Aren't Intel NICs considered the best, due to the way it manages interrupts (can't remember the source at the moment but I did read somewhere they were better than RealTek but maybe not necessarily Broadcom)?
Also every Intel motherboard of course has an Intel-developed chipset.
Didn't Intel also develop HDCP which is also in every television and graphics card at this point - though I'm not sure what Intel hardware is behind that.
Intel NICs are indeed good. I suppose that an exception. I don’t know much of the history behind HDCP, but the crypto is a joke.
Interesting things to look up: SoFIA, Puma 6, all the Atom-based phones out there, Larrabee / Xeon Phi. A lot of money has been spend, and the returns have been dubious.
