Dell has asked AMD to send it more than 3m desktop and notebook microprocessors, a number of financial analysts have separately claimed. The total is split down the middle between desktop and notebook CPUs, and represents Dell's demand through to the end of the year.

The desktop figure comes from Bank of America, which last week told investors it believes the PC giant has requested 1-1.2m desktop processors and a further 800,000 mobile chips. Soon after, Citigroup Research said it believes Dell has ordered the best part of 2m notebook processors alone.

The Citigroup reports points to AMD-based Dell notebooks arriving in September, with the first two models being joined by two more in October, doubling shipments to 400,000-600,000 a month for October, November and December.

The upshot: Dell will have shipped 1.2-1.8m AMD-based notebooks in Q4, and 1.4-2.0m for the year as a whole - ie. Q4 plus September. However many AMD-based notebooks Dell ships, half of them will be new sales for AMD, the rest will be balanced by reduced sales to AMD's other customers, the researcher forecast.

The new sales will push AMD's mobile processor shipment up 30 per cent quarter on quarter, Citigroup predicted.

BoA's forecast of 800,000 AMD-made notebook CPUs represents 18-19 per cent of Dell's total notebook shipments, the bank said, which points to 4.2-4.4m Dell mobile shipments from September through to December. If Citigroup's number is correct, that means AMD could actually have won up to 47.6 per cent of Dell's notebook business. ®