By: Ricardo B (ricardo.b.delete@this.xxxxxx.xx), February 2, 2013 2:14 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
Richard Cownie (tich.delete@this.pobox.com) on February 2, 2013 6:41 am wrote:
> anon (anon.delete@this.anon.com) on February 1, 2013 6:57 pm wrote:
>
> Yes, you do keep repeating yourself. You have a ridiculous level of faith in
> Intel's ability to pull a world-beating product out of their sleeve just when
> they need it. If you'd ever tried writing vector routines for the i860, as I have,
> you would probably be more aware that their products are of *ahem* variable
> quality, and their success outside x86 is not a foregone conclusion.
OTOH, I think you're seriously underestimating the advantage Intel's business model grants them -- when it is applicable.
Compared it's current competitors Intel's advantage is that it tightly integrates process, circuit design and micro architecture design.
When they don't f**k up, they can consistently produce chips which are better (faster, lower power) and cheaper to produce than the competition.
And in the last few years, that advantage has increased.
Not only are the foundries lagging ever more behind Intel in terms of the process node they offer, the designers are lagging with the tools we have to deal with the ever more complex issues that come with more advanced processes.
The i860, BTW, was from a time Intel's advantage was no where this big.
Of course, Intel's weakness is that they need a lot of revenue to fund the massive R&D they put into their chips and that they pretty much need to design the entire chip in house.
When the smartphone/tablet rose, it met neither of these requirements. What we have was companies like Apple design their own SoCs for use in their own devices.
But now, as we have lots of companies buying large quantities of of-the-shelf SoC chips to use in their devices, it begins to meet Intel's business model requirements.
> anon (anon.delete@this.anon.com) on February 1, 2013 6:57 pm wrote:
>
> Yes, you do keep repeating yourself. You have a ridiculous level of faith in
> Intel's ability to pull a world-beating product out of their sleeve just when
> they need it. If you'd ever tried writing vector routines for the i860, as I have,
> you would probably be more aware that their products are of *ahem* variable
> quality, and their success outside x86 is not a foregone conclusion.
OTOH, I think you're seriously underestimating the advantage Intel's business model grants them -- when it is applicable.
Compared it's current competitors Intel's advantage is that it tightly integrates process, circuit design and micro architecture design.
When they don't f**k up, they can consistently produce chips which are better (faster, lower power) and cheaper to produce than the competition.
And in the last few years, that advantage has increased.
Not only are the foundries lagging ever more behind Intel in terms of the process node they offer, the designers are lagging with the tools we have to deal with the ever more complex issues that come with more advanced processes.
The i860, BTW, was from a time Intel's advantage was no where this big.
Of course, Intel's weakness is that they need a lot of revenue to fund the massive R&D they put into their chips and that they pretty much need to design the entire chip in house.
When the smartphone/tablet rose, it met neither of these requirements. What we have was companies like Apple design their own SoCs for use in their own devices.
But now, as we have lots of companies buying large quantities of of-the-shelf SoC chips to use in their devices, it begins to meet Intel's business model requirements.