For years, the names Dell and Intel went together like chocolate and peanut butter, but earlier this summer Dell announced that by the end of this year, they would start selling AMD Opteron-based servers. Since then, interested observers have been waiting for the other shoe to drop: Dell desktops with AMD inside. Those should be coming soon. Dell CEO Kevin Rollins says that the newly formed relationship between the two companies will "expand." He didn"t offer any additional details on products that might use AMD CPUs or when we might see them, but his comments corroborate what we have been hearing for some time from our sources inside Intel.
Make no mistake about it: the days of the cozy Dell-Intel partnership are gone forever. The Austin, TX-based company will still sell a large number of laptops, desktops, and servers with Intel CPUs, but expect to see AMD play a significantly larger role in Dell"s product lineup.
That said, we"re not looking at a complete dissolution of the relationship. It"s more along the lines of "hey... let"s start seeing other people." Dell will still be a heavy user of Intel CPUs, motherboards, and chipsets. Beginning this fall, however, we should start seeing AMD-powered Dell desktops and laptops in addition to servers.