IDC says there was a "precipitous" drop in the number of PC processors shipped worldwide between the third quarter and the fourth quarter last year - the worst, in fact, since it started tracking such things in 1996 - and it holds out scant hope for this half, which is why even the mighty Intel may lose money this quarter.

Unit shipments were down 17% quarter-over-quarter or 11.4% year-over-year; revenue declined 18% quarter-over-quarter and 22.2% year-over-year to $6.78 billion.

For all of 2008, PC processor shipments were up 10%, with revenue up 0.9% to $30.8 billion. See, "After hinting at a decline last September, the market fell of a cliff in October and November," IDC says. The key is all in end-user demand.

The researcher found that Intel's Atom chip made a difference but not enough to save the market. If it hadn't been for Atom and its attendant netbooks, processor shipments would have been down 21.7% quarter-over-quarter and 21.6% year-over-year.

By IDC's count, Intel gained 1.1% market share in Q4 for a total of 81.9% of the units, giving AMD 17.7% of the market, down 0.9%, and VIA got 0.4%.

For the year, Intel got 80.3%, up 2.9%, AMD 19.2%, down 3.1%, with VIA stable at 0.4%.

The numbers translate into 89.1% of the mobile sector in Q4 for Intel, up 1.7%, with AMD down 1.2% to 10.2%. Intel sold 88.1% of the chips going into servers and workstations, up 2.5%, and AMD lost 2.5%, down to 11.9%, whereas Intel sold 73.9% of the desktop chips, up 0.4% at AMD's expense.

For the year that gives Intel 87.1% market share in mobile, up 4.8%, with AMD at 12.1%, down 5.3%, and VIA at 0.8%, up 0.5%. Intel got 86.6% of the server and workstation market, taking 0.9% out of AMD's pocket. There was no appreciable change in desktop shares; Intel had 73.4% and AMD 26.4%.