AMD may be teetering on the brink of financial disaster but if it does go down for the count it can comfort itself with the knowledge that it made it to eight-largest semiconductor house in the world last year, up from 15th on the back of a 91.6% increase in revenues, according to market research iSuppli, a gain made at Intel's expense.

On the dark side, however, Lehman Brothers thinks AMD's Dell-induced inventory build, which forced it to pre-announce its first quarter, will lap over into Q2.

It also thinks that AMD's fabled Barcelona quad chip ain't gonna buy the company as much runway as everybody's been figuring. It now appears that AMD won't have that many Barcelonas to sell this year and it looks like Intel will swoop in with volume numbers of its upcoming 45nm Harpertown quad in late Q3.

Lehman has Barcelona penciled in for a July launch, not April as the hopeful were guessing.

On top of which the broker also thinks that AMD may try skipping 65nm at its 90nm Fab 30 in Dresden and go directly to 45nm by mid-'08, raising execution concerns. It'll still be six-nine months behind Intel.

Meanwhile, HSBC doesn't think AMD has the "financial muscle to sustain a price-cutting strategy" and may have lost market share to Intel this quarter.