CPU-makers, WAKE UP! at Robert Pogson

We have known for many years that the future lies in cheap, good-enough CPUs. What do Intel and AMD crank out? Hearts for super-computers.

Wake up, folks. We read that ASUS is awash with Atom CPUs and is dumping them in China where they are good enough. Intel is upset that this reduces the market for high-powered CPUs.

I have been writing on these pages for years that China is a key market. This is more proof. The world will produce what China wants in software and hardware. China wants low-cost/power/heat CPUs and Free Software. They will get it whether Intel supplies them or leaves it to VIA/ARM/home-grown stuff.

What are the Chinese doing with Atoms, besides netbooks? Not much except cranking out ever-lower-cost netbooks that are good enough for browsing/word-processing. ARM is in the mix too. Atom has to be priced as low as ARM to keep share for Intel and Wintel. It is not. The market will decide no matter how much Wintel twists the arms of OEMs. Entrepreneurs in China have no interest in being co-opted by Wintel when they have a market in hand for all their production for years to come. The Chinese market is several times the size of the USA and netbooks are good enough for what they want. Why even try to sell fire-breathing dragons there?

The neat thing for me about China is that because they demand low-cost computing, GNU/Linux has the inside track. The newly announced pricing for that other OS prevents it from competing with GNU/Linux in this market. If they keep the price low in China, other countries will demand similar treatment. It is almost over, folks.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.