PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Strong demand for low-end microprocessors has strengthen the outlook for first quarter sales at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. During a speech at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium here, AMD chairman and CEO W.J. Sanders III said he now expects the company to report flat to nominally higher sequential sales in the current quarter.
"Demand for low-end microprocessors has been stronger than expected," Sanders said. "Business across the board continues to be robust. With better than anticipated demand for low-end PC processors, we now expect that AMD's first-quarter revenues will be flat to nominally higher than the record sales reported in the seasonally strong fourth quarter.
"The ramp of the AMD Athlon processor on 180-nanometer 0.18-micron technology is proceeding as planned," he said. "One hundred percent of our AMD Athlon production is now on 180-nm technology."
In the fourth quarter last year AMD bounced back to profitability on the strength of PC processor shipments. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company posted a net income of $65.1 million on record sales of $968.7 million in the quarter (see Jan. 19 story).
At the time of releasing its fourth-quarter results, AMD said it anticipated a modest dip in PC processor demand in the first quarter of 2000 compared to the previous three-month period.
