AMD pitches its K6 against Intel card

Chip manufacturer AMD is canvassing second-tier vendors to take its K6 processor on a range of their machines, as Intel?s Klamath card looks set for a Cebit launch.

But the Mitsubishi Electric PC Division, formerly known as Apricot, says it has looked at AMD?s chips but currently has no plans to use the processors. Compaq and smaller vendors, including Elonex, are also believed to have tested the chips, according to one source.

Keith Corbett, UK director of marketing, confirmed the company had looked at the processors, but on the same basis as any other vendor would. ?We do talk to them [AMD],? he said, ?because the processor is a critical component in PC manufacture. My own opinion is that this is probably their last best chance to compete against Intel.?

He said Mitsubishi will show a Klamath machine at this year?s Cebit as a future technology demonstration.

A source at another vendor, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ?It will be Intel?s marketing strategy that lets them kill AMD and Cyrix. All Intel has to do is to release the right products at the right time and price to throw the competition off the scent.?

But Richard Baker, European marketing manager at AMD, said his company had a good opportunity to compete against Intel. ?We?ve come out at a good time because their Klamath daughterboard has worse performance in terms of tens of per cents than the Pentium Pro,? he said.

AMD will produce 15 million processors this year and that alone demonstrates how seriously it is taking its processor business, Baker said.

Worldwide PC sales are expected to reach a total of 70 million in 1997.