AMD turns profit on strong 64-bit chip sales

AMD's 64-bit processor line has carried the company from red to black ink in the third quarter.

AMD today posted $1.2bn in revenue and income of $44m for the period. Sales increased 30 percent over last year's third quarter when AMD reported a $31m loss on $954m in revenue.

"Our third quarter net income improvement was largely driven by a 21 percent sequential increase in Computation Products Group (CPG) sales and improved gross margin in the Memory Group," said Robert Rivet, chief financial officer at AMD. "AMD64 processor sales represented over one-third of our total CPG sales."

AMD's CPG group performed even better when comparing year-over-year results. The unit pumped out $672m worth of processors - a 34 percent jump from last year's third quarter.

The firm's flash memory unit posted $538m in revenue during the quarter. That's a 27 percent rise when compared to the $424m posted last year. AMD, however, had hoped sales would be even stronger. Earlier this week, it warned that slower than expected flash sales would cut into its third quarter totals.

AMD has now signed up 25 of the Fortune Global 100 as Opteron customers. New users include Merrill Lynch, AOL and Sabre Holdings.

The company said it expects fourth quarter sales to increase with processor sales driving the gains. ®

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