Intel desktop mobos face mass extinction

That's what Intel told its system integrators, distributors and motherboard partners just last week, giving them scant opportunity to shift stock, and design competing boards as well as pushing them into a frenzy at what's probably the wrong time of the year.

While Intel cites chipset shortages and full capacity as its main reason for the changes, it has to act fast to put the motherboard infrastructure into place for 2006 and 2007.

The moves put to an end the rather phony situation that's prevailed on the desktop front since it dropped its Tejas in Spring last year, and instigated one of the biggest re-organisations in the industry.

At the same time, Intel has to be careful that the massive changes it's now undertaking don't throw the whole channel and the end user into a state of confusion. Intel roadmaps now require a degree in philosophy and the mind of a champion Soduku player to decipher. It might keep your brain young, but if you're buying a PC in the next year, prepare to put your thinking cap on, or you might end up as a dunce in the corner.

The scale of the changes ahead for Intel aren't just restricted to desktops, of course. Similar changes are ahead for notebook and for server CPUs. Its chip opponent, AMD, could possibly take advantage of Intel's current complex mix by offering simple choices to people. And so, for that matter, could Via, which in our opinion is failing to take advantage of an easy win - producing a reference design for Pentium Ms at only a couple of hundred dollars.

The orange tag indicates Intel is issuing a product discontinuation note, while the black background indicates the last order entry date (LOED) happens at the beginning of the period. The last distributor return date is one month after this, and the last requested dock date is three months after this. µ