Sandy Bridge error shows how Intel is important

It escaped your notice that Sandy Bridge processor microarchitecture Intel has made an impact. A look at our PC reviews will soon show that the performance of your PC by Sandy Bridge are head and shoulders above the rest.

Alas, that's not the whole story: in the weeks of launch Sandy Bridge, Intel announced it had found a design flaw in her series 6 ' Cougar Point's chipset, forcing a warning to be issued. You can find out exactly what happened and what you should do if you intend to buy a PC, in our history: Intel Sandy Bridge recall: what you need to know.

Suffice it to say that it is an error of $ 1 billion and one that Intel will struggle to survive. It'll take at least three years for the dust to settle, but perversely, recall and its fallout illustrate where Intel dominates the PC industry.

There is nothing wrong with AMD, of course, and the growth of mobile computing means companies as arm grow increasingly important. But Intel is the single most important hardware player in the PC market, and Sandy Bridge is an update of the game change.

Even after Intel pulled ahead its date of supply Cougar point, the first OEM will receive sufficient boards updated is the end of March. If suppliers had decided not to sell PCs with contaminated chipsets, there would be a six-week period where could be sold only obsolete Intel or AMD PCs. At the same time, PC manufacturers ought to remind all laptops and PCs have got flogged, replace motherboards and send them back. Intel may have to pay the Bill at the end, but in the medium term would be disastrous.

Given Intel's market share and profit margins thinner bear PC OEMs, only the largest of the latter could survive this crisis. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the existence of independent UK computer industry was threatened by lack of simple design of Intel.

Make care buying public, about the processor in your PC? Not directly, perhaps, but a dealer UK recently told me that it is much harder to sell a PC that does not carry the Intel branding-largely because of the all-pervasive advertising it undertakes and five-note ear-worm contains its TV ads.

If you ask me for buying tips I recommend a PC model or brand rarely, but remember what specific to search for. In today's market, which typically means an Intel processor.

Windows 8 will run on ARM processors, System-on-a-chip and mobile, as well as Intel and AMD chips. This is part of the Microsoft way of spreading the risk of having a single partner, over-influential hardware. Because, as the company worked a long time ago, the best way to make a fortune in the PC does not make the PC, but to design the public part of a PC you recognize and demand every time.

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