Intel's new chip launching at the perfect time?

"Intel and its customers aren't scaling back plans to use the new chip, despite signs that customers are deferring computer purchases and hardware makers are trying to hold down component inventories. For one thing, technology companies have learned through past downturns that slowing innovation can wind up delaying a rebound."

Emphasis mine. I wonder how many CIOs are making that case to the CFO these days?

Another article on the intensive testing of the Core i7 chips dusts off an old quote from Andy Grove, going back to the quality problems with the original Pentium release: "Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."