That's too bad, the machines that I've built using Intel motherboards have been incredibly reliable and trouble free. In my experience, Super Micro motherboards are the only others that can touch them.

"The one issue I can glean from this - me NOT being a PC hard/software engineer - is that will this mean even further compliant issues for the CPUs<>GPUs Tango?"

Intel mobos have always had a very small market share which explains Intel pulling out.

The mobo itself only provides the interconnections between the GPU and CPU.
There's a lot of them and the layout of them is critical at the clock speeds used today however that's a well understood issue.
If you look at a current mobo I think most of the components you see are for the power supply, the rest is just big blocks of silicon with wires between them.

Bob.

So, simply put it means.......?

G

I'm not sure either but, if I'm right, they are continuing to build the processors (the i5, i7 etc) which seems to me to be one of the most important elements. for us. If these will work with other (good) motherboards, do we really have to worry too much? Frankly I don't know. All I want is something that works reliably and reasonably quickly - please :) :)

Richard

"So, simply put it means.......?"

You're wrong.

Bob.

Thanks Bob.

G

Funny.

Best Double-Act on the Forum!

G

Never having owned an Intel motherboard, I'm neutral on the subject. I have sold many of them in my lifetime, though. I'm more interested in the possibility that the socketed processor may disappear in the future. But, then I'm likely to disappear in the future, too.

My current case supports a server board form factor (as that form factor is currently defined), so my next (and possibly last upgrade) might be a multi-socket server board if the enthusiast Desktop PC market disappears.

My assumption is that Intel realizes its main business and profit center is processors. Based on my conversations in the past with mid-level Intel manager friends (I'm here in Portland, site of major Intel operations), Intel branches out into other projects simply as an effort to promote further processor sales. Plus, building motherboards probably gives them insight into potential compatibility issues, as well as making sure that a complete solution is immediately available to the customer when a brand-new processor architecture is introduced.

But other than that, motherboards are probably a huge resource sink for them and they probably just said, enough.

> "Intel mobos have always had a very small market share which explains Intel pulling out."

Or more likely, the Dektop PC is dead... it just hasn't laid down yet. The whole world is moving on to mobile/tablet devices and Desktop PC's will be like Trucks... very few people (like us content creators) will really need them for heavy lifting but everyone else will be fine without one. Intel sees the handwriting on the wall.

> "My assumption is that Intel realizes its main business and profit center is processors."

Unfortunately not Intel processors. The "new world" of tablets is ARM based and doesn't require Intel. They are in a very sticky situation along with Microsoft. The whole world is moving to mobile devices which are dominated by ARM hardware and iOS & Android software. Intel and Microsoft are the dinosaurs in this equation. Can they evolve or will they become extinct? It sounds like Intel might be trying to evolve. I'm guessing they need to come out with something that competes with ARM or they are done.

~jr

More and more of the motherboard components are moving on chip. The motherboard isn't as critical as it used to be and is getting less so as times goes by.

JohnnyRoy,

Don't underestimate Intel. They have been through many trials and their competition is either dead (Power PC, Cyrix, NeXt) or on life support (AMD).

x86 architecture is moving to ultra mobile devices. It's begun with Ivy Bridge in Surface Pro tablets, Haswell will bring further power/thermal advances. And Broadwell at 14nm will probably be a breakthrough processor.

Keep in mind that ARM only exists to run Android, which is a Linux based OS simple enough to be run by the relatively weak (in comparison with our desktop x86 cpus) ARM chips. It's a stop gap measure.

Once x86 is hitting the ultramobile power/thermal envelopes ARM will be long in Intel's rearview mirror.

Furthermore, Intel is so far ahead of the world now in terms of process technology that if they wanted to create the best ARM processor they could do it simply because their transistor process is by far the best available. They will go there if they have to but I think they are betting on Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, etc.. and x86 to rule them all. And they really haven't been wrong yet. Remember how the RISC PowePC was supposed to put and end to the x86? Bye bye PowerPC.

Now keep in mind that I think all of this competition is great for us consumers. It brings better products and lower prices. I'm just saying don't be so quick to count Intel out. They are getting stung a bit by the ARM market, and they can be slow to respond (Athlon/P4 debacle back in the early to mid 2000's), but then they strike back it's a death blow (Core2Duo) in 2006.

