Intel, AMD squeeze other x86 chip makers

AMD increased its share of the x86 processor market during Q3 2006, it has emerged. But fanboys hoping AMD's gain came at arch-rival Intel's expense will be disappointed: the chip giant's market share also rose sequentially.

No, it's the lesser players who took the hit during Q3, according to figures posted by market watcher Mercury Research and cited by a variety of newssites.

AMD entered Q4 with 23.3 per cent of the x86 market, up from 22 per cent in Q2, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. Intel's share rose by a higher margin: up 3.1 percentage points to 76.1 per cent. Together they account for 99.4 per cent of the market, leaving VIA and Transmeta to squabble over the remaining 0.6 per cent.

Year on year, AMD did rather well, growing its share from 17.7 per cent in Q3 2005. Intel's share fell year on year, from 80.7 per cent in the year-ago quarter. The AMD fanboys can cheer a little, after all.

AMD's notebook shipments jumped 50 per cent sequentially, Mercury said, echoing AMD's own numbers, released during its most recent financial results announcement. It's not hard to imagine why: the much-rumoured fourth-quarter Dell notebooks based on AMD chips will be built using CPUs ordered during Q3. ®