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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reports third-quarter earnings on Tuesday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: The chip maker is engaged in a fierce battle for market share with much larger rival Intel Corp. (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) In September, AMD said it plans to offer a processor with three computing engines, or cores, for desktop computers in the first quarter of 2008.

The announcement came just a week after AMD launched its new "quad-core" server chip, the first from the company to feature four cores on a chip instead of just one or two. It was AMD's most important new product launch since the first Opteron was introduced in 2003, helping the company secure a foothold in the lucrative server market.

On the same day AMD launched the newest version of its Opteron server chip, Intel raised its third-quarter revenue outlook - a surprise move since the company discontinued giving mid-quarter financial updates last year.

BY THE NUMBERS: Analysts, on average, are expecting a net loss of 62 cents per share on revenue of $1.52 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

ANALYST TAKE: Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) analyst Tim Luke said "a healthy PC market in 3Q07 combined with improved graphics and notebook strength at Toshiba (other-otc: TOSBF.PK - news - people ) should enable AMD to modestly exceed" Wall Street's consensus revenue estimates.

Luke is looking for "moderate gross margin improvement" to 38 percent, with a loss of around 53 cents per share, though he conceded "the margin visibility is limited." He rates AMD shares at "Equal Weight."

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Cody G. Acree expects the new server chip, code-named Barcelona, to have "a positive effect on (the company's) fourth-quarter guidance."

STOCK PERFORMANCE: Shares of the Sunnyvale, Calif., company fell nearly 8 percent during the quarter to close at $13.20 at the end of September.

In the past 52 weeks, the stock has lost nearly 45 percent.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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