intel had dominated the server chip market, with a greater than 95 percent market share in the early part of the decade, Rau said. But AMD gained traction with the 2003 introduction of the Opteron and hit its highest market share - just under 26 percent - in the second quarter of 2006.

Its market share was cut in half a year later, as Intel switched to its Core architecture, and that loss was compounded when AMD was late with its Barcelona chip in 2008. "Nehalem EX and Nehalem EP are extending our leadership in the server market and we are very confident of maintaining that platform leadership," said Intel spokesperson Nick Knupffer.


Intel and AMD are battling over a shrinking market. The x86 server chip market was worth $5.7 billion in 2008 but is expected to decline 22 percent to $4.45 billion in 2009, according to research house IDC.Server shipments slid 26.5 percent in 2009's first quarter, the worst three months on record, but should begin to improve in the second half and recover in 2010, IDC said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5510EU20090602