Risultati finanziari AMD

AMD has published its fourth quarter results, and narrowly missed earnings projections with net revenue down over Q3 2000.

AMD sold 7 million CPUs this quarter, but it's unknown as to how many of each CPU (K6-2, Athlon, Duron) were sold. However, Athlon and Duron sales have increased, both in terms of units and dollars. Meanwhile, K6-2 wafer starts have ceased. The Dresden Fab30 plant is currently at 50% wafer start capacity now and should reach 100% by the end of the year. AMD expects to produce 8 million CPUs this quarter and to sell about 6.5 million, due to expanded production and other factors.

The Duron's marketshare in the US retail sector was 21% in November, and the company expects sales of Duron processors to grow with the introduction of UMA. This year, AMD will introduce Durons at clock rates beyond 1 GHz, with chips at 900 MHz and above by the second quarter and above 1 GHz by the third quarter. These Durons will most likely be Morgan chips (low-end Mustang core), especially in the case of the 1 GHz+ versions.

The Athlon will hit 1.3 GHz this quarter, and all Athlons will be at 1 GHz and up by the end of the quarter. Palomino, the new Athlon based on the Mustang core, is expected to debut this quarter. However, we don't know whether or not the 1.3 GHz Athlon will be a Palomino chip. As you know, the Mustang core is said to reduce power consumption over the current K75, enabling Athlons and Durons to reach higher clock speeds. It is also rumored to incorporate performance-enhancing features such as hardware prefetch, though there has yet to be any confirmation of such rumors. AMD's official line, from the CC, is that Palomino will feature PowerNow! along with some other architectural improvements.

Athlons running at 1.4 GHz and 1.5 GHz will be released during the second quarter. These chips will use the Palomino core. We will see 1.7 GHz Palominos sometime during the second half of the year, but no 2 GHz chips until Clawhammer in 2002. AMD has stated they will migrate to 130nm production during the fourth-quarter of this year, and this is also the process Clawhammer will make its debut on.