By: dmcq (dmcq.delete@this.fano.co.uk), February 23, 2021 5:35 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Linus Torvalds (torvalds.delete@this.linux-foundation.org) on February 22, 2021 5:06 pm wrote:
> Dummond D. Slow (mental.delete@this.protozoa.us) on February 22, 2021 1:34 pm wrote:
> >
> > I don't disagree on the principle but hurdles for getting into phone market are
> > so high it makes almost no sense to try to butt in forcefully - for AMD.
>
> The only place I see AMD succeeding with an ARM strategy would be
> with a strong partner that didn't want to do their own chips.
>
> The main one that comes to mind is Microsoft, but they went with Qualcomm. That end
> result obviously hasn't been earth-shattering, but it's not like MS has really shown
> any inclination of going all-in on ARM, so who knows where the blame lies.
>
> The server (mainly big cloud providers) market seems to just want to do their own chips entirely,
> and it's not clear what would be in it for AMD. That market would seem to make more sense
> for a small chip house that wants to be bought out, than for somebody like AMD.
>
> The phone/tablet market is already locked in, as you say.
>
> So what ARM market does that leave AMD? They can't create a market for ARM chips on their
> own, and the existing ones don't seem like great fits. A Surface partnership with Microsoft
> still seems like the best option to me, but you'd have to have a great core and go to MS and
> say "look, the Qualcomm partnership isn't doing it for you, here's what we can do".
>
> And then hope that the WARM market really takes off.
>
> Considering how well AMD is doing on the x86 side, they may not have a lot of incentive
> to really try to grow the WARM market, though. Yeah, competing against Intel isn't
> always wonderful, but competing against everybody else doesn't seem to be the solution
> either. Waiting for Intel to stumble seems to have worked out for them.
>
> Linus
I certainly wondered what on earth AMD were up to when they made an ARM server chip. There is certainly no advantage to them being a leader in that market, best push x86 for the moment, and they can always be top class as a follower in the future. The place I thought they might have a good chance with ARM though is in games machines, it probably isn't a huge money spinner but it certainy would be a nice market to be the go to leader in.
> Dummond D. Slow (mental.delete@this.protozoa.us) on February 22, 2021 1:34 pm wrote:
> >
> > I don't disagree on the principle but hurdles for getting into phone market are
> > so high it makes almost no sense to try to butt in forcefully - for AMD.
>
> The only place I see AMD succeeding with an ARM strategy would be
> with a strong partner that didn't want to do their own chips.
>
> The main one that comes to mind is Microsoft, but they went with Qualcomm. That end
> result obviously hasn't been earth-shattering, but it's not like MS has really shown
> any inclination of going all-in on ARM, so who knows where the blame lies.
>
> The server (mainly big cloud providers) market seems to just want to do their own chips entirely,
> and it's not clear what would be in it for AMD. That market would seem to make more sense
> for a small chip house that wants to be bought out, than for somebody like AMD.
>
> The phone/tablet market is already locked in, as you say.
>
> So what ARM market does that leave AMD? They can't create a market for ARM chips on their
> own, and the existing ones don't seem like great fits. A Surface partnership with Microsoft
> still seems like the best option to me, but you'd have to have a great core and go to MS and
> say "look, the Qualcomm partnership isn't doing it for you, here's what we can do".
>
> And then hope that the WARM market really takes off.
>
> Considering how well AMD is doing on the x86 side, they may not have a lot of incentive
> to really try to grow the WARM market, though. Yeah, competing against Intel isn't
> always wonderful, but competing against everybody else doesn't seem to be the solution
> either. Waiting for Intel to stumble seems to have worked out for them.
>
> Linus
I certainly wondered what on earth AMD were up to when they made an ARM server chip. There is certainly no advantage to them being a leader in that market, best push x86 for the moment, and they can always be top class as a follower in the future. The place I thought they might have a good chance with ARM though is in games machines, it probably isn't a huge money spinner but it certainy would be a nice market to be the go to leader in.