Thread regarding Intel Corp. layoffs

I used to work for Intel. From a technical standpoint, and from a six sigma perspective, I understand why Intel is falling behind. The best thing they could do at this point is stick to processors for those who manufacture unix/Microsoft operating systems. But these too will fall behind. It is just a matter of time. Certain practices they use in planned maintenance, ESD controls, technician training will most likely prove their downfall. One of the most basic problems Intel continually makes is braking Deming's rule by not eliminating their evaluation processes. It has ruined internal training. Other systemic problems are characterized by competition between workers which management drives too hard, management itself being inept in many cases, the practices of rampant nepotism, and practices of political favor in a good-old-boy arena. Their practice in "copy exactly" for product, process procedures perpetuates mistakes. Intel also practices surveillance unbeknown to employees. Many people I worked with were not aware of their full benefits, thus did not claim certain monies that could apply to their full retirement package. Due diligence and omission is prevalent, as the cash cow retirement security builds through the years. Are the benefits better than most American Corporations, I think so. But if one were to watch the basic worker bees file out from their cars to load up their shifts in the factories one might be able to characterize their movement as the "zombie shuffle", except those who know they can skate in their "office" positions. Sad. It has the potential to remain a model company, but certain practices will probably lead to it's downfall.

10nm a gift that keeps giving, four years late and Apple finally said enough is enough and all in on TSMC

Just another story about Intel declining, unfortunately.

It’s like Amazon now shipping their products themselves without the help of third party mailing systems.

This feels to me like it’s going to be great; a big win for consumers and developers.
Current A12z chips are highly performant; Apple is roughly one chip cycle ahead on perfomance/watt from any other manufacturer. I presume their consumer hardware will launch with an A13Z, or maybe an A14 type chip.
Apple has consistently shipped new chip designs on time; Intel’s thrashing has cost them at least two significant update cycles on the macbook line in the last six years. Search this fine site for complaints about how new mac laptops don’t have real performance benefits over old ones —- those complaints are 100% down to being saddled with Intel.
Apple has a functional corporate culture that ships; adding complete control of the hardware stack in is going to make for better products, full stop.
Apple has to pay Intel and AMD profit margins for their mac systems. They are going to be able to put this margin back into a combination of profit and tech budget as they choose. Early days they are likely to plow all this back into performance, a win for consumers.
So, I’m predicting an MBP 13 - 16 range with an extra three hours of battery life+, and 20-30% faster. Alternately a Macbook Air type with 16 hours plus strong 4k performance. You’re not going to want an Intel mac even as of January of 2021, unless you have a very unusual set of requirements.
I think they may also start making a real push on the ML side in the next year, which will be very interesting; it’s exciting to imagine what Apple’s fully vertically integrated company could do controlling hardware, OS and ML stack.
One interesting question I think is outstanding - from parsing the video carefully, it seems to me that devs are going to want ARM linux virtualized, vs AMD64. I’m not highly conversant with ARM linux, but in my mind I imagine it’s still largely a second class citizen — I wonder if systems developers will get on board, deal with slower / higher battery draw intel virtualization, or move on from Apple.
Languages like Go with supremely simple cross architecture support might get a boost here. Rust seems behind on ARM, for instance; I bet that will change in the next year or two. I don’t imagine that developing Intel server binaries on an ARM laptop with Rust will be pleasant.