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Athlons Sold Out

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the uh-oh dept.

smeng58 writes: "If haven't got your Athlon yet, you may have to wait. This article found on CNNfn states AMD has sold out their production of the Athlon for the second quarter. Looks like AMD has capacity problems, or a lot of people are choosing AMD over Intel."

11 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Shouldn't we consider this a "good" thing? by Majorachre · · Score: 5

    Though certainly market analysts and financial planners are taken aback at this kind of thing. Loss of profit due to underproduction is never a good thing. Consider that AMD's ability to make money is essentially now shut down until they are caught up with demand. This also can lead to price increase which hurts the end-user and can also lead computer companies to choose Intel over AMD as they don't suffer from these problems.
    All things considered however, this means that AMD has strongly underforecasted its ability to advertise, sell, gain market share. We should be quite pleased to see that the only true Intel competitor is even more successful than it thought it ever would be. My congratulations go out to AMD for their success - it can only help out consumers in the long run.

    1. Re:Shouldn't we consider this a "good" thing? by reflector · · Score: 3

      That would be congratulations, with a strong word of caution. Production problems are the exact cause of Cyrix's troubles, and is also one of they key reasons that Texas Instruments is no longer in the business of manufacturing Intel-compatible CPUs.

      You seem to be speaking out of ignorance. AMD is *NOT* having production problems. They are currently AHEAD of schedule ramping their Fab 30 plant in Dresden. Intel is having production problems; this, combined with the unexpected popularity of Athlons is why AMD is sold out.

      Currently, AMD is producing more processors than they ever have before, with 1.8 million processors estimated to be produced this quarter.

    2. Re:Shouldn't we consider this a "good" thing? by hawk · · Score: 3

      >If they are unable to keep up with demand then they are having
      >production problems. Take some business classes before you go spouting off.

      You might want to take your own advice . . .

      You plan your business and your capacity based on your resources and
      what you think you can sell.

      Finding that demand is higher than your most optimistic scenario is *not*
      a problem--it also means that price is higher, and you are more
      profitable than your best-case estimate.

      Yes, an even larger capacity than you have would be nice, but a better
      market than you dreamed of is not a problem.

      But then again, I ran a succesful business before becoming a professor
      of economics. . . .

      hawk, j.d.., ph.d,, esq.

  2. I speak for myself when I say... by toofast · · Score: 3

    That a lot of people are switching from PIII's to Athlons. Our company just installed over 250 Athlon-based systems, that were supposed to be PIII's. Even all my friends, who have been Pentium fans since the beginning, are buying Athlons.

    Look, they're cheaper, they're faster, and they're cooler than PIII's. Why buy a Pentium????

  3. AMD is just clearing out old stock by Strongtium90 · · Score: 4

    AMD is replacing the Athlon in one to two weeks with the Thunderbird and Spitfire chips. They didn't just run out of chips, they are changing product lines.

  4. I knew AMD would sell out! by webslacker · · Score: 4

    Stupid corporations. Once we supported AMD because they were the underdogs fighting against Intel. Now that they're doing well, they sell out on us. Bastards. They're just as bad as Metallica.

  5. sold out wholesale, not retail by swinge · · Score: 5

    they sold 'em all at the factory... this means they're in the pipeline and in the shops. It means there might be some spot shortages or delays, but you'll still be able to find them.

  6. A matter of interpretation? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5

    I think what this _really_ means is that the full
    PROJECTED RUN of Athlons for Q2 is already
    spoken for - NOT that they aren't producing any
    more until Q3 (that wouldn't make any sense).

    I work for an online computer equipment retailer
    and we have no shortage, and don't foresee any
    for awhile (and trust me, we'd know better than
    CNN if an AMD chip shortage was about to hit!).

    Keep in mind what Obi-Wan told Luke about certain
    things being true, "...from a certain point of
    view." :)

    1. Re:A matter of interpretation? by legoboy · · Score: 3

      Yes. It's rather comical.

      People seem to be failing to understand that this is good news, and that AMD's stock price is more likely to go up than down on this news. Because the person who submitted the news misinterpreted it, so are the people who read that discription of it.

      What does the article say? It says that AMD managed to sell all of their chips to other people, and therefore won't have tens of thousands just sitting in their warehouses doing nothing but depreciating in value.

      ------

      --
      If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?
  7. Intel too I suspect .... by taniwha · · Score: 3
    the bottom seems to have dried out of the Pentium marketplace in the past few weeks - cheap PIII-550 class cpus are virtually impossible to find - either demand's really high and the Gateway/Dell's of the world are soaking them up - or Intel has production problems too ..... or they're just playing with the market to keep their margins high ... just like the oil companies .... I suspect that despite AMD's inroads Intel's still big enough that it can do that

    Now if only AMD would get it's dual processer bridge chips to market (in MBs as cheap as the cheapo pentium ones) so I can start buying tons of Athlons instead ..... then I could dump Intel

  8. There is a difference by GauteL · · Score: 5

    AMD is short because it is just sold out.
    Intel is sold out because it can't produce
    what it has promised.

    Think about it.
    Intel releases a 1GHz PIII a few days after
    the release of the 1GHz Athlon
    Yet, AMD releases the 900 and 950 MHz at the same
    time, because the 1GHz is no abnormal stretch for them.
    Intel on the other hand, only releases the 1GHz PIII, with a gap from 800MHz to 1000MHz..
    Why? Obviously, they really can't provide a 1GHz CPU.. they only "pretend" to, by taking incredibly
    good production CPUs (1 in a thousand), to market
    as 1GHz to keep up with AMD. They can't really
    provide them in mass production, and so they
    just now release the 833 and 866 MHz cpu's.
    Who is better off? AMD who has underestimated their sales, or Intel who just isn't able to provide what the market is asking, even if they try their best?