It figures, I've just ordered my 1900+, and they go and cut the prices..

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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD.N , following rival Intel Corp., has cut prices on nearly all its microprocessors by 7 percent to 52 percent to remain competitive and to make room for new chips it will introduce next month.

Advanced Micro Devices, with about 18 percent of the market for microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, said the price cuts range from 7 percent to 52 percent for processors that go into laptop computers. For desktop PCs and servers, the cuts range from 11 percent to 32 percent.

"We're committed to offering compelling solutions at competitive prices," said Cathy Abbinanti, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices.

The price cuts are something of a spring ritual for both Advanced Micro Devices and Santa Clara, California-based Intel INTC.O . PC makers gear up for back-to-school shopping in early summer, so that systems are available in August and September.

Over the weekend, Intel cut prices on its Pentium desktop and mobile processors by as much as 53 percent, saying that the billions of dollars it has spent in the past two years on next-generation manufacturing technology has paid off, resulting in higher production yields.

NO MORE GLITCHES

Advanced Micro Devices, which has been hobbled in previous years by manufacturing glitches, has executed very well in the past two years since the introduction of its Athlon processor, wrote Joe Osha, an analyst at Merrill Lynch in a note earlier this week to clients.

"In our view, we think that Hector Ruiz, recently elevated to the office of CEO by founder Jerry Sanders' retirement, has really begun to put his stamp on the company, and consistency appears to be one welcome result," Osha wrote.

Advanced Micro Devices dropped prices on its high-end Athlon XP chips by 22 percent to 32 percent. The Athlon XP 2100+ now costs $224, down 32 percent from $330. The Athlon XP 2000+ now costs $193, down 21 percent from $280, and the Athlon XP 1900+ is now $172, down 22 percent from $220.

The company also cut prices on its Duron chips, aimed at lower-cost PCs, and on its Athlon MP chips designed for server computers.

It cut prices even more aggressively on prices for its mobile processors, where AMD is trying to make inroads against its far larger rival, Intel, which has historically been very protective of its market share in this market, where chips carry fatter profit margins.

Advanced Micro Devices slashed the prices of its fastest mobile chip, the Mobile Athlon 1700+ by 52 percent to $235 from $489. The Mobile Athlon XP 1600+ now costs $192, down 49 percent from $380, and the Mobile Athlon XP 1500+ now costs $175, down 30 percent from $250.

The price cuts from both AMD and Intel come as the semiconductor industry is slowly recovering from its worst year ever in 2001, when global chip sales tumbled more than 30 percent to about $140 billion. Both Dell Computer Corp. and graphics chip designer NVidia Corp. are calling for PC unit shipments in the second quarter to fall about 5 percent to 7 percent from first-quarter levels.

In addition to cutting prices to make room for speedier, higher-performing processors, AMD and Intel also cut prices to help spur demand. AMD is expected to introduce its newest Athlon chip, which has the microarchitecture core code-named Thoroughbred, early next month. That chip, the Athlon 2200+ running at 1.8 gigahertz, is designed for desktop PCs, and a mobile version is expected soon thereafter, analysts said.

"AMD appears in much better shape than it has been during past downturns, when the company's survival has sometimes been in doubt," Osha wrote, noting that as long as AMD has a competitive part, PC makers "will probably buy in order to keep Intel honest."