Intel has a commanding market-share lead in the PC processor market, weighing in at around 76 per cent to AMD's 23 per cent for Q3 2007, according to Mercury Research. We reckon that AMD's aggressive price-cutting helped it to gain back some share lost in Q1 2007, where Intel had jumped out to 80.5 per cent.

The processor market is only one facet of total semiconductor sales, though, and the likes of Samsung, Toshiba and Texas Instruments all churning out application-specific chips, usually for mobile devices, in the millions.

Taking the semiconductor business as a whole, which is estimated to be worth around $271bn, Intel still leads the way with a predicted 12.5 per cent share for 2007. Samsung follows with 7.4 per cent and Toshiba brings up third place, according to iSuppli. Interestingly, AMD drops out of the top 10, according to predictions.

Intel eats a significant portion of the semiconductor pie and shows no signs of abating. AMD, meanwhile, faces significant gearing problems and a lacklustre introduction for its quad-core Phenom processors. It's certainly a David vs. Goliath story right now.

Source: Reuters