It would seem to me that intel is holding it's aces because it fears what amd will come upwith/not feeling sorry for amd.
Intel is built to make money, and it does this however it is necessary. It goes the cheapest rout on it chips if that will save them a penny i.e. putting two cores together rather than the expensive way all on one core.
They have a great advertising system and they have the money to make it go. As the old addage from the 50s How goes General Motors so goes the country.
Does this mean they are technologically impaired, by no means they have all the engineers they need and well qualified ones. But still their makeup makes them go on the cheap.
Amd on the other hand was a bunch of geeks playing in research and development. And of course their goal was good not cheap, and i believe if amd survives the assault intel has made using the soothsayers of the stock market they will again bury intel.