Continued:

With rosy numbers, robust growth and good press (largely due to their excellent products and legal case), life has been healthy at AMD. They, however, were not too keen on resting on their laurels and decided to give us one last bit before the festive season and that was a partnership with one of the top selling computer manufacturers in the world, Dell.

The fact that Dell, for the first time ever, will be bundling any processor other than Intel in its product category lays testimony to the fact about just how tight and precarious Intel’s position is today. Dell has been forced to bundle the products, as I really don’t think they would’ve done it unless AMD subpoenaed their top executives.

There are two very important points to note here. The first is that AMD is better not only in the desktop market, but also in the server space. AMD will also beat Intel when it comes to putting in first dual-core, 64-bit chips in notebook computers. AMD already has 64-bit Turion mobile chips for notebooks while Intel does not even have a competing product in this category (maybe Pentium M, but it’s not 64-bit).

The second thing about the whole AMD vs. Intel battle is that for the first time, Intel is unable to respond. AMD threw down the gauntlet when it challenged Intel to an Opteron duel. Not only did Intel not comment on it, but it also chose to completely ignore it. This would’ve worked fine if everyone believed that Intel makes better products, but we know for a fact that its been more than a year since we have had AMD leading the processor market, at least in terms of efficient architecture and at a comparatively valued price point. Intel is not participating because it simply does not have the muscle right now.

The final thing that AMD has going for is the enthusiast community, including the press. The hardware press has been giving most of AMD’s processors some pretty rave reviews, thereby making them more desirable to those who go just by the recommendations.

It seems AMD has hit a golden patch and is all set to take even more market share from Intel. Whether or not it is able to do so depends on a multitude of factors, but as of now, all we can do is wait and watch.