If Dell ever starts using the AMD Athlon in its machines, then that would be a mighty blow for Intel. There are rumours spreading like wildfire through the UK industry that Dell is just about to take such a step, which would really be an unprecedented move for the direct vendor, acting, as it does, like an Intel distributor. What seems likely to us is that Dell will not do an Athlon machine, but it is disseminating the rumour itself just to let its long-time buddy that it's somewhat unhappy with the last six months of their deep and intimate relationship. Nothing's impossible in this business so it's quite possible that the Dell domino might fall to AMD. The reasons why it just might are the same reasons that have persuaded Gateway and Fujitsu Siemens to adopt the chip. Those reasons are all to do with a shortage of Coppermine chips, a shortage of good, fast motherboards (Caminogate), and the fact that in the top selling season, it's pretty important to have machines for the power-mad souls who will pay additional margin for a PC that will sock it to the games they want to run. Dell, too, may have its eyes on the future. We know that AMD can pull a 1GHz .18 Athlon out of its pocket as early as January, if it so wishes. And we understand that AMD can do a 1.2GHz copper interconnect Athlon just a few weeks later. Sources close to AMD here in the UK tell The Register that it is very unlikely indeed that Dell will do an Athlon, although the hardware sites have run riot with these rumours for several weeks too. ® See also How Dell is really an Intel distributor