Why do you say that? They're already responding to ARM with their big.Bigger architecture in their latest generation.
I'm sure people said the same thing about Intel when AMD introduced 64 bit procs or Sun introduced multicore processors. Intel has adapted and lead the field many times after being overtaken. No reason to expect them not to do the same here, or at least compete.
Not sure ‘already’ is appropriate here. big.LITTLE was announced in 2011. Taking 11 years to copy a competitor’s successful feature must be a record of some sort.
Not sure you understand the point of big.LITTLE. It's about dealing with power and thermal constraints in the quest for more performance [1]. So was the transition to multicore processors, BTW [2]. These are the things hardware companies do when they have no other option. And as [2] points out, we software folks still don't have a good way to deal with it.
Alder Lake is about dealing with power and thermal constraints. Intel has finally pushed performance so far that they need to do this. The chips are benchmarking so well because of this move, not in spite of it.
I'm sure people said the same thing about Intel when AMD introduced 64 bit procs or Sun introduced multicore processors. Intel has adapted and lead the field many times after being overtaken. No reason to expect them not to do the same here, or at least compete.