Windows Phone Thoughts: Intel To Sell Off XScale Business?

"Troubled Intel Corp. has put several of its loss-ridden communications-chip businesses on the block, including its network processors, XScale chip lines and other products, according to a report from the San Jose Mercury News on Saturday (June 3). Intel spent more than $10 billion to enter the communications business over the years, but the microprocessor giant lost its shirt — if not millions of dollars in the arena. The reported communications-chip sale is said to be part of Intel’s plan to overhaul the company."

We've had several submissions wondering what this means for Pocket PCs. Personally, I'm not worried about it. Intel is not the sole supplier of Pocket PC ARM-based processors; Samsung and TI are other notable manufacturers with their own lineups. XScale itself was based off a previous ARM CPU, known as StrongARM, which Intel purchased from DEC back in 1998 as part of a lawsuit agreement. It seems this is more due to an effort by Intel to refocus the company around the Core Duo processor technologies, especially in light of fierce AMD competition.