>The sheer amount of choice at all levels is staggering.
Only when it comes to CPUs are two brands a "staggering" amount of choice. Something is wrong with this business, and I think it's the ISA patents. If Oracle can't patent their software API, then Intel/AMD shouldn't be able to patent their ISA either. An ISA is just a hardware API.
If a competitor to AMD or Intel came out with a chip that requires recompiles, but is significantly ahead of them in a key metric, it would sell in the server market.
But competing with Intel and AMD takes billions of research, and well, the design of modern CPUs is surely a patent minefield too.
Just look at what's (not) happening with ARM servers.
Only when it comes to CPUs are two brands a "staggering" amount of choice. Something is wrong with this business, and I think it's the ISA patents. If Oracle can't patent their software API, then Intel/AMD shouldn't be able to patent their ISA either. An ISA is just a hardware API.