AMD Adds Partners To Validated Server Program As x86 Market Share Increases

Advanced Micro Devices Tuesday said it added three systems builders to its validated server program (VSP), as the chip maker continues to pick up market share against arch-rival Intel.

SuperMicro, Tyan Computer and Uniwide Technologies will begin offering server-based products under AMD's VSP this quarter, according to AMD. They join Newisys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanmina-SCI, which began offering validated products at the program's inception in June 2003.

The system builders must put server products through a battery of tests for quality and compatibility, longevity and stability as well as provide a satisfactory level of service and support, according to AMD.

The program comes as AMD continues to take heat from its system builder partners for the quality of third-party motherboards that are available for its CPUs. Though partners have lobbied for AMD to make its own motherboards to help control quality, AMD's chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz said during a recent analyst conference that the company will not get into that business.

Executives at Nvidia said they also have been hearing the quality complaints from systems builders. As a result, the maker of chipsets and graphic processors recently started the Nvidia Business Platform, a program that certifies motherboards from four major manufacturers to help address quality issues.In a recent interview Pat Moorhead, vice president of AMD's Global Channel Marketing, Microprocessor Solutions Section, said current motherboards from suppliers such as ASUS already provide the kind of quality systems builders need and AMD has no plans to address quality issues moving forward, beyond its Commercial Stable Image Program, launched last year. That program joins AMD with chipset and motherboard makers to provide a stable platform that is available for 18 months, something many corporate customers are looking for when purchasing systems from solution providers.

Meanwhile, AMD picked up significant share gains in the fourth quarter of 2005. AMD said Mercury Research is reporting that it had a 21.4 percent share of the x86 market during that quarter, up 21 percent from the third quarter of 2005.

Mercury Research also reported AMD's fourth quarter server market share at 16.4 percent, up 29 percent from the prior quarter; desktop market share at 24.3 percent, up 19 percent from the prior quarter; and mobile market share at 15.1, up 24 percent from the prior quarter.