Clone chip makers see highs and lows in 1996

Intel has lost significant market share in the past year to clone chipmakers in Europe, which have picked up about 10 per cent of non-business computer sales, according to a source at IBM Microelectronics.

Meanwhile, Cyrix is set to firm up an deal with Compaq, which is likely to produce a set of network computers based on the GX chip.

Cyrix and AMD returned smaller losses than most analysts had predicted. Cyrix? turnover for the year reached $183.8 million, up 25 per cent. It lost nearly $26 million, with the last quarter accounting for $4.5 million of that. Turnover in the quarter was $72 million, an 84 per cent leap from last year?s Q4.

AMD turned in a loss of $21.2 million in its last quarter. Turnover in the period amounted to $496.9 million, a drop of 17 per cent from the equivalent period last year. Although AMD suffered because of delays in supplying its K5 Pentium clone, sales of the chip doubled to over two million units in Q4, compared with Q3.

AMD introduced its PR166 chip, which it claimed performed as fast as the Intel P166.