You are right to water down the all-mobile focus, and parallel markets like automotive for sure have all the attention of Intel. The giant of Santa Clara has built his success on the PC industry and although the embedded computing segment is an interesting relay for growth, Otellini's boys always keep an eye on the PC statistics.

They have realised long ago that the trend of this market was going in the direction of more portable devices. Some time ago, the sales curves of laptops and desktops crossed, and it was clear that later on, some lighter devices would outsell laptops. Since then, Intel views on the mobile market have radically evolved. It is no longer “an interesting development”… it is the future of Intel, and they even coined a word for it.

Mobile is a matter of life and death. And because it is the future of the PC industry, the x86 architecture is a key asset… hence the statement of the Press Release regarding Intel Architecture (the Intel language to refer to the x86 without mentioning AMD).

A company is never acquired for its past, and rarely for its present, the future of Wind River is to make Intel Architecture ubiquitous, and the mobile space is a central battlefield for that…

Andy

As WindRiver would define themselves they're all about device software optimisation… and have a large share of their business in automotive, aeronautics, network equipment… All on ARM…

So why would Intel want to buy them purely for the mobile space? Or is there another reason?

Silicon vendors have indeed acquired mobile software companies since the mid-nineties. Protocol stack companies in particular have all found an exit in silicon (remember Optimay, Condat or more recently Stackcom?).

Until now, when a silicon vendor was acquiring a mobile software company, the purpose of the acquisition was a specific software module, which was so closely linked to its core business that it became a key part of its offer.

The move of Intel is pretty different, as it values Wind River capacity to serve top OEMs, rather than focus on specific IP nuggets. Intel buys client proximity, and time-to-market, something that only software companies with integration skills can provide. A few years ago, would have any silicon vendor considered acquiring Teleca?

TTPcom did not bring luck to Motorola indeed, but it would have been a great asset for Freescale.

Andy

I acknowledge plenty of accurate statements in your article.

Now it is really something really new? (or maybe have I been working for too long in this industry…)

I see more Intel as just catching up because (re)entering now in that playground than a new trend. HW vendors and top OEMs have been using software to differentiate and developping Handsets or reference platforms has been around for some time now. Or did I miss your point?

As you just pointed out, TI probably failed in that area. Would TTPcom acquisition changed the picture? We could ask Motorola who won the pot

Steph

via <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/visionmobile">@visionmobile: Hardware is the future of mobile software, and vice versa. What Intel+ WindRiver really means: http://tinyurl.com/ldwyt2

Hardware is the future of mobile software, and vice versa. What Intel?s acquisition of WindRiver really means. http://tinyurl.com/ldwyt2