It"s the end of an era at Intel, or at least it will be in the near future. The PC processor maker has also made its own motherboards for desktop PCs as well for decades. Today, the company admitted that it is getting out of that business.
CNet.com reports that, according to a statement from Intel, "We disclosed internally today that Intel"s Desktop Motherboard Business will begin slowly ramping down over the course of the next three years." It added, "The internal talent and experience of twenty years in the boards business...is being redistributed to address emerging new form factors."
Those new form factors will likely include small PCs as well as notebooks, tablets and mobile phones. However, the days where Intel will make motherboards for the traditional tower case desktop PC will be over.
While Intel is getting out of this particular market, other PC hardware companies such as Asus, Gigabyte and MSI are expected to continue to make new desktop motherboards. Intel says it will keep supporting those platforms, stating, "We are making significant investments in the enthusiast platform with our K SKU portfolio and new 3rd Gen Intel Core Extreme Processors."
A couple of months ago, there were rumors that Intel was planning to move to a new PC processor model that are designed not to be removed from the motherboard. Intel later said it would offer removable PC chips "for the foreseeable future".
Source: CNet.com | Image via Intel