Awesome insight. I would think that a company would automate all their testing procedures, even the plugging in and out of ethernet cables for a unit test of different cables. Geekheaven.
The gear they have is amazing, but those guys make a lot of money, so investing it in new technologies and products is a must to keep up.
I wonder how many people are actually involved in the Intel 10gbit technologies. Clearly these people do much of the testing and signal analysis stuff, including tweaks. How many people 'back at the office' would be designing boards and firmware (with the big amount of DSP involved).. hmm, I wonder.
When I got a grey board I will apply there.