Cash-strapped AMD has given Dell $16,000 to plant trees. That's just $1 for each of the chip maker's $16,000 employees. Well, times are hard for the chip maker at the moment...

The money will go to Dell's Plant a Tree for Me fund, the PC giant's attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of its customers. Launched in January this year, the scheme gives notebook and desktop buyers the chance to donate, respectively, $2 or $6 to pay for this arboreal expansion.

AMD is just the latest chip maker to tout its eco-credentials. In September 2006, Taiwan's VIA said it would contribute to reforestation and carbon removal efforts to balance the carbon produced during the manufacture and usage of its C7-D x86-compatible processor.

Both companies have, like Intel, primarily hung their greenery on moves to reduce the energy consumption of their products. The problem here, though, is that this arguably just encourages the greater use of computer products, cancelling out any gains made through lower power consumption. The world's demand for servers and the client machines to access them shows no sign of abating.

World 'Turn the Computers Off for a Day' Day, anyone?