PC maker Dell decides to stick with Intel chips
It had been widely expected that Dell – which is the only major PC maker to singlesource all its microprocessors – would start to use AMD as well as Intel chips.
But Dell chief executive officer Kevin Rollins has dashed this possibility by publicly denying that the company would put AMD chips in its computers.
In a speech to a group of financial analysts in Phoenix, US, Rollins said that Dell had decided to continue to use only Intel processors, claiming that the company had caught up with AMD.
"We believe that Intel has responded. That is now beginning to put customers more at ease that they don’t need to make a shift [to AMD processors]."
He went on to say that the company had considered using AMD chips but "that’s looking like ‘No’ now". These comments are in marked contrast to those Rollins made in November last year.
At that point, AMD had developed a significant technological edge over Intel with the launch of its 64-bit Opteron and Athlon chips. Intel on the other hand had suffered the embarrassment of having to delay certain products.
"[AMD] have been getting better and better. In some areas, they are now in the lead on Intel. That is what is interesting us more than anything else," Rollins said at the time. "My guess is we’re going to want to add that product line in the future."
Now, despite AMD launching a dual-core version of its Opteron chip this year while Intel is not expected to have a comparable product until 2006, Rollins appears to have changed his mind. AMD’s share price fell 4% following Rollin’s latest comments.
