More to this than technology
Contributors have noticed that the end is nigh for the desktop x86 market: already so for non-gaming home users, and increasingly so (starting with longer lifecycles) for the IT department rollouts.
Intel fanbois sing "but there's still Xeon".
Yes, for now there is. Chip development costs a lot of money. Historically desktop revenues at Intel have helped pay for continued Xeon development. (Mobile revenues at Intel don't pay for anything much yet, do they?). But as desktop x86 isn't growing, might desktop CPU prices come down? Volumes surely will. And thus so will Intel's desktop profits.
Even as Intel's desktop profit declines, Intel will be able to fund Xeon development from their piggy bank for a while longer, but the closer Xeon gets to having to fund its own development, the closer it gets to being completely unaffordable. Can anyone spell "death spiral"? Those who remember Alpha certainly can.
Intel. The x86 company.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
