Dell removes AMD Opteron ad

Dell has removed an advert for an AMD processor from its Web site after the posting fuelled rumours on Wednesday that the PC maker was about to start selling AMD-based servers.

Dell's position on use of AMD processors in Dell systems has not changed, said a Dell UK spokesperson, who pointed out that Dell has developed 64-bit extended systems based on the Intel Xeon processors, including Precision workstations, PowerEdge servers. "We will continue to evaluate and monitor AMD technologies, including Opteron, and customer demand for these products," she said. Sources close to AMD on Wednesday also denied that any deal had been done between the two companies to produce AMD-based computers.

The Dell Software and Peripheral Web site, where the advert appeared, is an online marketplace, where customers can purchase Dell and third-party products to meet their specific business needs, said the spokeswoman, adding that more than 50,000 products are offered there today.

The spokeswoman said Dell has now deactivated the "erroneous" AMD Opteron posting. "This was intended to be posted to a single customer's Premier Page site as part of a broad Software and Peripherals procurement list," she said. Dell declined to provide further information on who that customer was.

Dell often fulfils oddball requests to keep large corporate customers happy, allowing them to tap Dell's purchasing power for all sorts of products, including AMD chips, the representative said.

The Opteron's presence may thus have shown that Dell has had to purchase at least a few AMD chips, outside of those it uses for testing purposes inside its research labs.

Dell has said it will offer Intel's forthcoming 64-bit Xeon chip, dubbed Nocona, in its servers later this year. The first version of the chip will come out in the second quarter, Intel has said.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and also Sun Microsystems -- three of the four largest server vendors -- have all begun offering at least one Opteron server model, often citing customers' requests for the chip. HP, for example, began offering the Opteron in three different server models in February. Sun and IBM each offer the chip in their server lines.

HP and IBM have also pledged to offer Intel's 64-bit Xeon chip in the future as well.

News.com's John Spooner contributed to this report.