In the telecoms world, from devices to infrastructure, the chip industry is increasingly consolidating around the two main architectures, Intel x86 and ARM, and that is proving an important driver behind the current wave of mergers and acquisitions in the sector. The planned marriages between Freescale and NXP, Broadcom and Avago, and now Mellanox and EZchip, will result in a very different landscape for makers of network infrastructure, even as Intel strengthens its own position by acquiring Altera. Usage of custom ASIC chips in networks is declining in some areas as cost pressures mount, a trend which has, in the past, opened new doors for products like Broadcom’s Ethernet switch-chips. However, the rise of software-defined infrastructure is shifting the balance…