Mercury Research: AMD closes 2021 with record x86 CPU market share at 25.6%

Superior Micro Gadgets made sizable positive aspects in market share in opposition to Intel within the x86 processor market, in line with year-end knowledge from Mercury Analysis. Within the fourth quarter of 2021, it had a report 25.6% share of the marketplace for processors utilizing the x86 structure.

AMD has been gaining share (within the mixed PC, recreation console, and web of issues x86 chip market) in opposition to Intel for 11 quarters now due to the acceptance of its Zen structure, which allows AMD chips to course of extra directions per clock cycle. However in This autumn Intel took again some cellular market share.

Each section of the x86 (Intel-compatible) processor market grew within the fourth quarter of 2021. Cell central processing unit (CPU) shipments had been up weakly, nevertheless the remaining segments all had robust progress. The general market is down on-year, nevertheless, largely because of the collapse in entry-level cellular processor quantity that occurred in mid-2021.

For the total PC processor market, which incorporates Arm units for Chromebooks and Apple’s M1-based Macs, the general market grew at a wholesome price. The x86 market grew 16% in 2021, mentioned Dean McCarron, president of Mercury Analysis, in an e-mail to VentureBeat.

“Whereas that is nominally a share dialogue, I’d point out that the overall X86 market set a report for each items and income, as did the server and cellular CPU markets amongst others,” McCarron mentioned. “Shifting past simply x86 shoppers and servers, the overall market dimension, together with x86 web of issues and system-on-chip merchandise comparable to these used for gaming consoles, and ARM-based Chromebooks and Apple’s M1-based Macs, was a good 500 million items in 2021.”

He added, “With out ARM the x86 determine alone is roughly 471 million items. Income for simply x86 processors was $74 billion for the 12 months, up 10.7 p.c from 2020’s $66.6 billion.”

For all-inclusive share, which counts not solely PC consumer CPUs and servers but additionally IoT and semi-custom merchandise utilized in objects like gaming consoles, AMD gained share within the fourth quarter, largely as a consequence of a really massive improve in gaming console shipments (AMD’s chips are used within the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Sequence X/S).

Because of that improve, AMD reached a brand new report excessive for general share — 25.6% — within the fourth quarter of 2021, beating the prior report of 25.3% set fifteen years in the past within the fourth quarter of 2006.

All-inclusive share on an annual foundation (not within the tables) was 76.7% for Intel and 23.3% for AMD, was a 3.6 level transfer up for AMD and down for Intel in comparison with 2020 outcomes of 80.3% for Intel and 19.6% for AMD. Annual share was
additionally a brand new report excessive for AMD, beating the 2006 report of twenty-two.9% p.c.

In This autumn, Intel partially recovered from the downturn it skilled in cellular CPUs within the third quarter, and the corporate had very robust progress in desktop shipments. This resulted in Intel’s progress in desktop and cellular CPUs outpacing AMD’s, with Intel gaining share in cellular CPUs, desktop CPUs, and general consumer.

AMD continued to increase its server shipments extra shortly than Intel — each suppliers skilled good progress within the fourth quarter — ensuing within the eleventh consecutive quarter of server CPU share achieve for AMD.

Mercury’s estimate for ARM PC consumer share (together with Chromebooks and Apple’s M1 primarily based Macs with X86 desktop and cellular CPUs within the complete consumer dimension estimate) is 9.5%, up from 8.3% final quarter and practically triple the three.4% from a 12 months in the past. Apple had very robust progress within the quarter, so the positive aspects had been pushed by increased M1 unit volumes moderately than Chromebook ARM processors.

As an apart, VIA/Zhaoxin share rounds to zero in all segments. It’s extremely possible Zhaoxin’s share is rising, however Mercury has extraordinarily restricted visibility into this small section of the CPU enterprise.

Requested about Apple’s affect in switching to Arm-based chips with the M1, McCarron mentioned, “Had Apple not moved to M1, sure, the X86 market can be bigger — I wouldn’t precisely spin that because the x86 market having decrease progress, although. Development in 2021 wasn’t meaningfully decrease than what we noticed in 2020, as each had been within the mid-teens, far increased than common — the 5 12 months common for annual x86 progress previous to 2020 was -4.1% per 12 months.

AMD’s most up-to-date low for annual share was 12.7% in 2015. The newest low because the prior report excessive quarter in 2006 was 11.6% within the first quarter of 2016, and their report low was 5.5% within the second quarter of 1997.

Many of the decline that occurred for Intel in Q3 was as a consequence of cellular Celeron. The rise in This autumn shipments was as a consequence of non-Celeron cellular merchandise, primarily the Tiger Lake core cellular components, or the i5/i7 1100 sequence. In desktop, it was a mixture of Comet Lake and Rocket Lake components that ramped increased.