Haven't we seen this all before? (Score 1)

Back in the day, if you ran 'math-intensive' software it would look for an 8087 math co-processor and load special code libraries in Lotus 123 to speed up calc performance. Once Intel had the chip real estate to spare though, this special purpose chip got subsumed into the CPU. As Intel keeps driving the transistor count up, they will be perfectly capable of embbeding a full-featured 'streams' processor into their CPUs. It won't happen right away, but it solves the issue of different code libraries (a software company's nightmare) and will be good enough for 80% of the folks out there. High-end graphics will always need a hi-perf, dedicated solution, but the market will be smaller (which I think is nVidias first worry). Add to this some gaming companies recent threats to abandon the PC as a game platform due to piracy concerns, and their market could get much smaller. Hence all the bluster about GPUs taking over for the CPU. Historicaly, it's always been the CPU that takes over special-purpose functions, not the other way around (at least in the Intel space). No one else has the cash and the facilities (same thing really) to drive the transistor count up enough to do this trick.