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The Dell US site is offering a total of six Athlon 64 processors for sale ranging from the single core 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3500+ at $219 through to the dual core 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 X2 4400+ at $542 which are at the lower end of the scale by US standards.

A search on Froogle offers twelve suppliers and Dell would rank as the second cheapest. Dell prides itself on its keen pricing but whether the low cost reflects Dell's buying power or AMD's eagerness to sell is hard to say.

Even so, the chips

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are not exactly proclaimed on the front page. Although a search for the products will turn up the AMD chips under the 'Electronics and Accessories' section, the company is neither listed among the brands on offer, neither is there a listing on that section for processor upgrades but it does appear under 'Desktop Accessories'.

While the move does not affect whatever contract that Michael Dell has in his drawer to only offer PCs with Intel inside, the AMD chips at least represent an admission that there is an alternative to Intel for which there is a demand. However the news of AMD processors sold through Dell are unlikely to cause a stampede until the company starts building PCs with AMD chips inside.

Dell cannot be unaware the sales potential of buying AMD. Yesterday we reported that AMD had overtaken Intel in retail sales in the US for the first time. At the other end of the scale, this summer Mercury Research reported that AMD's share of the server market had reached 11.2 per cent, a 51 per cent jump from the 7.4 per cent from the previous year.