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Shares of AMD dropped almost 10% on Friday.

The catalyst for the decline was a Thursday's news announcement that the company would miss it's numbers for the fourth quarter.

AMD cited reduced ASPs, or average selling prices, as the chief reason. In other words, they are selling their chips at lower prices than they would like in order to move inventory. But at least the chips are selling.

There are two interpretations of this data. One, there's a price war afoot, and Intel is hurting also. On the other hand, it is also possible that the Intel Core microarchitecture products are simply dampening demand for AMD's chips.

If the latter is the case, it will be more difficult for AMD to argue unfair competition this time around.

Intel reports final fourth quarter results this coming week, AMD the week after.

While the AMD microprocessor portion of the company should still turn a profit, the company as a whole, which includes ATI, is expected to have spent more than it made. Expenses outran income.

"Including the company's acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI, which closed in the quarter, AMD is expected to show a loss of nearly $500 million, or 91 cents per share."