Michael Dell: AMD technology 'too fragile'

In an interview held last week in London, CEO Michael Dell told ZDNet UK News that although AMD was making good progress with its Athlon processor family, the technology it offered "was too fragile" for Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) customers.

Asked if by 'too fragile' he meant there were incompatibility issues with AMD (NYSE: AMD) architecture, Dell said, "Yes, and that's vital."

Lunatic fringe?
Describing some of his customers as being at the "lunatic fringe" of computer use -- those users who are happy to remove and replace peripherals such as sound or video cards -- Dell said: "We found the AMD environment to be much more fragile ... than equivalent Intel systems."

"These are system issues that underlie the integrity of our own brand," Dell said.

The comments are damaging to AMD, which has invested much time and effort in building up the Athlon brand. But Dell did not stop there. Fielding questions about his company's long term allegiance to Intel, he went on, "I don't give a whatever about whose chip I use... what matters to us is that we deliver to our customers something that is reliable and it's not just the processor. The chipset is just as important and that needs to be addressed (by AMD)."

AMD is preparing a response to Dell's comments.

Dell recently criticized Intel for a component shortage that cost Dell several hundred million dollars worth of lost sales in the December quarter, fueling speculation that Dell would turn to AMD as a second source of chips.

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