AMD's position in the server-class business has always been a problem. The introduction of K8 cores created a path between them and large system integrators (such as Dell) but that only managed to bring them some 10% of the total market. Opterons had a lot to do with AMDs increase since they outperformed Xeons in most applications. However the introduction of Core 2 Duo architectures gave INTEL the upper hand once more. And since Woodcrests were faster in almost every type of application, INTEL began to regain its market share.

If we were to look back at the summer of 2006 the market share of AMD single-core and dual-core Opterons was 3.6% and 13.3%, respectively. INTEL was still way above with 96.4% and 86.7% in the same segments but for AMD this was indeed a victory since they managed to obtain the highest percent in the history of modern CPUs. However the introduction of Core 2 CPUs resulted in a total disaster for AMD as Xeons currently have 98% of the single-CPU market share and 92% of the dual-CPU market share, Jon Peddie Research estimates.

Regarding this very issue, Alex Herrera, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research and author of a recent market study said: "We'd expected AMD's share to moderate or level off by the time Intel improved its dual-socket Xeon platform in mid-2006, but we hadn't anticipated the decline we've seen. The extent of Intel's rebound will put that much more pressure on AMD to deliver quad-core soon - and with better performance than Xeon."

All in all, this is a bad deal for AMD and things will get even worse as quad-cores are moving towards the mainstream segment. As for AMD, the announced Barcelona will be rolled out a lot later than expected so traditional AMD partners may be forced to switch to INTEL architectures and CPUs. And to make matters even worse, Barcelona is as fast as an equally clocked Xeon but it will come with lower clocks and it will be some 6 months later. And that can't be good for business.

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .