| Late this summer, Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale,
CA) will start shipping a new series of 80x86-compatible
processors that it says are not based on Intel microcode.
AMD's strategy is not only to free itself from costly
legal entanglements with Intel but also to attract new
customers by offering chips that fill perceived gaps in
Intel's product line. For instance, among the first three
new processors is a 40-MHz 486SX. Intel's fastest 486SX
runs at only 33 MHz. AMD also introduced a pair of 33-MHz 486SX chips: One is a 5-V part for desktop systems, and the other is a 3.3-V part with SMM (System Management Mode) for mobile computers. First shipments were slated for August and September. All the chips are based on clean-room microcode developed by engineers who did not copy Intel's 80x86 microcode, according to AMD. Until now, AMD's 80x86-compatible chips used Intel microcode obtained through licensing agreements dating back to the 1970s--the source of a long-running court battle between AMD and Intel. The new processors have fully static cores and are manufactured in Sunnyvale using a 0.7-micron, triple-layer CMOS process technology. They will cost $185 each in 1000-unit quantities. That's comparable to Intel's prices for similar parts, indicating AMD is not interested in starting the kind of price war that eroded the price of 386-compatible chips in 1991 and 1992. "We're capacity-constrained with our 486 production right now," said Dirk Heinen, a program manager at AMD. "There's no point in driving the price down, when we've already got more orders than we can handle and we're still trying to ramp up production." Heinen said AMD will probably ship only a few hundred thousand of the new processors this year--a minuscule fraction of the total 486 market, that is estimated at 25 to 30 million chips this year. AMD and Intel 486 Microprocessors
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