There really is no reason for Intel to join. If they plan to actually ship product in 2009, that means that they are already making trial runs.. so they do have the process NOW.

If they joined, thay had almost nothing to gain and a lot to loose.. and remember this is a capital intensive game: investing a lot of money is a way to bankrupt your oponents... just ask the USSR..

"investing a lot of money is a way to bankrupt your oponents... just ask the USSR.."

Yes, that's more than likely a lesson well learned and etched into their DNA/silicon. Makes you wonder if SANTA is bringing them a special present this year for all of their past suffering.

I wonder who's investing in what and bankrupting the sub-prime dodgy credit brokers.

Sun, FSC, and nVidia. Maybe Sun can claim Rock is too different for a there to be a point in joining, but then surely Sun and/or Fujitsu need some 35nm knowledge if one or other of them really intends to make a follow on to SPARC64.....? And nVidia may not be in because AMD = ATi, but nVidia are currently at 65nm with their cores and the new Radeons are 55nm already. If AMD also get the benefit of stealing a march on chipset design then they could get a nice lead over nVidia in graphics and chipsets.

I'm not suprised that they haven't come up with a group name. You try coming up with a name that encapsulates the idea that all those in the group have much smaller ones than those not in it without any scope for mirthsome double-entendres......