X-bit labs

Annual Hardware Overview: A Glance Back at the Year 2003 (page 5)

Category: Editorial

by Andy Yaschenko

[ 01/08/2004 | 11:51 PM ]

It is the opposite end where Intel meets no competition (at least, from AMD) – miniature processors for smart-phones and PDAs. The XScale has grown mature and in the beginning of 2003 Intel announced its abandoning the oldie StrongARM SA-1110 it had received from DEC. This processor seemed quite a piece of antiquity against the Manitoba – XScale with its integrated flash and DSP, raised to conquer the smart-phone processor market. The Manitoba is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2004, so we have to wait just a little. Still, it is good that there is something to wait for. For example, there is no hope left for AMD’s Au1100, since there appeared not a single PDA model on this processor.

Now that we have discussed the positions of the two companies in the market and sorted out their product lines, it’s time we summed up the information in numbers.

Intel

The fall of 2003 is most remarkable as Intel’s processor, chipset and mainboard departments reported record-breaking results. The company said that this was mostly due to the growing markets in Russia, India and China.

AMD

In the end of 2002 AMD underwent serious restructuring (its cost accounts for the high loss), but its effects told quickly on the company’s profits. The launch of the Athlon 64 in the fall, and the Opteron’s success helped AMD to see some quarter profit.

I guess there is no need to draw graphs as AMD’s share of the x86 processor market increased by 2% only in 2003 (but it increased anyway!), but I will present you the rankings as of the fall 2003:

In the end of 2001, however, AMD had 18% of the x86 processor market. I think Athlon 64 may help the company to regain their position.