- Mark

I would not bet against Intel either, but we will know soon enough. The Haswell chipset ultrabooks and tablets will be out this June, a good deal earlier than schedule which means Intel has heard the ARM breathing down it's neck and has responded. Some pretty impressive claims are being made by Intel folks, too,and they don't really have much room for empty promises, they are going to need to deliver. Here's a quote from a few weeks ago, at CES:

"Skaugen showed off a reference design for a 17-millimeter thick laptop which will have 13 hours of battery life.You can remove the keyboard and turn it into an 850-gram tablet that is just 10 millimeters thick and has 10 hours of battery life. Skaugen showed a high-end PC racing game running on the Haswell-based tablet."

Mind you, these are full blown i5 and i7 class processors, as fast or just slightly faster than their ivy bridge counterparts. Could be impressive, and for Intel's sake, they better be.

As the comparison was made, Dinosaurs did outlive us humans by some +10x figure (?). They were only wiped out by a complexity of slow parameters edging them towards the cliff, and that cliff edge was hastened forward by the Great Extinction meteor.

Nah, let's get really out there: I can't wait for when ALL my realtime<>preview editing will be done on a CLOUD and the need for complex compositing will be a "finger-twitch" away as I "Minority Report"-like brush and waft my creations together and I can at last free myself from the shackles of GPU and CPU and stoopid things like this.

Give me a Tablet screen on the other end of my mono-optic gatherer and I'll be pleased to leave all this "mess" behind. By that time frame rates will be irrelevant, as full nano-streaming visuals pour and slide onto my "virtual" editing platform as I "think-in" a stunning audio stream.

Why hobble our discussions about the virtues of this or that manufacturer? It's not just the "heavy-lifters" that are dino-like, it's also the narrow, mean "low-view" discussions that entrench us in dark and ill-lit visions. Bring out the full vision that needs to take us to a much much higher ground.

Seriously? As soon as Vegas comes on a tablet, like the simplicity of my iPhone I'm outta here!

But what do I know . . . . . ?

Grazie

Edit video on a tablet? What, do you have one of those jeweler's loupes? I have a desktop with a 24" display, a 12" laptop, and a 4" Android. The 24" is WONDERFUL, I have a nice big Vegas layout that lets me deal with multiple tracks with ease.

At the other end of the size spectrum I use the phone to talk, to text, to play games when bored, and to read books (I use "Cool Reader," a terrific program--oops--app). Reading books on the Android is no more difficult than reading the morning newspaper, and the fact that my smartphone can do all these things means all I have to carry around is just one device, which lives in a nice leather pouch on my belt.

I have done video editing on my 12" laptop, but it's cumbersome. But it is nice having a real keyboard for text-based activities.

So, no, I don't see the desktop going away at all, at least for those people who want (a) a real keyboard, (b) a big luxurious screen, and (c) the ability to run a near-infinite variety of programs, including those requiring some muscle. Nor do I see the smartphone going away, for numerous reasons. The tablet? I guess I currently think of it as a larger, heavier, more cumbersome smartphone without the ability to call people. Oh, and many people think it's cool to be seen carrying one. Probably not the folks frequenting this board, but I know many others who consider that an important attribute.

The cloud? Hmmm... I'm the kind of guy who does backups of backups, at least when I've put hundreds of hours into a project. Trust the cloud? Maybe someday. Not soon.

I was just at a Deloitte presentation yesterday and their research echos much of what you say riredale:

- We're not in a post-PC era (yet) - the install base is massive, keyboard and tactile interfaces are too reliable and voice (10-15% miss rate) and gestural (15-20% miss rate) intefaces are too unreliable. (there was a bit of a jab at "Post PC era being Jobsian propoganda - maybe foresightful, with 1.5 Billion PCs in the world, very premature)

- Screen size dictates most user behavior, the more visual the content, the more the user will default to the largest available screen size (if you only have a phone, you'll view content on a phone - if you have a phone, and tablet, you'll consume on the tablet - and so on, all the way up to the TV (and smart TVs, as they mature, will have an impact on consumption habits, they believe).

- Most interestingly, the young the user, the LESS likely they are to use a tablet. The largest penetration and purchaser of tablets are mature (50+ years old). The lowest, at just 8% is anyone under 23 years - they use a phone or a laptop, and don't have much use for tablets.

In any case, I have two 24: monitors and can't imagine editing on a tablet. I have a 17" in laptop that I rarely edit on because it's just awkward (yes, I'm spoiled).

I've heard rumours there will be some video editing app/capability on the new Blackberry 10 phones...I'm interested to see how that works out.