14 DAY TRIAL // That things are changing on the IT market is not something that can be classified as a mystery, but some say that things are getting particularly heated for a certain, high-tier maker of processors.
Intel may not have been in that much heat about a year and a half ago, but these days seems to be bringing more and more challenges to its door.
The tablet market is the prime reason behind how x86 processors are starting to feel more and more strain.
Basically, there is no longer a clean line between the x86 and ARM architectures as far as the markets they serve go.
With ARM chips getting strong enough to power slates and, soon enough, small laptops, it is no longer any surprise to know that Intel is doing its best to make Atom chips as low-power as possible.
Now, it is reported that the Santa Clara, California-based CPU maker may be sailing in dangerous waters in regards to Apple's MacBooks, although ARM is not its only enemy in this case.
For those that don't know, the MacBooks are Apple's particular brand of mobile computers, which have been using Intel chips for years.
Now, however, Advanced Micro Devices has the Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units), which have better integrated graphics and have been seeing quite the adoption rate among other PC maker as well.
It is also worthy of mention how Apple recently stopped using NVIDIA graphics adapters in many of its systems, having switched over to AMD ones.
Now that ARM is plotting multi-core processors of its own, some of them with up to 16 cores, the pressure on the world's top CPU maker is rising.
Intel senior Vice President Tom Kilroy did say that "we work very closely with them and we're constantly looking down the road at what we can be doing relative to future products. I'd go as far as to say Apple helps shape our roadmap."
Nevertheless, there is no real assurance that Intel is guaranteed to keep powering Apple MacBooks in the long term.