Even after passing on the iPhone. The 40M tablets BK scam and desperate move to mobile could have licensed ARM. Instead they used the bloated Atom design.
15 replies (most recent on top)
2 products: Cotulla and Bulverde. These were Intel products based on ARM architecture but didn't mean much to Intel. Oh how times have changed.
To use ARM in some chips as a convenience is very different than say putting a major effort to design a high performance optimize processor to compete with the likes of Qualcomm or others and pitch this as the Aps processor for a new generation of smartphones.
If intel design and process is so good you would argue the ROI for that kind of process and design investment is far more strategic than wasting them on Tablet x86, mobile x86 or graphics failures that intel has spent uncounted billions. Of course it almost scary, what if they succeed, they'd actually have to admit x86 might not be the right solution and accept lower margins on huge volumes, maybe they'd even have F42 outfitted with 14nm ARM making smartphone processors, would that be a bad thing. It would possible say, intel can evolve with the industry instead of being a Kodak/DEC like company hanging on to the old.
"Intel still holds an ARM license, and there are some small ARM cpus in some of Intels SOC designs, application specific"
@1brj - Like which ones? I had heard they still had the license, but didn't know it was being used in actual designs.
Intel still holds an ARM license, and there are some small ARM cpus in some of Intels SOC designs, application specific
@IyrPn4V-1zza LOL if Atom was so good then why did Intel have to pay for people to take it and in the end lose billions. If Atom was superior Tablet makers would be picking it as the CPU of choice for the little remaining market. Sorry between performance and cost it is terrible chip for low cost power sensitive platforms where there is competition.
Now for entry laptops where there is no competition they can charge what they want and still make a credible business.
Name one business where Intel has competed and won where you can say true skill and leadership was involved recently
@1bvh is Atom better than ARM?
Keep in mind folks, "40M tablets" is how BK rose to power. He paid people to buy them, then just called the whole thing off. With that as his base, why is he still CEO?
As for Atom, it's actually a quite good platform, and is FAR more than a tablet processor.
Did Intel ever give up the ARM license - I'm not sure - we did have XScale (and a pretty crappy design group for that) which went into a bunch of products that were sold off (PXA, IXP etc.) but I don't recall seeing the license being let go!
@klx-"Remember that huge push to sell 40M tablets like it was the most important thing" it was important because they knew if it could not execute this, it was the beginning of the end of Intel. We are experiencing the consequences of it today with the flushing down the toilet of 10 Billion Dollars.
Atom is being kept around for low cost desktops and notebooks for some reason.
The geniuses at the top think this is a viable market.
Contra revenue.
What a clusterf@ck.
Intel never 'dominated' tablet sales, unless you count cheap a-- Chinese glorified video players as 'tablets'. Did Intel really think competing with spreadtrum and Mediatek was a good idea?
The only tablet that matters is iPad. Sorry Intel, you had your chance but you blew it due to arrogance and gross incompetence at the top.
Wasn't Atom pretty much the main focus of the Austin site? I wonder what their future will be.
Remember that huge push to sell 40M tablets like it was the most important thing in the world and would save Intel? Even in the face of declining tablet sales overall and the tablets quickly becoming a niche, even back then, to be a kid's toy and extremely limited product neither an iPhone nor a PC. Deadend. Every employee was saying so, but the leaders kept saying this was life or death, to get to 40M. And they used contra money to get there. I don't know who's idea this was in the first place, but I do remember being made to go to some kind of employee rah-rah cheering session, where the evangelist kept waving a tablet around and saying "this is the future of computing!" Well, Intel did end up dominating in tablet sales--for awhile and for what long-term purpose?
Actually, Intel did license and had an ARM research group about 10 years ago or so. They sold it off and recommitted to x86 and Moore's Law. Right up there with the decision to not provide silicon for the iPhone though Jobs was willing, and with walking away from a chance to buy Nvidia and then sinking a load of resources into Larrabee and then scraping it.
It's hilarious reading earnings call transcripts q&a with the analysts. They are dumbfounded on the 40M tablet strategy and try to get BK and Stacy to explain it. All you hear from these clowns is incoherent nonsense.
Any 12 year old could have seen it wouldn't work. Why the f@ck would subsidizing chips in a low end commodity market with no respect for IP laws ever work? They would switch back to ARM the nanosecond the subsidies ended. And they did. Total shock to no one expect BK and his band of clowns.