Intel and Advanced Micro Devices held their respective market shares of the worldwide processor market in the second quarter, according to iSuppli. The market research firm described the ongoing competition between the chipmakers as an “epic competitive struggle.”

Intel accounted for 80.4 percent of the global processor revenue, down from the 80.7 percent it held in the same period last year, but up 0.1 points over the first period, iSuppli said in its Sept. 15 report. AMD's share came in at 11.52 percent, up 0.04 points from the second quarter of 2009 but down 0.2 points from the first quarter.

Global microprocessor revenue market share in Q2 2010
(percentage of revenue in U.S. dollars)
Source: iSuppli

The numbers showed the intensity of the competition between the two rivals, according to iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins.

"The static market share situation might suggest that the second quarter was an uneventful quarter in terms of the competition between the two dominant microprocessor suppliers of Intel and AMD," Wilkins said in a statement. "However, with the market undergoing rapid growth and fast technological development, the fact that the companies have largely retained their positions indicates they are competing furiously for every tenth of a point of market share."

iSuppli said global chip revenue grew 34 percent in the second quarter over the same period last year, when the worldwide recession was in full swing. Much of the jump in the revenue is a result of the recovery in the PC market. PC shipments in the second quarter increased by 22.8 percent over the second quarter last year.

"While market and technology conditions have changed dramatically during the past 12 months, the high level of competition between Intel and AMD has not," Wilkins said. "As circumstances continue to evolve in the second half of 2010, expect these two companies to maintain their epic competitive struggle."

The battle lines for next year were in sharp focus this week during the Intel Developer Forum. Intel executives showed off their 32-nanometer "Sandy Bridge" next-generation Core microarchitecture, which will feature graphics and compute capabilities integrated on the same piece of silicon.

At a nearby hotel suite, AMD officials demonstrated their upcoming "Zacate" APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), which also will feature integrated CPU and GPU on the same die.

As with Sandy Bridge, systems with Zacate are expected to begin hitting the market during 2011.

PC users are looking for greater graphics capabilities in their systems, according to iSuppli. In the second quarter, about 38 percent of notebook PC chips shipped in the second quarter were graphics-enabled, up significantly from 2009, the analysts said.

Further information

Further information about iSuppli's semiconductor research may be found on the company's website, here.

Jeffrey Burt is a writer for our sister site eWEEK.com.

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