AMD cuts prices on many chips

Advanced Micro Devices cut the prices on a wide variety of processors on Monday as it gears up for back-to-school buying.

The cuts come on Opteron server chips, Turion and Sempron notebook chips, and the single- and dual-core Athlon processors, as well as the budget Sempron line. The cuts range in size from 34.5 percent on the Opteron 152 ($417 from $637) to 10 percent on the Athlon 64 X2 ($902 from $1,001). The Athlon 64 400+ dropped from $482 to $375, while the Turion 64 ML-40 dropped from $525 to $354.

The new prices can be found on AMD's Web site.

Intel cut the price on its mobile processors and parts on Monday.

The two rivals have often cut prices on the same day. Years ago, setting pricing was easy for AMD. The company would obtain a copy of Intel's new price sheet and cut 25 percent, according to former employees at AMD.

The task, though, has become more complicated by virtue of the stratification of the product lines at both companies. Six years ago, AMD actively sold only a few different chips at any given time. The current price list identified 93 different chips. Intel has seen a similar explosion in models.

The PC industry and chipmakers are both gearing up for the back-to-school season, the second most busy for PC makers. So far, 2004 is shaping up to be a promising one for the industry. PC shipments exceeded expectations in the second quarter, although some of the potential gain was sapped by price cuts.

AMD also saw its market share in servers rise to 11.2 percent, marking the first time the company surpassed the 10 percent milestone.