Yes, my favorite CPU underdog has it coming. AMD is showing some strong profits and to be honest, I am shocked what with Intel dominating so much of the marketplace these days.

Advanced Micro Devices reported strong sales and profits for the third quarter as it apparently gained market share on rival Intel in both server and laptop microprocessors.

Sunnyvale-based AMD said net income rose to $76 million, up 73 percent from $43.9 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were 18 cents, well above the 8 cents expected by analysts and better than the 12 cents seen a year earlier. Sales grew 23 percent to $1.52 billion from $1.24 billion a year earlier, while analysts expected $1.38 billion according to Thomson First Call.

Hector Ruiz, chief executive, said in a conference call that microprocessor sales were better because of higher sales of Opteron chips for high-end computer servers and the introduction of Turion chips for laptops. He said he expects microprocessor sales to increase 42 percent to 50 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year ago. [Read the rest]