What's happening in the PC chipset market these days?

I remember there used to be a lot of choices in PC chipsets in the old
days. You had Chips & Technologies, VIA, ALi/ULi, SiS. Then later Intel
decided to take over the business for its own processors. So the smaller
chipset makers sustained themselves on sales to AMD processors. Later,
some big graphics guns entered the market in the form of ATI and Nvidia.
ATI later became a part of AMD, of course.

It's eerie how similar the Intel and AMD chipset markets have now
evolved into nearly identical clones of each other. There used to be a
lot of chipset choices with Intel processors and then there were Intel
and Nvidia. And now a large robust chipset industry for the AMD
processors has also now settled into a market of AMD and Nvidia.

This article shows all of the choices for Intel and AMD processors as of
right now. Here's the overview of each market:

Chipsets for Intel CPUs
"Over the years, the market for chipsets for Intel CPUs has gradually
been whittled down to two primary vendors: Intel and Nvidia. The two
companies take different approaches to their core logic, with Intel
tending to stress mainstream platform support, while Nvidia builds
products for high-end enthusiasts."

Chipsets for AMD Processors
"As with Intel-based systems, there are now two primary manufacturers
for core logic for AMD CPUs: AMD and Nvidia. The way the core logic is
marketed and positioned for AMD-based platforms is eerily similar to
that for Intel systems. Nvidia focuses on the high end, enthusiast
market, while AMD's offerings are lower cost and aimed at mainstream and
entry-level systems. As with the Intel-Nvidia chipset axis, AMD plays a
bit in the enthusiast space. However, Nvidia has more aggressively
pushed into the low end of the AMD processor space, with the 8x00 series
chipsets for AMD, which feature Nvidia DX10 integrated graphics solutions."

PC Chipsets Today: Choice and Confusion - CPUs, Boards & Components by
ExtremeTech
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2320306,00.asp