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Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

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Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#361

Before Zen, we all kind of assumed they were so far ahead that AMD were more likely to be out of business before they would ever be a credible threat again. I actually thought Intel must have had some tricks up their sleeves in terms of performance gains that we hadn't seen yet, simply because there was no market need to roll them out and they had so many years of coasting on marginal gains. Seeing them taking this s…

Most of the emperors out there have no clothes.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#362

Before Zen, we all kind of assumed they were so far ahead that AMD were more likely to be out of business before they would ever be a credible threat again. I actually thought Intel must have had some tricks up their sleeves in terms of performance gains that we hadn't seen yet, simply because there was no market need to roll them out and they had so many years of coasting on marginal gains. Seeing them taking this s…

Intel are still ahead in low power mobile (laptop) CPU race, and the clear leader in the laptop market. Who knows for how long, though?

I think Apple laptop CPUs will be like USB-C. First 'what's the point, nothing is compatible', year later 'everyone is doing it and it's actually pretty cool to attach everything including power with a single cheap dongle'.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#363
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works for Oracle (it is famously illegal to publish benchmarks of DB2 vs other engines), I'm sure intel can make it work for them thanks to Oracle's court case(s).

DB2 is IBM. The court case you were on about was Oracle's RDBMS called Oracle RDBMS. However I believe DB2 might have been used as one of the comparisons against Oracle. Anyhow, specifics aside, you do make a good point.

oops, yeah it would help if I got the names right.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#364

Before Zen, we all kind of assumed they were so far ahead that AMD were more likely to be out of business before they would ever be a credible threat again. I actually thought Intel must have had some tricks up their sleeves in terms of performance gains that we hadn't seen yet, simply because there was no market need to roll them out and they had so many years of coasting on marginal gains. Seeing them taking this s…

Equally troubling for Intel is the fact that they're losing their advantage in fabrication. The performance of their architecture is going backwards with every microcode patch, while their move to 10nm is hugely delayed. https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-cpu-10nm-earnings-amd,n...

I'm kinda curious to see how Zhaoxin, Hygon and other manufacturers in the x86_64 space are going to play out. It would be nice to see some real competition, not just Intel vs AMD, in this space.

There are other services like Packet that offer bare-metal hosting on small Atom and ARM processors. It'd be nice to see some alt x86 processors in this space.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#365
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works for Oracle (it is famously illegal to publish benchmarks of DB2 vs other engines), I'm sure intel can make it work for them thanks to Oracle's court case(s).

But you can't buy an oracle license in a shop around the corner. It is going to be hard for intel to enforce it.

I literally got one with a book on databases as a student, so you kind of can? But the power of the argument is that if it's possible to put this kind of clause in place and enforce it by law for something that's harder to get, then Intel putting that clause in place for the general public has legal prescedent when they do want to take someone to court.

It actually makes it easier for Intel to argue that chips are such specialized bits of equipment that even though your average joe can _get_ one, they won't understand how it works and so only highly trainer professionals who have been certified by Intel would be able to reliably benchmarks their products. "As the average user would interpret the results incorrectly, their publication would hurt intel's bottom line". And suddenly you're 95% of the way to having won the case already.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the below technically illegal? http://phpdao.com/mysql_postgres_oracle_mssql/

I think OP is using the wrong term - breaching terms of contract is not illegal in itself. It just means Oracle will not do any more business with you.

So what you're saying is that sysadmins should all benchmark Oracle products to prevent their employers from being trapped in Oracle land?

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the below technically illegal? http://phpdao.com/mysql_postgres_oracle_mssql/

I think OP is using the wrong term - breaching terms of contract is not illegal in itself. It just means Oracle will not do any more business with you.

Breaching terms of contract is most definitely illegal and Oracle can sue any time they want. It's not like trademark law, where you _have_ to sue even if you don't want to; Oracle can ignore anything that comes out not looking bad for them, which still being 100% able to sue the pants off of anyone that goes "hey look this product is worse across the board in real world comparisons to MySQL and MariaDB".

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#368
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works for Oracle (it is famously illegal to publish benchmarks of DB2 vs other engines), I'm sure intel can make it work for them thanks to Oracle's court case(s).

I'm pretty sure DB2 is an IBM thing.

You're right, it is, I had the wrong DB name.

Re: Intel Publishes Microcode Patches, No Benchmarking or Comparison Allowed

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly a myth. Everyone knows, including big companies, that as you grow in size you have a harder time innovating. The classic "lean startup" book mentions this issue and gives the example of Intuit's in-house accelerator/incubator. No way Intel doesn't know about it too. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/04/19/in...

wasn't bell labs part of a very big corporation when they invented basically everything about the modern world?

No, Bell Labs did not invent basically everything about the modern world.
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