https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Google-developing-own-CPUs-for-Chromebook-laptops
9 replies (most recent on top)
@3eah I see it as supply and demand thingy.. and now since intel sees that demand that is why there is IDM 2.0 and of course new Fabs in Arizona :-)
I only hate the part of outside folks who came from Qualcomm or AMD or Apple and sat at management positions at Intel. And specifically when these outside folks are given FAB to lead when they don’t have any experience of manufacturing.. they only knew synopsys and cadence and started phasing out in-house intel tools — that is pathetic vision.. u don’t know intel tech then don’t have plan to phase it out and impose it on core hardworking engineers at intel .
Yes they use TSMC, but the big TSMC customers like Apple and QCOM drive and fund their technology roadmap. I’m pretty sure Apple and QCOM engineers are in Taiwan regularly.
That’s the reason TSMC is ahead right now. The mobile phone market sparked a gigantic investment in fab tech that sped past Intel. Intel did not have the vision to see that huge mobile chip volumes would drive fab tech investments far beyond what the PC market alone could support.
Building(manufacturing) and designing chips are two different parts of a chip being used by customer.
Sure there so many designers(man or brain power) in the market who wants to design and the big techs have ton of money to hire them.. but what tech they are making the designers to design on ? - it is TSMC...
the big tech managers are forgetting that by doing this they are monopolizing TSMC and high chances of IP leak (I understand about the NDA) between different designs(from different companies) .
Plus for security of the US, it is not wise to send the IP to foreign land for manufacturing :-).
Folks shld not forget, the big techs poached employees from intel to come up with their own individual chip desinging plans. Folks shld also not forget that some hard working and visionary people used to work at intel who now works at TSMC since 2016 mass layoffs ... in a way everywhere there will be some or the other Intelite at the roots of chip designing or manufacturing plans at big tech
Semiconductor tech is a challenging field and since manufacturing of chips have become very cheap from using foreign tech , it is right time to regulate this through some government body ... As the Facebook whistle blower recently claims , “ Facebook should be regulated”.
Sure, as theoretical and mathematical research advances but it is due to the hardware(chips , pcb etc) those theories are proven. The right and best direction is where software and hardware marries ;-) thus bringing out best in each other and improving each other :-)
To expand on the last post …
Another advantage that has eroded at Intel is talent. With lucrative comp packages, the best and brightest go to Intel’s competitors which have better stock appreciation,
perks and much less toxic work environments. Don’t get me started on the grossly incompetent management at Intel…
Look around at your teammates and tell me if you think they are world class A-players?
Go to college recruiting events and ask the best students where they want to work - it ain’t Intel, I can tell you that for sure.
When there’s no growth at a company, younger people can get promoted as easily since the non-growing pie needs to be divided amongst everyone and senior folks get first dibs. This leads to stagnation as you can see around you.
Any smart talented person in their early to mid-career will run away from places like this.
Once msft , Amazon and google make bespoke chips vertically integrated like Apple, they can both differentiate on features and dump Intel altogether.
The client and server cash cows will crater in 5-10 years, so you’ll have some runway to make your exit plans. This is a multi year event that is playing out as it takes time to build and proliferate these chips.
Intel’s historic competitive advantages
1) fab leadership
2) x86 lock-in
Are gone.
@qqq if you are so sure, tell us when these so-called layoffs are going to happen?
Don’t forget the big dog nvidia that will pour tons of R&D into ARM once the acquisition goes through (more than 2x the market cap of Intel)
This is at least a month old...
Why post old news, but it is the tip of the iceberg on Intels fall and big layoffs to come!
Pat is desperate and scrambling
He has lost technology leadership meaning his server and client products compete from a position more expensive cost and weaker technology competitiveness.
He is trying to be a foundry to compensate and buy time, but without technology leadership or technology breadth, nor the ecosystem he can’t compete on cost or leadership or offering. Intel failed when they were ahead and will certainly fail even harder from behind, LOL.
Thus this why he is playing the geopolitical card for tens of billions of handouts.
Pat may ground break big honking holes in the ground and make news and even hire a few thousand more engineers, but come 2024 when he needs to deliver he will find a world swimming in 200 billion of new capacity that are cheaper and better than what Intel offer and their’s as the high cost laggard.
Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, and yes Google will go to who has the technology and cost advantages and it won’t be a Intel.
Layoffs baby are all but certain, as was the 10nm FUBAR, renaming a pig can’t make it fly!