I am not sure if this discussion is entirely appropriate for this 
mailing list but it is interesting discussion anyway.

I don't believe AMD or Intel to be big suppliers of chips in embedded 
space, except maybe flash memory chips but certainly not processors. If 
embedded space gravitating to anything it is specialized SOC solutions, 
the kind that ATI, Broadcom and Marvel provide. Geode is certainly SOC 
but it is not usable for pretty much anything except some generic 
computing. It needs more chips to make it usable for say set top box 
applications. Where if you take Broadcom or ATI chip it does not need 
much besides memory and few discrete components to become a set top box.

With AMD/ATI merger we will see if ATI will go to x86 with its Xilion 
line. As far as ARM it is a separate company list time I checked so it 
probably will be open source.

I could not find die size for geode x86 portion but I am sure it is 
bigger than mips core built with the same technology. Until mips expands 
or x86 shrinks there will be size consideration because smaller core 
size means you can put more of other components on the same die.

Regards,
Alex


Garrett D'Amore wrote:
> Nathan J. Williams wrote:
>> "Garrett D'Amore" <garrett_damore@tadpole.com> writes:
>>
>>   
>>> The problem is that the folks who are spending big on new technology
>>> investments aren't investing in MIPS.  AMD have sold off their MIPS
>>> product line and are pushing Geode hard now.  Intel has XScale/ARM
>>> products. 
>>>     
>> Of course, Intel just sold off XScale/ARM to Marvell.
>>
>> http://www.marvell.com/press/pressNewsDisplay.do?releaseID=581
>> http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20060627corp.htm
>>
>>         - Nathan
>>   
> 
> Wow.  Well, if this signals anything, it will be the end of opensource
> ARM stuff.  Marvell are really, really closed minded in the past.
> 
> It also demonstrates what I was saying about x86.  AMD and Intel have
> both abandoned everything not x86.  This signals a belief in their part
> that they can focus x86 embedded solutions now.
> 
>     -- Garrett
>