If events conspire to loosen Intel Corp.'s grip on the PC architecture, consumers will reap some major benefits.
Unintended consequences lie in wait for the unwary.
For the most part, the user's shotgun wedding to Intel has been a happy affair. The giant has acted as a stable force in a frenzied market, competently delivering on the promise of Moore's Law, doubling processor performance every 18 months. The company has also brought the consumers a fairly standard platform with fast technologies, such as peripheral component interconnect, or PCI, and the advanced graphics port, or AGP, buses which have raised the bar on computer speeds. Then again, consumers have paid for all this. Without a doubt, they could be getting more for less.