Packet routing is actually a good example of a function that is better doen with dedicated hardware and does not have a ‘high level of mathematical processing’. This is in marked contrast to a cellphone or home metworks where key baseband functions are handled by DSPs including OMAP chips.

As for Gadget Sleuth’s comments above, I don’t think TI will go under at all; their revenue will go down but profitability should improve (when I was briefly at TI in the mid-90s, the HPA division (High-performance Analog) produced most of the profit for the company). And Tl lead the industry in analog sales; more than National, ADI, Linear Technology or Maxim.

So my bet is the other way. Intel is not the best example as they have never succeeded in communications, particularly RF. Their radios and mixed-signal expertise tends to come from acquisitions; in any event the have struggled in the non-core-processor area — one examplei is 802.11a where they tried but could not makes the WiFi radio and ultimately used Atheros in the first generation of modems.

A bet it will lose, if Intel is having trouble doing this sort of thing. I actually TI had went under awhile back; it seems like i’ll turn out to be right.