Advanced Micro Devices Inc. this week will unveil a chip to let people download digital television programs from a set-top box to a portable media player, without a personal computer.

The strategy opposes Intel Corp.`s plan to pack the features into PCs that consumers would put in living rooms to replace digital video recorders, cable and satellite set-top TV boxes and other electronics. AMD, which also sells chips for media PCs, says consumers want the choice.

``If you can remove the PC from the necessary equation, all of a sudden your market potential goes up rapidly,`` Dan Shine, director of the AMD unit working on the project, said. The Alchemy chip translates various file types into high-definition video, removing the need for a PC, he said.

PC sales growth has slowed to an average of 8% since 2000, from 21% from 1995 to 2000, researcher IDC says.

Advanced Micro, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., may be on the right path. Intel, Microsoft Corp. and PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. have made few inroads in entertainment, said Richard Doherty, research director at consulting firm Envisioneering Group Inc.

``The race is on,`` he said. ``But while Microsoft and Intel are trying, right now they are being eclipsed by the consumer electronics guys.``

AMD shares fell 61 cents to $21.41 on the New York Stock Exchange.