Intel's Comeback Bid

Indeed, AMD said it is not seeing any dropoff in demand from its customers. According to AMD worldwide commercial marketing director Bruce Shaw, AMD expects to finish 2006 with twice the number of server platforms than the company began the year with.

"Our partners are adding more platforms based on our technology, in spite of Woodcrest," said Shaw.

And while Intel has beat the benchmark drums lately, claiming the new Xeon outperforms AMD by significant margins, some people wondered how the two chips would compare once AMD begins manufacturing its processors with its own finer 65-nanometer circuitry later this year.

Intel's Kilroy dismissed the notion that a manufacturing advance by AMD would make the Xeon less competitive.

"When AMD is shipping 65-nanometer we're still going to show leadership in many of these benchmarks that we talked about today," said Kilroy.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints