Intel
Today, Intel announced the acquisition of the cable modem product team from fellow silicon veteran Texas Instruments
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, and the contract should close by the end of the year. That means we're looking at a rather small price tag, or else Intel would have to share the details out of respect to fiduciary duty and SEC regulations. That, in turn, means it must be a pretty good deal -- if Cisco or Motorola want to put a modern cable connection inside their boxes, their choices for DOCSIS 3.0 support are pretty much limited to Broadcom
I don't think this is a vote of no confidence in the computer market, but rather an attempt to broaden Intel's revenue base in a sensible manner. This gives Intel the opportunity to marry Puma chips with its own Atom processors to create a complete solution. The synergies in this deal could be a tremendous boost to the Atom project.
N.B.: TI's Puma is not to be confused with the Puma platform from Advanced Micro Devices