Sales grew by more than 11 percent over the immediate-prior quarter, when AMD reported sales of $496,868,000, which resulted in a net loss of $21,243,000, or $0.15 per common share.

Sales rose by 1.4 percent over the first quarter of 1996. In the like period a year ago, AMD reported sales of $544,212,000, which resulted in net income of $25,327,000, or $0.18 per common share, fully diluted. Last year's first quarter results included non-recurring charges of $8.7 million for expenses associated with the company's acquisition of NexGen, Inc., and a non-recurring pre-tax gain of $24.7 million resulting from a sale of securities.

"An increase in sales over the immediate-prior quarter, coupled with effective expense controls and excellent operational performance, enabled AMD to substantially reduce its operating loss in the fourth quarter," said W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer of AMD. "Bookings improved significantly during the fourth quarter of 1996, and our book-to-bill ratio exceeded 1:1 for the first time since the second quarter of 1995. Customers have worked through excess inventories and order patterns currently reflect normal consumption rates.

"Recovering strength in all sectors of our business produced the sales growth necessary for AMD to return to modest profitability even before volume shipments of AMD-K6™ MMX processors," said W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer. " Revenue growth was led by flash memories, Microsoft® Windows® compatible microprocessors, and programmable logic devices from our Vantis division. Our book-to-bill ratio was greater than 1:1 in the quarter.

"We made initial OEM shipments of 10,000 AMD-K6(TM) processors during the March-ending quarter. Shipments of AMD-K5™ processors grew to 1.3 million units, with a richer product mix of mainly PR133 and PR166 devices, " Sanders continued.

"We are ramping production in order to ship hundreds of thousands of AMD-K6™ MMX processors during the current quarter, and millions of units in the second half of 1997," Sanders concluded.

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD produces processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices, and products for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, CA, AMD had revenues of $2.0 billion in 1996. (NYSE: AMD).

Cautionary Statement
Except for historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the market acceptance and successful production ramp of the AMD-K6 MMX processor, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the timely development of wafer fabrication process technologies, the effect of changing economic conditions, and such risks and uncertainties detailed from time-to-time in the company's SEC reports.