An unexpected surprise for AMD: Turion sales surge

AMD delivered a solid Q3 result, but the company wasn’t completely happy with its performance. The transition to DDR2 memory, the introduction of its Rev F Opterons as well as the preparation of 65 nm processors created challenges, which the company said may have impacted its profitability during the quarter.

According to president Dirk Meyer, AMD "did not always have the right mix of products the customer requested" available. Interestingly that scenario could have been caused mainly by an increase in demand the company did not expect : While desktop and server/workstation processor remained in a manageable, single-digit growth pattern, AMD said that shipments and revenues of its mobile Turion 64 processors climbed more than 50% over the previous quarter. "This was more than we anticipated," said Meyer during a conference call.

In fact, the increase may have been enough to lift AMD’s mobile market share during the quarter. The company did not provided exact shipment numbers of its processors.

Responding to a question from an analyst, Meyer confirmed that Intel’s recently launched Xeon 5100 processors (Woodcrest core) already have impacted the lower-end of the server and workstation market : "We are facing a bit more competition in the 2P category," the executive said.

AMD confirmed that it will ship its first 65 nm processors during Q4 and plans to have completed the transition from 90 nm to 65 nm processors by mid of next year.