[Info-vax] RealWorldTech on Poulson

[JF Mezei]

John Wallace wrote:

> From a commercial point of view, Intel have done very nicely indeed
> out of desktop and server x86 and then their AMD64 clone, both of
> which were in the Windows-dependent market.

When you consider how much money HP makes from industry standard
servers, I'd say that 8086 servers have outgrown Windows and many are
running Linux. I don't know if I could replace "many" with "most", but
it would not surprise me to learn that most servers are now running
Linux instead of Windows.





> From a technical point of
> view it's hard to think of any market segment outside of the Windows-
> dependent sector where they've had much success in Inventing in the
> last decade or two. WiMax? Desktop graphics? I2O?


I am no fan of WiMax as a mobile platform. But a Canadian company
(Explorenet)  is now using Intel's WiMax to deploy fixed wireless to
rural regions. They are key to the government being able to claim that
their goal of having 98% of population covered by broadband can be
achieved "soon".  (this is all political hot air because the large
uncovered gaps will be "covered" by satellite service so government will
be able to claim is it available even though folks can't afford it).
Previously, they were using a much older protocol that is one of the
ancestors of the Intel WiMax.

I would have to say that Intel may not have "invented" much, but they
sure has hell have been able to give their 8086 some enterprise humph,
especially the memory controllers etc. In other words, look at what
others are doing, and implement it in their 8086 toy controller.

In fact, a good analogy comes from the original Star Trek Movie.

Think of the 8086 as the original Voyager probe. Very basic. But all
around it is build this massive V'ger ship with immense power and behold
anyone who tries to battle with it.

The 8086 is Intel's bread and butter (like Ink is to HP) and Intel will
fiercely protect it.