AMD's Presence in Workstations Plummets in Q1'07, Reports Jon Peddie Research

Business Wire, June 13, 2007

TIBURON, Calif. -- Times change, and they can change fast. As 2006 began, Intel's Xeon was in a tailspin, while AMD's Opteron could do no wrong. In the robust market for workstations, the roles have since reversed, with first quarter results reported from Jon Peddie Research showing Xeon has grabbed back much of the share it had lost to Opteron.

The workstation market remains strong

Overall, the workstation market continues to pleasantly surprise. As expected, quarterly growth rates have subsided a bit from the 25 - 35% increases (year-to-year) JPR had seen in late '05 and early '06, but they remain strong. All told, the industry shipped 674 thousand workstations in the first quarter of '07, up 15.2% over the same quarter of '06. ASPs held flat, allowing revenue to also increase a healthy 15% to around $1.7 billion.

Intel stealing back the share it had lost

In workstations, Opteron had been steadily draining share from Intel's Xeon, peaking at over 13% of dual-socket platforms for Windows-compatible workstations in Q2'06. But Q2'06 not only market the peak of Opteron's incursion, it marked the beginning of a significant fall. JPR reports that in Q1'07, AMD's share of the dual-socket capable segment (where Opteron was strongest) didn't simply flattten but actually dropped by over 50% year-to-year.

[TABLE OMITTED]

Table 1 Xeon vs. Opteron in market for dual-socket, Windows-compatible workstations

"We'd expected AMD's share to moderate or level off by the time Intel improved its dual-socket Xeon platform in mid '06, but we hadn't anticipated the decline we've seen," commented analyst and JPR Workstation Report author Alex Herrera. "The extent of Intel's rebound will put that much more pressure on AMD to deliver quad-core Barcelona soon - and with better performance than Xeon."

In the overall workstation market (including higher-volume single-socket systems), AMD had risen to a peak of 3.6% in Q2'06, contracting to 2.0% in this last quarter.

About the JPR Workstation Report

Now in its fourth year, JPR's Workstation Report - Professional Computing Markets and Technologies has established itself as the essential reference guide for hardware and software vendors and suppliers serving the workstation and professional graphics markets.

Subscribers to the JPR Workstation Report receive two in-depth reports per year providing a comprehensive analysis of the vendors and technologies driving the workstation platform. Clients also receive four quarterly reports detailing and analyzing market results for each calendar quarter. For information about purchasing the JPR Workstation Report, please call 415/435-9368 or visit Jon Peddie Research at http://www.jonpeddie.com.

Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies, including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Excerpts from the JPR Workstation Report and expert interviews are available on request.