http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/ Engadget Comments for Intel selling mobile chip unit to Marvell http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/
Just like everyone was surprised when the major players were leaving PDA's for smartphones...]]>Jun 27th 2006 12:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/
The only thing that I can see is a corporate targeting or political move to "focus on our core business," etc.

I can't really agree with the comment above, either, regarding low power x86. There's simply no comparison between true low-power embedded technologies, and a low-power Pentium. They're completely different markets, nearly completely different technologies.]]>Jun 27th 2006 1:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14733041.htm), it leads me to believe this wasn't a very successful portion (if by successful you mean money-making):

"Intel's Xscale business, which includes applications processors for cell phones and chips for BlackBerrys, smart cell phones, handheld computers and portable media players. That business generated approximately $250 million in sales last year, according to sources who saw documents on the business.

Both the communications processor and applications processor businesses, which are being shopped as a single group, are losing money. Intel can get a tax write-off for selling the businesses."

Am I misunderstanding something? Was the Xscale group as a whole doing well and just the applications division within the Xscale group not doing well? The article is somewhat confusing in that regards.]]>Jun 27th 2006 2:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/
Remember what the world was like 10 years ago, when Intel bought these technologies. The conventional wisdom was that applications were moving off the desktop, and PCs would be replaced by Web terminals. In that kind of environment, diversifying seemed like a survival move for Intel. Today, though, the heavy-lifting apps are still on the PC, and most Web-based apps want a full-power browser. As a result, the PC has at least another 10 years of life in it, so Intel can afford to specialize again.

And, in 10 years, the market demands will be high enough that putting an x86 in a cellphone will just make sense.]]>Jun 27th 2006 4:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/Jun 28th 2006 3:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/intel-selling-mobile-chip-unit-to-marvell/Jun 28th 2006 4:39AM