Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices has gained a pinch of market share year over year against rival Intel in a market that seems to be improving. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD saw its market share in the second quarter of 2003 inch up to 15.7 percent, a tenth-of-a-point increase from the same period a year ago, according to statistics compiled by Mercury Research.

Intel, meanwhile, saw its market share slip to 82.5 percent in the second quarter, from 82.8 percent in the same period the year before. Other manufacturers, a grouping that includes Transmeta, increased their collective market share from 1.7 percent to 1.8 percent. The big news for the quarter, however, is that the processor market appears to be on the rebound. Microprocessor shipments were actually slightly below the norm in the second quarter. (PC shipments rose in the quarter, but sometimes the two markets aren't synchronized because of inventory overhand and shipment schedules). On the positive side, a record number of portable components were shipped--notebook chips sell for more than their desktop counterparts and are generally more profitable--and overall shipments also rose.