Intel had issues with 14nm, extremely massive issues with 10nm/Intel 7 and then issues with Intel 4, Intel 3, 20A and 18A.

There’s only Intel, Samsung and TSMC left for leading-edge fabrication. Samsung and Intel are both struggling, SMIC might catch up at some point, but China has to replicate the whole supply chain and tech domestically due to sanctions. There’s a real chance we end up with a TSMC monopoly and that’s the critical issue.

The design side seems to fare better, but I’d argue there’s more competition there anyways, so Intel isn’t as critical in this regard.

IFS is struggling to compete against TSMC, Datacenter is bleeding and loosing Customers to AMD, Ampere. Microsoft, NVIDIA and Google are also working on ARM server CPUs. Client Computing Group is loosing marketshare to Apple and AMD, with Qualcomm also recently entering the ring. They had to kill Optane, sell their NAND business, they’re not really relevant in GPU, have to IPO Altera again to get some cash and Mobileye already had to be IPOd again.

Clearly the CPU market didn’t need intervention to get competitive again, Intel didn’t have the power to prevent others from competing in the market and as soon as they got complacent others got ready.

Relying on TSMC as the exclusive manufacturer for bleeding edge semiconductors would be insane. We need Intel and Samsung to remain competitive.

At the very least the x86 duopoly has to end.

AMD, Intel and Centaur/VIA have x86 licensees. ARM exists, RISC-V is gaining traction - No need to implement all the legacy baggage of x86 when you can start with something a little bit more current.

Too bad semi-auto properties/the field keyword got pushed back again.

At least where I live the second-hand PC market tends to fluctuate in terms of availability and pricing. And finding a good offer might also take some time.

Before the shortage, I could simply walk into a normal computer store and buy one. That was always a large reason for me to use Raspberries, and I assume it’s a large reason why Guides prefer to point to the Rasperries rather than writing another whole article about purchasing a used USFF PC.