I know for a fact that Intel has acquired a stable of profound
architectural thinkers from both academia and industry. My
impression of the people they had in place (and this goes back
almost 12 years) and who were then coming on board was that they
had a stable of computer scientists who could hold their own
with anybody in the industry.
Intel had the unique problem
of creating architectures which extend capability while
maintaining 100% backward compatibility. Having worked at the
emulation game myself for about 10 years, I can tell you that
that is a bear. It is doable but difficult. What they have
accomplished in the last decade is a near miracle. Also, contrary
to the WSJ article, I see an awfully solid next five years from
just what they have in the pipeline today.
I have seen every new architecture, from the transputer to the
68000 to the Dec Alpha to the PowerPC touted as the Intel killer.
Hasn't happened. Might in the future, but you are fighting a
paranoid, well managed, feisty, smart, well funded design,
manufacturing and sales organization competent to a level
previously unseen on the planet. Good luck to cyrix, nexgen-amd,
sunw, dec, whomever. You're getting into the ring with Mike
Tyson at his prime, on steroids and angry. there must be easier
fights to pick.
Burt |
