A report to his clients by Broadpoint tech analyst Doug Freedman claimed that Intel is stuffing the channel and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to "mute" the demand cycle, meaning it is likely to achieve its expected near term goals.

And the same analyst suggested that AMD has given Hewlett Packard preferential pricing on its chips, amounting to around five per cent discount.

Freedman thinks that Intel is "filling the channel" to keep market share and to minimise the impact to its margins for the move to the 32 nanometre process. He also thinks that AMD has provided the five per cent discount to give it revenue support.

However, he said that if Intel responded to this preferential pricing model, it would be a "knock out blow" to AMD.

We wonder how AMD's other customers are reacting to a five per cent discount to HP, if Freedman's hypothesis is correct. X