Intel Spoils AMD's Big Party With A Blowout Quarter

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker issued the statement on the same day its chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices, launched its long-awaited Barcelona quad-core processor and more than a month before Intel is officially scheduled to announce its earnings. It is scheduled to make that announcement on Oct. 16.

"As a result of stronger than expected worldwide demand for its computing products, Intel Corporation now expects revenue for the third quarter to be between $9.4 billion and $9.8 billion as compared to the previous range of $9.0 billion to $9.6 billion," Intel said in a statement. "The gross margin percentage for the third quarter is expected to be in the upper half of the previous range of 52 percent plus or minus a couple of points. All other expectations are unchanged."

The chip maker provided no further details or reasons for the jump in its earnings expectations.

It was unclear just how much of Intel's brisker-than-expected business could be seen in the North American solution provider channel. Steve Bohman, product manager for Columbus Micro Systems, a Columbus, Ohio-based system builder, said he had seen nothing out of the ordinary with regard to sales patterns.

"We do a lot of education business, so this is always our strongest quarter," Bohman said. "I can't say it was anything out of the ordinary, or anything we didn't expect coming into this particular quarter."

Intel and AMD have been locked in an aggressive fight, with Intel keeping pricing pressure strong throughout the market and AMD taking some action to keep up.