AMD is scheduled to report its first-quarter Thursday after the close.

Auriga USA analyst Daniel Berenbaum, though, is holding onto a Sell rating and $6 price target. He cautions investors about making assumptions about broader chip strength.

“We think this risks misinterpreting AMD’s competitive positioning. AMD has gained share in graphics from Nvidia (NVDA)–good for sales but below corporate average gross margin–but its CPU roadmap looks weak, particularly in high-ASP/high-margin servers where checks suggest that Intel’s Nehalem product continues to gain market share.”

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The move, which will be effective immediately upon its announcement, is quite a blow for Intel (INTC). Gelsinger had done stints as the company’s chief technology officer and as head of its research division. He helped quarterback Intel’s 386 and 486 processors, played a major role in the launch of Nehalem and had been considered a likely successor to Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Now he’s a contender for the top job at EMC (EMC) when CEO Joe Tucci decides to step down.

Zzzzzz…

Not exactly a big surprise. Still, quite a piece of machinery. Built around Intel’s (INTC) latest Nehalem Xeon Processors, the new Xserve boasts twice the performance of its predecessor, according to Apple (AAPL). It offers a 128GB SSD boot drive option and up to 3TB of internal storage and RAID 5 support. And it is, according to Apple, the best Xserve the company has ever made. It always is.
“The Xserve is the best workgroup server for our education, business and creative customers,” David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing said in a statement. “With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we’ve ever made.”

Zzzzzz…

Not exactly a big surprise. Still, quite a piece of machinery. Built around Intel’s (INTC) latest Nehalem Xeon Processors, the new Xserve boasts twice the performance of its predecessor, according to Apple (AAPL). It offers a 128GB SSD boot drive option and up to 3TB of internal storage and RAID 5 support. And it is, according to Apple, the best Xserve the company has ever made. It always is.
“The Xserve is the best workgroup server for our education, business and creative customers,” David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing said in a statement. “With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we’ve ever made.”

That, of course, is because Nvidia (NVDA) feels there’s no need for a resolution. In its opinion, the terms of its licensing agreement with Intel (INTC) do indeed cover the chip giant’s Nehalem processors and other upcoming chips. And it views Intel’s claim that the agreement is otherwise as an effort to hamstring Nvidia’s platform innovations, which Intel sees as a threat to its PC dominance. “We are confident that our license, as negotiated, applies,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. “At the heart of this issue is that the CPU has run its course and the soul of the PC is shifting quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business.”

That, of course, is because Nvidia (NVDA) feels there’s no need for a resolution. In its opinion, the terms of its licensing agreement with Intel (INTC) do indeed cover the chip giant’s Nehalem processors and other upcoming chips. And it views Intel’s claim that the agreement is otherwise as an effort to hamstring Nvidia’s platform innovations, which Intel sees as a threat to its PC dominance. “We are confident that our license, as negotiated, applies,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. “At the heart of this issue is that the CPU has run its course and the soul of the PC is shifting quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business.”

Intel’s (INTC) latest papers at the annual International Solid-State Circuits Conference, which starts Sunday in San Francisco, are a case in point. The company is using the event to show off new details of the inner workings of some previously discussed chips, including an eight-processor version of a product called Nehalem that Intel plans to begin selling for use in server systems later this year.

But Intel’s broader point is that miniaturization is reaching a point that many new kinds of functions can economically be squeezed on individual pieces of silicon, creating new opportunities to sell what the industry calls systems on a chip, or SOCs.

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