It's been slowing down for a long time now - you may have seen enthusiasts rush out to buy quad cores yes, but the majority of people? Not really.
The race has actually flipped completely - Intel's atom motherboards are flying off the shelves. There's a couple of projects I'm thinking of where I'd use them and why not? You can pick up a motherboard with onboard graphics, sound and networking with a dual core atom processor that draws barely more than 30W under full load for around £60. That's pretty damn impressive, and no it's not going to rip through 1080p content or play the latest 3D games but for internet browsing, facebook, typing up a few letters, playing older games and so on it's fantastic. That's all most people need these days!
