AMD Ranks Fifth Among U.S. Companies In U.S. Patents Awarded

Company earns more than 1,000 U. S. Patents for 2nd consecutive year

SUNNYVALE, CA -- 1/22/2002 -- AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced it ranked 14th in the world among companies receiving patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2001, and for the second consecutive year, fifth in patents earned among U.S. based companies.

"For AMD to continue its upward trajectory, we must sustain our passion for constantly finding new and better ways to do things," said Bill Siegle, chief scientist at AMD. “Our business is driven by innovation, and the ultimate innovation index is patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

For the fourth year in a row, AMD ranked among the top 25 companies in the number of new U.S. patents received. Numbers released earlier in January by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services show that AMD earned 1090 patents last year, breaking the 1000 patent barrier for the 2nd consecutive year.

"Buyers of electronic devices often take improvements in performance for granted, and speak of 'Moore's Law' as if it were a naturally occurring phenomenon," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64, a Saratoga, CA.-based market research and consulting organization. "In reality, it takes massive investments of financial and intellectual resources to move the industry forward. Patents serve as useful barometer to gauge the effectiveness of a company's efforts with regard to the innovation that our modern society requires and our economic system rewards."

"Our current patent portfolio is a roughly equal mix of process and manufacturing patents on the one hand, and product design patents on the other," said Siegle. "Not only are we very excited about the products going out our doors today, our research and development results show our continuing commitment to performance and productivity improvement as well."

For a complete list of the top 25 U.S. patent recipients for the past three years, refer to the attached chart.

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD).

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