One in five PCs - and one in four desktops - now has AMD Inside, according to analysts at Mercury Research. The silicon contender saw the strongest growth in the server market, climbing from 12.7 per cent in Q3 2005 to 16.4 per cent in the final quarter of 2005.

Desktop share climbed from 20.4 per cent to 24.3 per cent, while AMD took 15.4 per cent of the mobile market, up from 12.2 per cent.

Overall, AMD's share grew from 17.7 per cent to 21.4 per cent in the final quarter, a 78 per cent year-on-year increase.

AMD pointed to design wins for its low-power Athlon 64 mobile chips, as well as continuing interest in its Opteron server processor.

Last week, Intel reported missing its sales target for Q4, blaming "lower than expected desktop processor unit shipments and prices".

AMD's numbers were depressed by its Flash memory division - now a spin-out as Spansion - but its chip business added 48 per cent more revenue in the year and trebled the company's net income. ®