AMD's x86 market share is on the rise

THE IDC QUARTERLY REPORT on x86 microprocessor market shares has reached our hands and we're breaking it down for the Intel and AMD fanbois.

IDC reports, like most others of its kind, reflect the findings of one company under a fairly myopic view. For example, as IDC's reports are "purpose-oriented", they describe x86 semiconductor market share broken down into three market segments - desktop, mobile and server - and don't take into account other types of semiconductor chips.

This excludes all non-x86 architectures such as Itanium, ARM and embedded processors such as VIA Eden - although VIA's embedded products are clearly its most successful - yet Intel's Atom chips are included since they are counted as part of the mobile category as a PC application. So take these numbers with a grain of salt.

However, the IDC x86 report does paint a picture of the ongoing battle between AMD and Intel, quarter after quarter, with the former trying to keep its business in the black, while the latter, which benefits from holding the higher ground and a quarter or two of chip fab advances, looks on.

However this past quarter tells a slightly different story, we have to say. We're sure that a lot of ink will be spilled about this, and semiconductor industry analysts will have a field day firing their guesstimates off into cyberspace.

So what do the numbers say?
We'll go right ahead and say it. Good for AMD, endurable for Intel. Overall AMD is making some headway in the markets it's been investing in, while Intel is holding fast in the server segment where businesses continue to prefer it over its much smaller x86 processor rival.

Number-wise, in the desktop segment, AMD gained 1.5 per cent of total x86 market share in Q2, with Intel taking the corresponding loss, and AMD now accounts for 28.9 per cent of total x86 desktop microprocessor shipments. Intel has 70.9 per cent of the market, while VIA barely registers on the IDC radar with just 0.2 per cent market share.

In the mobile segment, another of AMD's bets since the beginning of the year, AMD has also made some progress, actually more so than with its desktop chips, gaining 1.8 per cent more of the x86 mobile market. Intel lost 1.9 per cent of the cake and VIA actually increased its share, just barely, by 0.1 per cent. The breakdown is 84.4 per cent for Intel, 15.2 per cent for AMD and 0.4 per cent for VIA.

The server market shows Intel's strengths, as AMD still hasn't been able to break the Xeon hold on this market. Bulldozer might upset this balance and allow AMD to ship more in late Q3, but for the time being AMD is still lagging in this segment. In fact it has seen a considerable breakdown in revenues from this segment in the past year, and quarter-on-quarter it lost 0.5 per cent of x86 server market share. AMD holds just 5.5 per cent of this segment with the rest going to Intel.

Year-on-year this means that, overall, AMD has taken back 1.5 per cent of the x86 chip market directly from Intel in Q2. Such an increase in overall market share also represents for AMD almost eight per cent growth in units shipped over the previous quarter. That's not a bad performance, considering that Q2 isn't particularly sales-friendly.

This upcoming quarter, traditionally associated with back to school, will be somewhat more revealing and will give us a measure of the relative impacts of AMD's Fusion and Intel's Sandy Bridge lines on x86 chip sales.

CPU+GPU share is on the rise
IDC's number crunching crew has also come up with an interesting factoid that reflects the overall trend that we've seen since late 2010 - evidently CPU+GPU designs are taking over the s86 market.

CPU+GPU products accounted for over 60 per cent of x86 processor shipments in the second quarter, and if what we've been told is true, a year from now there will be no other type of x86 microprocessor design besides these. This does not bode well for VIA Technologies, which will find its embedded x86 processor designs struggling to compete with the smaller, more efficient and nearly System-on-Chip (SoC) designs of its x86 chip rivals.

As we are all quite aware, AMD and Intel are both racing towards the finish line with their first generation CPU+GPU chip designs - AMD Fusion and Intel Sandy Bridge - and they will both introduce their second generation products - Intel's Ivy Bridge and AMD's Bulldozer Enhanced - in 2012.

Aside from the Mayan calender's 'end of the world' rollover, 2012 is shaping up to be a very interesting year indeed. µ