Some will laugh, some will cry, and some will experience more growth than others. That was the story of AMD and Intel in 2006. According to iSuppli Corp.'s final 2006 market-share ranking, leading chip supplier Intel Corp. suffered a revenue decline, while AMD nearly doubled its sales. "For U.S. microprocessor giant Intel, 2006 was the worst of times, as its global semiconductor revenue dropped by 11.1 percent from 2005," said Dale Ford, vice president, market intelligence, for iSuppli. "The revenue decline, which was due to Intel's bleak performance in its core PC microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, erased nearly all of the company's sales gains from its strong year in 2005. Intel's 2006 revenue of $31.5 billion was less than half a percentage point higher than its sales in 2004. For Intel's smaller U.S. rival, AMD, 2006 was the best of times as it achieved a whopping 91.6 percent increase in revenue for the year, partly due to a major acquisition, but also because of strong gains in microprocessor market share," Ford added. According to iSuppli, the divergent performances of Intel and AMD came during 2006 when global semiconductor industry revenue rose by 9.3 percent to reach $260.2 billion, up from $237.98 billion in 2005. This is slightly higher than the 9 percent growth iSuppli predicted in its preliminary market share estimate compiled in November and released in early December. In 2006, Intel faced hard times in its microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, which together accounted for 83 percent of total company revenue last year. The company's combined microprocessor and flash revenue in 2006 fell to its lowest level since 2003 as Intel faced rising competitive pressure in those markets. In the same year, AMD gained PC microprocessor market share. AMD's PC microprocessor revenue rose by 35.5 percent in 2006 and its market share in that product segment increased to 16.1 percent, up 5 percentage points from 11.1 percent in 2005. AMD's revenue was also boosted by its acquisition of graphics chip seller ATI Technologies.