We received some very interesting info from one of our unofficial sources. Intel is reported to be considering the possibility to stop manufacturing mainboards. This news is kind of sensational, however, we will not hurry up with our conclusions and try to analyze the situation first.
First here are some facts and info proving that Intel may be quitting the mainboard market in the nearest future:

• It has been almost settled already that Intel will close the mainboard fab in Puerto Rica.
• Intel hasn’t shipped a single mainboard for 2 quarters already.
• Intel doesn’t get high revenues from its mainboard business: it isn’t profitable for the company to manufacture mainboards.
• According to some reliable sources, Dell (one of the major customers who has always ordered Intel’s desktop boards) is now negotiating large OEM orders with the leading Taiwanese mainboard makers (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI). This may mean only one thing: Intel warned Dell that they were about to stop manufacturing mainboards (or to reduce the amount of the boards produced quite significantly).

And now we would like to mention a few facts disclaiming these rumors:

• The second largest customer buying mainboards from Intel, Gateway, doesn’t negotiate anything with the Taiwanese mainboard makers.
• Intel can’t give up manufacturing server mainboards, since in this case its own server CPUs may turn out "homeless". As for the Taiwanese mainboard makers they are very uneager to manufacture server solutions, because they cost too much. Moreover, poor Intel Intanium badly needs "very careful handling and sympathy".

All in all, the situation is pretty puzzling. As for us, we will hardly be surprised, if Intel stops manufacturing desktop mainboards this year. As far as server solutions are concerned, Intel will be able to give them up as well only if they manage to agree with other mainboard manufacturers the possibility to produce them (take for instance, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI or Elitegroup). However, these are just our suppositions... Time will show how the things will go.