new future toy.. the Intel NUC

[Sysman]

Me too, in fact, you're older than I am.

Yep. I know that.

in "not keen on having a freshly born sprog at my age" mode

[SupremeSpod]

Yep. I know that.

in "not keen on having a freshly born sprog at my age" mode

You'll love it.

[doodab]

Would it surprise you to learn that more ARM processors have been sold than 80x86 compatibles?

Nope, because I already knew that.

I wasn't asking a question, I was making the point that Intel's R&D covers a lot more than "catching up with ARM". Most importantly it's directed at ensuring Intel remains the worlds #1 semiconductor manufacturer, which means among other things that it's directed at ensuring that Intel is first to market with new process technologies that will enable it to produce SoC with higher performance and lower power consumption than Samsung, Qualcomm and the other ARM based chip shops. It's these guys revenue that Intel is chasing, not ARM's per se.

Outside of the tablet / smartphone market Intel aren't interested in ARM's business as it's all about licensing IP for use in ASICs in things like DVD players and set top boxes, and Intel are a semiconductor manufacturing firm. The main competition in that segment is from MIPS & POWER, not x86.