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LISA NAPOLI: Stock options scandals are littering the horizon, particularly among high-tech companies. Two more scandals were revealed Monday at two Silicon Valley firms: KLA-Tencor and Altera. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s watching for a flurry of high-tech earnings reports due out this week. Today comes third quarter numbers from Intel. Sarah Gardner says the company’s under pressure to show it’s regaining ground.

SARAH GARDNER: Intel may be bigger than Advanced Micro Devices, but that hasn’t prevented AMD from inflicting some serious pain on its larger competitor.

AMD recently dealt Intel a body blow when computer giant Dell started using AMD’s chips for the first time.

Up until then, Dell had been an Intel-only shop for years.

Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox:

JOE WILCOX:“It’s a sign that there’s a lot of pressure in the marketplace, particularly around pricing, and if AMD can offer excellent performance for lower cost then the Dells of the world will be looking at that.”

But Wilcox says Intel has beaten back its rivals before.

The company’s cutting costs by shedding a tenth of its workforce and it’s rolling out new computer chips that are garnering good reviews from the high tech critics. They offer more horsepower and consume less energy.

Still analysts expect Intel’s quarterly earnings will be far lower than a year ago.

I’m Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.