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Why Intel stopped making motherboards

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 22, 2026April 11, 2026

For nearly two decades, Intel was a go-to brand not just for CPUs but also for motherboards. On January 20, 2013, Intel pulled out of the market, ending an era. Here’s why Intel stopped making motherboards.

Intel saw motherboard production as a way to protect its brand identity more than as a profit center. Once the industry had several other companies producing motherboards that met acceptable quality standards, Intel had little reason to stay. The key to understanding Intel’s motherboard business is understanding Intel’s mindset. Intel will introduce products just to sell or protect another product, then leave that market when the product no longer needs that support.

Transmeta Crusoe CPU

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 21, 2026January 23, 2026

Transmeta may be most notable today for its $273 million IPO on Nov 7, 2000 being the last successful tech IPO until the Google IPO in 2004. But on January 19, 2000, Transmeta’s big news was its new Crusoe CPU.

What happened to Blackberry?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 20, 2026January 20, 2026

In the late 90s and early 2000s, the gadget that said more than any other that you had arrived was the Blackberry, a little device from Research in Motion that let you read your e-mail and respond to it from anywhere. And then it became old-fashioned just as quickly as it burst onto the scene. What happened to Blackberry?

You might be surprised to hear the company is still around and that you can still buy Blackberry phones. But the device that made it famous, introduced January 19, 1999, isn’t retro enough to be cool again and isn’t its future. And it knows it.

Year 2038 problem

Dave Farquhar security January 19, 2026February 19, 2026

We need to talk about the year 2038 problem. The year 2038 problem exists on Unix and Unix-like systems, and other software that borrowed the Unix time standard. The problem is that on January 19, 2038, the 32 bit integer that Unix uses to represent time is going to wrap around. And then the computer is going to think it is December 13, 1901. If this sounds a lot like the Y2K problem, you’re not wrong. The dates involved are different, but the effect is very similar.

When the VCR became popular and legal

Dave Farquhar 1980s January 16, 2026January 16, 2026

When did VCRs get popular? It’s hard to give an exact date. I was alive in the 1980s, and it was a gradual thing. But I will argue that 1984 is as good of a starting point as any, because 1984 was the year VCRs became legal. Yes, part of the problem with VCR adoption was the question of whether they violated copyright law. But the Supreme Court settled that on January 17, 1984.

AMD’s acquisition of NexGen

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 15, 2026January 15, 2026

On January 16, 1996, AMD closed on its acquisition of NexGen. It was a transformational purchase for AMD, as it gave them a way ahead after AMD’s own design team struggled to create a viable competitor for Intel’s Pentium CPU. NexGen had been the first company to produce a Pentium-class CPU outside of Intel.

NCSA: The unsung hero of Internet history

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 14, 2026January 14, 2026

In my mind, the most overlooked contributor to the rise of the Internet as we know it today is the NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The NCSA is a computing research partnership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Research at the NCSA is the missing link between what Tim Berners-Lee was doing at CERN and Netscape, the early dotcom darling. NCSA opened January 15, 1986.

When Gamestop stock surged 50% for inexplicable reasons

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 13, 2026November 6, 2025

On January 11, 2021, Gamestop stock surged 50% out of the blue. Yes, Gamestop, the brick and mortar video game store that once had about 7,500 locations globally at its peak in 2016, but closes hundreds of locations every year. And 2021 was no exception, with about 400 closures that year. Its closures get it mentioned in the same breath as struggling retailers like Joann, Forever 21, and Macy’s. So why did its stock suddenly jump 50 percent some random day in a year that it closed 400 stores?

Information Superhighway enters the chat, 1994

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 12, 2026January 12, 2026

Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet, although that was a running joke for a decade or more. But in January 1994, my parents didn’t know what the Internet was. Most other people didn’t at that point either. Al Gore helped bring it into the public consciousness by using the phrase Information Superhighway in a keynote he delivered January 11, 1994.

AOL-Time Warner merger of January 2000

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 9, 2026January 9, 2026

On January 10, 2000, AOL dropped a bomb on the Internet, announcing its intention to acquire Time Warner, an old-line media giant, for $162 billion. It was a radical transformation for the company. But the synergies it sought never came to fruition.