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Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

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Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#51
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it wasn't. Lazy salesmanship did. Go and look how much margin a distributor still have wholesale for mainstream NAND flash.

But why buy Intel when Samsung has a device in every class (even enterprise) that's just as fast or faster, and cheaper as well? This is the fifth-best SSD manufacturer selling out to the third-best SSD manufacturer. No matter how much you put into marketing, it's a worse product being sold to technical purchasers.

Indeed it is, but flash is a commodity, and if somebody IS still buying Intel NAND if the price is ok for them, and Intel will still have somewhat good money from that, then why not?

Intel can even stop investing further into flash R&D, and it will be years, and years before they will be outpriced, even with discount for their lower performance.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does research, design and software but all the manufacturing and assembly is done in China by Chinese companies. Mostly Samsung and Foxconn. Nvidia is the same but the chips are fabbed by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor).

Someone did remind us that TSMC relies on dutch machines for wafer productions. It's not china-skills-black-hole as one could think (I used to)

also, the first T in TSMC stands for Taiwan, which is not China

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion: Intel may be slowly dying, but this is fine and eventually happens to all ageing corporations. Looking at the technical quality of their non-x86 products, most of it was not great, so it is not surprising to see the rot spread.

> Looking at the technical quality of their non-x86 products, most of it was not great, so it is not surprising to see the rot spread. What's a damn shame is Intel's StrongARM / XScale division in the early-to-mid-2000s. Methinks the world would be very different today if they continued investment in that sector - and we'd have more than just Qualcomm and Apple to contend with.

Yes that was spectacularly dumb, considering how Intel grew big themselves: out-competing the high-end, big-bucks server and workstation vendors with low-end, mass-market CPUs that eventually, through economies of scale, made them obsolete. Yet Intel thought "eh this cheap, mass-market CPU that every household has dozens of will lead nowhere, lets sell it lol". they probably deluded themselves that they could do it in x86.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#55
post #46
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real shitshow starts when the CFO becomes the CEO (as is usually the case), so Intel is pretty much dead as is US tech innovation on this scale (until VCs do what China does and start pouring money into hard stuff, not just fluffy software).

Same happens to Boeing too.

Except Boeing will be bailed out eternally since it's the US's only civil aircraft manufacturer and has lots of defense contracts.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does research, design and software but all the manufacturing and assembly is done in China by Chinese companies. Mostly Samsung and Foxconn. Nvidia is the same but the chips are fabbed by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor).

Someone did remind us that TSMC relies on dutch machines for wafer productions. It's not china-skills-black-hole as one could think (I used to)

ASML also relies on components and engineering from Trumpf for EUV light sources and Zeiss for optics, both German.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#57
post #46
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real shitshow starts when the CFO becomes the CEO (as is usually the case), so Intel is pretty much dead as is US tech innovation on this scale (until VCs do what China does and start pouring money into hard stuff, not just fluffy software).

Same happens to Boeing too.

Difference between the 777 and 787 programs : for 787 management was in a tower in Chicago not looking over the factory floor.

Obviously the distributed manufacturing introduced with the 777 meant it became possible to argue that the ideal management perch is virtual. But this was a profound separation from tradition and I sold my shares on learning of the new HQ.

The problem is that real engineering often absorbs "the fluffy stuff" in hardware. Server composition with independent subsystems accessible over the network is such a compression of OS services in controllers. This is when the value added IP gets recaptured, particularly in standards dependant technology which enables you to play snakes and ladders across the ecosystem board.

Why is the IP element to close only in 2025? Without looking, I suspect that Intel has booked some very high goodwill and other intangible values on the NAND IP that realistically are wishful thinking about that fluffy stuff.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does research, design and software but all the manufacturing and assembly is done in China by Chinese companies. Mostly Samsung and Foxconn. Nvidia is the same but the chips are fabbed by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor).

Someone did remind us that TSMC relies on dutch machines for wafer productions. It's not china-skills-black-hole as one could think (I used to)

TSMC makes wafers themselves, Dutch ASML is in scanner business, not wafer making machines.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#59
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same happens to Boeing too.

Except Boeing will be bailed out eternally since it's the US's only civil aircraft manufacturer and has lots of defense contracts.

Mike Milken's first junk bond pitch was a case study of the corruption at Lockheed in the 70s, and how much he made buying their "fallen angel" debt, secure on his knowledge of congressional forgiveness.

The enabler of present day Boeing is the market has long since made implicit guarantees part of their overt modeling and client analysis.

The sickly results include a management insulated from even catastrophic mistakes.

Re: Intel exits memory business, sale to Hynix for $9B

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone did remind us that TSMC relies on dutch machines for wafer productions. It's not china-skills-black-hole as one could think (I used to)

ASML also relies on components and engineering from Trumpf for EUV light sources and Zeiss for optics, both German.

And Trumpf reliant on Chinese laser tubes, and Zeiss is reliant on Chinese contractors for a part of lens work they sell. And if somebody think the former is easy to replace, go and search for even a single 10kw tube sold without months long lead times.
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