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Title: Fears of Chip Shortage

Wired News Report

8:55 a.m. Apr. 24, 2000 PDT Advanced Micro Devices, the second largest maker of microprocessors for PCs, said that it has sold out both of it lines for the second quarter, raising fears of a manufacturing shortage that could hurt PC makers.

Unavailable for the remainder of the quarter are AMD's high-end Athlon processor, as well as its more economical K6-2 chip. There is genuine concern in the industry, seeing as how the second quarter, leading into summer, has traditionally been a slow one for the sale of microprocessors. Demand usually picks up in the third and fourth quarters, with the return to school and the holiday shopping season.

"There's either a shortage going on because of manufacturing constraints at Intel, or incredible demand," an AMD spokesman said.

Bet the former. Analysts point to Intel, where a delay in the launch of its 633- and 667-MHz Celeron chips are being blamed on the lack of manufacturing capacity as the company focuses on pumping out as many Pentium III chips as possible.

One analyst said if there is a manufacturing problem, it makes sense for Intel to focus on the Pentium at the expense of the Celeron because of the higher profit margins.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35856,00.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 24, 2000