Hmmm. I don't think the problem is just with design. The problem probably lays with fabrication. Intel is large enough to both upgrade their fabs and CPU desig

Hmmm. I don't think the problem is just with design. The problem probably lays with fabrication. Intel is large enough to both upgrade their fabs and CPU design alternate years. Fabs are becoming more capital intensive to build each year. Furthermore, Intel can afford to make mistakes. This is the reason why AMD is being killed - its 45nm process was way behind Intel's. AMD is now being split up into a foundry and CPU design company (but the future is bleak). nVidia will never be a serious competitor – it is a fabless semiconductor company (its stuff gets manufactured by TSMC). The looming Intel monopoly will be worse than Microsofts monopoly. IMHO the only hope for competition is for for companies such as Via to manufacture low-end CPUs at foundries.