Editing Intel i860 (section)

==Demise==
As the compilers improved, the general performance of the i860 did likewise, but by then most other RISC designs had already passed the i860 in performance.

In the late 1990s, Intel replaced their entire RISC line with [[ARM architecture family|ARM]]-based designs, known as the [[XScale]]. Confusingly, the 860 number has since been re-used for a motherboard control chipset for Intel [[Xeon]] (high-end [[Pentium]]) systems and a model of the Core i7.

[[Andy Grove]] suggested that the i860's failure in the marketplace was due to Intel being stretched too thin:
{{quote|text = We now had two very powerful chips that we were introducing at just about the same time: the 486, largely based on CISC technology and compatible with all the PC software, and the i860, based on RISC technology, which was very fast but compatible with nothing. We didn't know what to do. So we introduced both, figuring we'd let the marketplace decide. ... our equivocation caused our customers to wonder what Intel really stood for, the 486 or i860?|author=[[Andy Grove]]|source=
<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geek.com/intels-486-cpu-turns-15/ |title=Intel's 486 CPU turns 15 <!-- Bot generated title --> |date=3 June 2004 |first=Sander |last=Olson |website=Geek.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080525110753/http://www.geek.com/intels-486-cpu-turns-15/ |archive-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref>}}