Logan + Wendell, I'd love to get your opinion on this:
I've been spec'ing a new build recently and got to wondering about the current CPU duopoly.
-Are there are any alternatives to Intel and AMD processors on the market?
-Why is there such little competition in the market?
-Are there any worthwhile alternatives to the big two that won't make life a huge pain? (through things like unsupported by third party apps/OS's, hardware incompatibility, etc)
-Do you think the market could stand to have another competitor?
I'm a huge fan and looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
No, Intel and AMD are the only x86 makers. The reason is that x86 belongs to Intel and AMD is licensed to manufacture x86 processors. VIA and MCST are other licensed x86 manufacturers but they don't make much anymore. The reason why there are only 2 is because all the other licensed x86 manufacturers went under and were bought by AMD or Intel or they just got bored of making x86 and quit making parts (IBM, NEC). There are also a handful of others that are licensed but they only make embedded parts
via has recently announced that they are planning to make chips again - no idea why - I hate to say it but x86 is increasingly looking like legacy CISC is a RISC world. What interests me is that AMD used to run another architecture in microcode and convert X86 instructions - if they are still doing this is this how they are implementing ARM and x86 on the same chip via lookup tables?
I'm sure Sony has some cell processors laying around in a warehouse why hasn't the use for those gone up after the PS3 and people making cheap supercomputers?