AMD still seeing red

Advanced Micro Devices is creeping back toward the black with a second quarter that showed improved revenue and a smaller net loss than last year.

AMD reported revenue of $645 million for the quarter ended June 29. This marks a 7 percent increase over the $600 million reported in the same quarter a year ago.

AMD's net loss narrowed to $140 million in its most recent quarter versus a loss of $185 million in last year's Q2.

"We are pleased we lowered our operating breakeven point to below $800 million and continued to realize improvements that better position us for growth and a return to profitability," said Robert Rivet, chief financial officer at AMD, in a statement.

Like rival Intel, AMD saw PC processor sales increase during its second quarter. AMD's chip sales jumped 7 percent year-on-year to $402 million.

Unlike Intel, however, the PC sales did not come in as high as AMD had hoped earlier in the quarter. The company recently warned that sales would come in lower as Asia and Europe sagged.

AMD said demand for the 64bit Opteron server chip is "tremendous." This news seems a tad hard to swallow given the rumors that main Opteron server maker Newisys may be acquired after but a short run in the hardware business.

Memory sales rose 20 percent year-on-year to $211 million, as North America and Europe made up for weak demand in Asia.

AMD has a tough road ahead and its x86-64bit server and PC chips will be key to bringing the chip maker back into the black. Shares of AMD were flat in after-hours trading, at the time of this report. ®