Rising sales to boost AMD Q4 revenue 10%

Revises forecast upward

AMD last night updated its guidance for its current fiscal quarter, its fourth, to reflect "robust", better-than-expected demand for the Athlon XP. The result, the company said, will be higher revenue than it previously forecast.

Growing shipments of PC processors will more than counter any dip in the Flash memory market, AMD said. Flash sales are expected to be at best no better than they were last quarter, but processor sales should rise sufficiently to generate a ten per cent quarter-on-quarter.

That should leave AMD reporting revenues of at least $842.46 million when it posts Q4 results later next month. The quarter ends 30 December. It also reckons it will ship more processors than it did in Q1, which perhaps isn't surprising given that this is the Christmas quarter and AMD has a better processor portfolio now that it did back then.

However, the chip maker will still report a loss. Cost-cutting programmes and increased sales will not be enough to turn the company round just yet, it admitted while sticking to its forecast of profitability in Q2 2002. Even that's in doubt if, among other factors, "Intel Corporation pricing, marketing programs, product bundling, new product introductions or other activities targeting the company's processor business will prevent attainment of the company's current PC processor sales plans" get in the way. ®