Not to mention the amount of momentum in these systems. The x86 architecture is hideous. But Intel and AMD have pumped billions of dollars of research into it

Not to mention the amount of momentum in these systems. The x86 architecture is hideous. But Intel and AMD have pumped billions of dollars of research into it that is difficult to overcome. Look at Apple's transition from the PPC to x86. The reason given was performance/watt. Do you think Jobs spent more than a minute worrying about how annoying x86s are to work with?