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Intel Urged to Take 'Immediate Action' Amid Threats From Apple Silicon and AMD

I think one thing that is being overlooked is that software design evolved some time ago to the point that even high performance code doesn't need to be tied to a particular CPU. The fact is it's quite easy to move code from CPU to CPU now, and has been for a while, which means even some legacy code is already portable. That opens up a lot of competition for people to design their own CPUs. It also shows the democratization of chip design and fabrication -- like so many things, it gets more and more accessible thanks to technology and the power of markets. Intel is never going to have the market-dominance they have had, no matter what they do...
 
I think that x86 is hitting the wall, and thus Intel ... as the only processor they have is x86. At the same time, their fab technology hit multiple snags over the past several years and they just could not manufacture at sustainable yields. I do believe designs are not at fault ...
But asking to divest the fabs, that is not an easy task:
. current designs would have to be modified to run on TSMC or Samsung, the only fabs that can do sub 10nm, that process will take at least a couple years in itself...
. Neither TSMC nor Samsung have the fab capacity to support Intel. Intel has like 5 or 6 fabs producing processors today ...
. moving on from x86? well, the masses who are running Windows are not interested, and Intel has nothing up their sleeve. And history (Itanium) has clearly shown that it's not an easy task.
 
While Third Point is right that they need to change up their focus I think Third Point (and every other investor in Intel) should be calling for significant management changes first and foremost. Problems like this start at the top. If current management screwed up the company thus far, they will continue to do so with the new model as well. Time for sweeping changes at Intel, starting with all the execs.
 
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I suspect Intel will be around for a long time but I wonder how the PC divisions of companies like HP/Dell/Lenovo are going to deal with the situation. They have been sucking on the Wintel teat for decades and it has made them fat and complacent. Add in the fact that Microsoft doesn't really care about Windows anymore (mobile first/cloud first) and you can see they have real problems.

Apple has a track record of creaming off most of the profit in mobile devices, they might well do the same in PC's.
 
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Current x86 computers are not going to be the future. This will be a big change for x86 and will be some resistance to changing. Having a SOC/SIP will become standard in a few years.
 
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I'm not trying to insult anyone or stir the pot, but the people I know in real life who work at Intel in very senior roles are very ordinary people.
 
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I wonder if apple is going to bring back the Xserve. If they could tune a version of their silicon for server use, they could make a killing. Two of the biggest costs for servers is power use, and cooling. A server running at 10-25W would reduce costs by a ton... and that would seriously hurt intel.
 
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I’m not an electrical engineer, so I won’t even pretend to fully understand chips and chip manufacturing, but isn’t part of the issue with Intel that even if they improve the process and move to 7 or 5nm chips, that only addresses some of the efficiency and performance that Apple is getting out of the M1 and A series chips they’re designing? Apple has the benefit of 10+ years of mobile chip development and real world use in the hundreds of millions of devices, which clearly has had a huge benefit to their new M1 chips, and we’re only seeing the first baby steps. If I had to guess, 2021 is going to be a big year for Apple MacBook Pro’s, iMacs and Mac Pro’s and a crap year for Intel specifically, and the PC market in general.
 
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jz0309 said:
. moving on from x86? well, the masses who are running Windows are not interested, and Intel has nothing up their sleeve. And history (Itanium) has clearly shown that it's not an easy task.
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Whatever Intel does next, it has to include x86 emulation, at least initially. Transitioning Windows is not as easy as transitioning Macs. Macs mostly run consumer software and professional software from a handful of very dedicated companies, like Adobe. The corporate world is vastly different. Companies have their ad-hoc custom solutions that cannot be transitioned. Consider 25 year old CNC machines, or highly custom inventory tools written 25 years ago. Windows x86 customers cannot quickly be transitioned to a new system. The consumers can be, but many companies have extremely outdated assets. Microsoft can't even kill IE11. They can say that Office 365 (Microsoft 365) won't work on it anymore, but they can't completely kill it. Intel and AMD are the only companies that can create x86 emulation at the hardware level. Microsoft is adding x86 into Windows for ARM, which may or may not be enough, I don't know. You can only emulate user-level software, not device drivers. If you invested into a waterjet cutting machine in 2004, you can't just throw it out of the window because Apple M1 is "better".
 
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VermontsFinest said:
I'm pesonally just happy my Mac doesn't run as hot as a BBQ anymore.
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Intel is mostly to blame for this. It was reported on a news site (maybe on this one not sure where) that the current Mac designs going back to 2016 for the MacBook Pro were designed with Intel's projected thermals which never happened. Therefore, Apple got stuck with thin systems that were SUPPOSED to run fine based on Intel's roadmap, but did not due to Intel's well we know what they have been doing the last few years. This is one of the reasons why Apple decided to switch to their own processors several years ago. Plus the Mac Pro disaster as they were anticipating multi-GPUs to be the path forward but it wasn't.
 
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dannyyankou said:
Intel isn’t going anywhere as long as windows machines keep using it.
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and data centers ...
But, the data centers of the world are clearly looking into alternatives (MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB ...) as Intel processors are power hogs, needing too much infrastructure and cost for cooling ... so they're going to lose ground in that pace too.

So Intel will continue to live of x86 for quite some time, but their share will become smaller and smaller, problem for them is that they do not have power efficient chips ...

And the industry (eg MSFT, Dell, HP ...) will not go into a new world led by Intel, eg a new processor architecture, they had no choice with x86 and it worked for them greatly in the 90 and 00s, but that's not happening again ...
 
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I think the other problem Intel has, and had for over a decade, is lack of technical leadership. The previous CEO (the one who got ousted) drove everybody who was technically competent out (eg Perlmutter), he brought in that guy from Qualcomm who was incompetent ... and a CFO now CEO, who has what, 5 years experience in semi, well, he's not going to pull them out the swamp either ...
 
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VermontsFinest said:
I'm pesonally just happy my Mac doesn't run as hot as a BBQ anymore.
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ahh you're making me envious D:

I got a mac in 2017 and was hoping it would be good for 5 years but now I really feel like I will need to upgrade soon.. I am worried games like Diablo 4 by Blizzard Entertainment will not be available on older macs but only M1 mac pros etc...
 
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Part of the problem with x86 is the extensive support of hardware and software it has to deliver. If Intel only delivered to one company like Apple it could optimize a lot more and create something more like an M1. Unfortunately that cannot happen and they are stuck just trying to improve process which isn’t going anywhere.
 
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