If you ask the average person to name the world's biggest computer chip company they'll say Intel. In reality, Intel makes only about 2% of the world's microprocessors and microcontrollers. The rest of the business is scattered among dozens of other CPU and MCU makers. ARM-based chips, for example, are five times more popular than Intel’s x86-based chips, yet few normal people know anything about ARM.

Intel wants to change that. Not the ARM thing—the 2% thing. Intel wants a bigger slice of the embedded-processor pie, and it's been eyeing the mobile market hungrily. ARM ate Intel’s lunch, so to speak, totally devouring cell phones and tablets, two areas where Intel has just about zero appeal. But if cell phones and tablets are going to replace PCs as our computers of choice, Intel needs to get moving. And get mobile.