They have a chip on their shoulder. They're underdogs, and couldn't care less. No. 1 chip maker Intel Corp. Long a struggling also-ran, AMD in the past year has been giving Intel fits.
Microprocessors are the central brains of a computer.
Still, it's the Athlon that has the industry buzzing. While no one's suggesting AMD is ever going to put its larger rival out of business, the AMD uprising has set Intel back on its heels. Intel is being forced to react to some of AMD's moves, analysts say, and for the first time in a long time, another company is putting out microprocessors that are as good as, if not better than, Intel's. The figures don't include smaller companies and the Apple Macintosh segment of the market. But behind those numbers lies a significant shift.