AMD's Grand Ambition: Half Of The Processor Market By 2015

"There's no reason why we shouldn't aspire be a third of the market in the next two or three years," Hector Ruiz, chairman, president, and CEO of AMD, told InformationWeek recently.

Marty Seyer, corporate VP and general manager of AMD's microprocessor business unit, set the bar higher: "We want to be able to provide half the world's [processing] needs."

A recent AMD newsletter called "50x15 Connections," however, makes AMD's intentions even more clear. The newsletter is aimed at bringing readers "the latest developments in AMD's effort to provide 50% of the world with affordable computing capability and Internet access by 2015."

AMD has a lot of market share to make up to achieve its goal. According to Mercury Research, in the first quarter of 2005, AMD shipped 17% of all x86 processors units sold, up from about 14% a year earlier.