Advanced Micro Devices, which has struggled through the market's weak spending on PCs this year, indicated last week that it will lower operating expenses by more than $300 million for 2003. AMD will accomplish much of the savings through layoffs and reduction of its capital expenditures by $100 million during the next year. A spokesman says the action will lead to a restructuring charge of several hundred million dollars for the fourth quarter.

The restructuring comes as AMD gets set to launch its Opteron processor, with simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit compatibility, in the first half of next year. Supercomputer maker Cray has committed to using Opteron processors in a system it's building for the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia will use the Cray system to perform nuclear-weapon engineering simulations.