Arm vs. Intel: Who's David? Who's Goliath?

By _EETimes Blog

November 8, 2010

There is an intense competition between Intel and ARM over who will dominate the world of Internet-centric computing. It strikes me as a David vs. Goliath battle. But who is David? And who is Goliath?

Intel, with an estimated $40 billion in sales each year, is trying hard to establish new markets to replace the maturing PC platform. After dipping in all things embedded, mobile and wireless several times in the past and then withdrawing, now the company is trying again, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in processors, operating systems, and boards, and in the creation of an infrastructure of independent suppliers of hardware and software.

Despite its deep financial pockets, Intel’s tardy efforts may be no more than David’s slingshot against the sword and armor of the Goliath ARM has become. Despite an estimated annual revenue of just under $500 million from licensing its processor architecture, it claims as adherents to its architecture virtually every major and minor semiconductor company in the world, except for Intel and its arch-rival AMD.

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