In an interesting change in its product strategy and under competitive pressure, Dell announced on Wednesday that is will be selling server systems based on AMD's Opteron processors in the end of 2006. The statement was part of AMD's financial report for the first quarter and was mentioned in the company's future product shedule. The company will offer high-end, multi-processor servers based on the AMD Opteron processor in an effort to achieve technology leadership. However, Dell will continue to offer Intel-based servers, such as those based on the upcoming "Woodcrest" processor.

Dell's decision follows numerous rumors surfaced in the past claiming that the company would adopt AMD CPUs for its systems.

"We're going to bring the best technology to the market," Dell founder Michael Dell said of his company's decision. "If you look at the history of our company, we have for the majority of the last 22 years asserted a position of delivering great value and great service to our customers."

Following Dell's announcement, AMD senior vice president Marty Seyer issued the following statement:

"We welcome Dell, and Dell customers, to the world of AMD64," said Marty Seyer, AMD senior vice president, Commercial Business.

"Dell is a customer-focused company and we're pleased to see that they are listening to their customers and providing them the choice of innovative AMD products.

We look forward to working closely with Dell and bringing the benefits of AMD's leading performance-per-watt solutions to Dell's customers."