The serious criticism of any voluntary international framework is that it has no teeth. No enforcement, no penalties, no court. Governments sign, praise it, and go home. The criticism is accurate and mostly beside the point, because binding treaties have become close to impossible to conclude among the states that matter, and the soft instruments that replaced them turn out to do a surprising amount of governing. Look at what’s happened to ratification.

Intel has given a new startup called Rosaic access to its Atom processor technology, according to sources and documents. Rosaic is led by Amarjit Gill, who has co-invested alongside Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan for years. The technology decision is defensible on its own terms. Atom is Intel’s low-power x86 line, a product family that has been repeatedly repositioned, repeatedly deprioritized, and never quite retired. It has real value in embedded, industrial, and edge applications where x86 compatibility matters and power budgets are tight, and it has never been the platform Intel’s own resources are pointed at.