Advanced Micro Devices is becoming more clear about its ambitious goals: To parlay its success in new chip technology over the past two years into market share growth and become the provider of half of all computer microprocessors within the next decade.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't aspire be a third of the market in the next two or three years," Hector Ruiz, chairman, president, and CEO of AMD, told InformationWeek recently.

Marty Seyer, corporate VP and general manager of AMD's microprocessor business unit, set the bar higher: "We want to be able to provide half the world's [processing] needs."

A recent AMD newsletter called "50x15 Connections," however, makes AMD's intentions even more clear. The newsletter is aimed at bringing readers "the latest developments in AMD's effort to provide 50% of the world with affordable computing capability and Internet access by 2015."

AMD has a lot of market share to make up to achieve its goal. According to Mercury Research, in the first quarter of 2005, AMD shipped 17% of all x86 processors units sold, up from about 14% a year earlier.