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Intel to Drop Low-end Chipsets
SimilarityEngine writes "Intel is planning to terminate production of its 910GL, 915GL and 915PL chipsets by the end of August, as part of a shift in focus towards higher-spec products, possibly with support for new FSB architectures, multi-core processors and a host of other much-requested features relating to virtualisation and security."
New processors (both Intel and AMD) support the ability to have a page of memory that is readable and writable, but not executable. That's the whole NX, and execute disable thing you've seen on Slashdot. What this does is effectively prevent many kind of buffer overflows from being dangerous, since they overflow into an area of memory that isn't marked executable.
So at least some of what Intel is doing with their new chips is for the benefit of the consumer.
I think you're mostly right with the car industry analogy except for this.
Already Chrysler is history, and we are all just wondering whether Ford or GM will be next to go.
Perhaps Chrysler is a history as an independent US corporation but it is not history in its function as the North American branch of Daimler Chrysler after merging (some say being taken over by) with Mercedes Benz. Last year, was the first year Chrysler not only finished in blue ink but they also turned a decent profit. And recently (before the loss making discounts of GM and Ford) they were the only company to gain a significan market share together with some Japanese and Korean rivals. This revival is probably due to introduction of a few new attractive models such as Crysler 300M or Dodge Charger (which surely were designed with the help of their German bosses). This demonstrates that even North American car makers and strive and make profits as long as their design cars that don't suck.