Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Dell gives AMD a "No"

February 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Dell gives AMD a "No"

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Dell has apparently given a polite, but firm "No" to AMD, deciding to keep Intel as its sole chip supplier. Dell's CEO, Kevin Rollins, was speaking at an investor conference in Phoenix and said that the company had indeed seriously considered AMD, a story InfoWorld broke in November.

AMD had gained momentum last year by introducing technologies ahead of arch-rival Intel. It also helped that Intel had a series of missteps, leading the world's largest chip producer to delay, cancel and recall several produces following design and manufacturing errors.

When InfoWorld spoke to Rollins in November, he said customers were indeed starting to request AMD chips to stay up with servers from IBM and HP that used the more powerful AMD chips. Rollins repeated those statements at the Phoenix conference, but said Intel has made up the difference and that customers are not pressing Dell to adopt AMD's technology.

According to Rob Enderle, analyst at the Enderle Group, Intel is probably out of the woods at the moment. "Intel has made gains and for Dell that's a good thing, because developing, testing and then supporting a separate chipset for AMD products would cost Dell money in a low-margin business," he said.

Enderle did say, however, that new technology was coming that might still put AMD on an equal footing with Intel in the future. "This was the closest AMD has ever come at Dell. I don't doubt they'll try again," he said.

Posted by Bob Francis on February 23, 2005 07:01 PM

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