Joe, Re: The discussion was about the volume server market and specifically, NOT high end niches
If I recall, the discussion was about Itanium. I made the point earlier that high end servers was not a niche, but rather represents ~50% of server revenue. Right now, that's a 50% segment that is not x86.
If you want to avoid strawmen, then don't try to compare IPF with volume server offerings. It certainly looks like Intel has backed off from this venture; it's simply too expensive to drive IPF into all segments at once, and not enough return.
IPF's greatest strength is in the high end, which also happens to be the segment where Intel has the smallest market share. It simply makes sense for them to focus their strategy there, and use Xeon EM64T everywhere else (at least until the Tukwila timeframe, where Intel's common platform approach may change the landscape). IPF has an opportunity for >10x growth, just in the high end segment alone.
Don't confuse the topic by making comparisons elsewhere.