AMD whips up sales, whips out boxed chips

Sales reps at AMD are exhorting customers to buy chips before quarter end to help them reach their quotas, in a move reminiscent of the good old days at the Digital Equipment Corporation.

AMD's sales quarter ends on the 30th of this month, and US reps are asking their customers to help the firm along by placing orders for additional quantities of microprocessors, through what seems to be a rapidly growing network of distributors.

At the same time, these distributors now have stocks of AMD Thunderbird boxed processors at 900MHz, which include heatsink, fan, retail packaging, and, according to one reseller, a three year warranty on the parts. The cost of these is typically around $12 or so over CPUs provided in trays, but dealers like the fact that guarantees are included.

Stock of AMD parts continues to be healthy, according to one North American reseller, who also builds machines using boxed Intel parts, when they can be obtained.

The list of North American distributors provided to resellers includes Ingram Micro, Dandh, AV Net, Bell Micro, 4atonce, and in Canada, Supercom.

The sales reps at AMD only earn commission on Athlons and Durons sold through authorised distribution channels. AMD is attempting to curb the sales of overclocked chips, and, earlier this year, faced a problem with some re-marked chips in Australian markets.

Earlier this week, we published a memo that Intel had sent to its resellers and distributors, showing that there was still some tightness on its boxed parts. ®

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