SA wrote:People at Sony and IBM are not interested in commoditizing them.
I'm sure they'd love to, it's just that there isn't a market for them on the desktop.
SA wrote:Also, Intel and Microsoft both have a vested interest in preventing alternative architectures from coming to market, so they exert great pressure on companies to sell only x86 based products.
Why would Intel even bother? The only places where other architectures have a chance is the embedded/mobile space where x86 has virtually no presence and no current viable products. x86 is either the only option or it's no option at all. There's simply
no room for "great pressure."
As to Microsoft, are you living under a rock? Haven't you seen the Windows Phone 7advertisements
everywhere? Do you think it runs on x86? No, ARM. Microsoft even made windows NT available on several architectures back in the day, no one cared. XBOX360 x86? No, PPC.
SA wrote: There was a big push to bring ARM based systems to market and so far, not a single one has been brought to market
1994 called, it wants it's computer back.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risc_PCOh, you meant,
this past decade. Well, no. There's no money in making a machine for hobbyists. Just ask Jean-Louis Gassée.
SA wrote:There are plenty of people, myself included, who wanted them, but because it represents a threat to Wintel, the powers that be made certain that we cannot get our hands on them, at least not in any form that is equivalent to what is available for Wintel.
OHMIGAWD ITSACONSPIRACY!!!!1111
The reason they don't exist is precisely because they're
not a threat. You and your five "friends" aren't a market worth bothering with, and thus no one in his right mind is going to waste untold millions chasing after the delusional fanatic market segment.
As to blaming "Wintel" for the lack of ARM equivalents to x86,
really? They're responsible for how hundreds of thousands of programmers haven't spent over decade churning out ARM software like they have x86?
They're responsible for the laws of physics in which a low-power, efficiency-based processor can't have the performance of a processor that has 3 orders of magnitude more power available to fuel computation?
They're responsible for the laws of economics which suggest a mature industry with ridiculous capital requirements is ill-suited for anything more than a duopoly?
They're responsible for the inherent problem of interoperability and the network effect?
No wonder you hateandfear "Wintel." You think they're some sort of dark malevolent
god! Also: Wintel? SRSLY? I'm having flashbacks to reading slashdot back in high school.
In the late nineties. I thought it was delusional and silly back then.
Reversing Marx, perhaps things must happen twice. The first time as farce, the second time as tragedy.