It is the same story for TI. These are significant divergences, IMO. Not unlike GE/GM performance relative to the DJIA.

Bill: It's pretty hard to see how the semi-conductor industry 800-pound gorilla Intel (NDQ: INTC) can be trading at 2Q03 prices while the next largest cap stocks are at multi-year highs

Here is my take followed by research from CNET:

- Not only is its top-of-the-line Athlon 64 X2 4800+ faster than Intel's flagship Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 chip, but the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ also outpaces Intel's best.

- Even the Athlon 64 X2 3800+, the lowest end of AMD's dual-core CPUs, is better suited to 3D gaming than Intel's highest-end Extreme Edition 840 CPU, which lost by a full 10 percent.

- And if you are like most computer users reading this story, you will draw the same conclusion as we have: AMD's Athlon X2 processors are the clear choice for superior multitasking performance.

- In respect to MP3 Encoding (If you think that's bad for Intel, the difference between the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 is even worse, to the tune of a 23-second difference, or a whopping 20 percent)

- In respect to video encoding (Intel made its most competitive showing on our video-encoding test. AMD still wins the round, but the difference is not as pronounced as it is on other tests)

Gaming: AMD Winner
Multi Tasking: AMD Winner
MP3 Encoding: AMD WINNER
Video Encoding: AMD Winner however Intel Close
Day to Day Usage: AMD Winner

Intel Inside - No longer and Forbes put out an article this morning saying AMD will stampede over Intel till 2007. I'm not sure how much longer AMD can dominate for but certainly for a true Dual Core experience and faster bus speeds AMD does corner the market.

Another reason for AMD's fast rise is fund buying. They seem to have the story right and Intel's poor guidance and soft quarter only confirm the beating delivered by AMD.

Easy for me to see why the 800 pound gorilla is stuck near its 52wk low. The growth story is over. Perhaps we can get into a MSFT special dividend story now! Look for Intel to increase its dividend and play more like a CISCO stock. When a smaller rival makes an 800 pound gorilla look like its slipped badly and wounded itself on its own banannas it's time to move on.

/d

Hi Bill,

I wonder if we dont put too much wieght on currency advantage/disadvantage when supply/demand & pricing are perhaps more critical considerations. While most of us love the SNDK story, for example, look what happened to it last week when they announced aggressive pricing - it got a haircut.

For a more general processor / chipset / semiconductor opinion – mostly confirming the previous post:

I recently built a computer with AMD 64 dual-core, Asus motherboard with NVidia chipsets. It also has 2 SATA Seagate drives.

I bought all the companies on Jan 2.

I also went for SNDK – sold SNDK before earnings then re-bought SNDK again yesterday morning.

I am waiting to buy INTC. It is looking very cheap, much cheaper than AMD -- market share is inevitable.

Personally I follow the ETF IGW for this sectors analysis. It was just rejected off resistance. I am still bullish for high-tech in general.