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Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

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Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#151

Post by treis »

ksec wrote: post #99

"Notable absent from that list is he fired Pat Gelsinger. Please just bring him back as CEO." - [1] 2012 on HN, when Paul Otellini Retired. "The only one who may have a slim chance to completely transform Intel is Pat Gelsinger, if Andy Grove saved Intel last time, it will be his apprentice to save Intel again. Unfortunately given what Intel has done to Pat during his last tenure, I am not sure if he is willing to pi…

I don't think I've seen a thread here before where the top 2 posts are such opposites of each other.

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#152

Post by graton »

MangoCoffee wrote: post #114

https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-services/294637-2020-was-... >A few years ago, back in 2016, Intel did a “RIF” (reduction in force) of about 11%. Intel had previously done a significant reduction way back in 2006 of about 10% >In an industry that runs on “tribal knowledge” and “copy exact” and experience of how to run a very, very complex multi billion dollar fab, much of the most experienced, best talent walked o…

Plus Intel for many years has paid slightly above average wages. If I recall correctly they targeted paying at about 55-60 percentile. The problem with that is that the FAANG companies will literally pay their engineers twice that.

Many of the competent people I knew at Intel have left (not all), while many of the incompetent people I knew are still there.

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#153

Post by 1024core »

SoSoRoCoCo wrote: post #63

Gelsinger was pushed out as CTO after horribly failing to address AMD's competitive threats. I have no idea how he wormed his way back in, but this does not bode well for Intel's future: Gelsinger is proof of the "Peter Principle", being promoted too high. EDIT: I was a bit harsh, toned it down. EDIT 2: This is probably petty, but I can't ignore the fact that there was a significant hubbub at Intel regarding him usin…

Well, $INTC is up bigtime today, so I'm guessing the market disagrees with you. Only time will tell.

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#154

Post by huac »

ra7 wrote: post #138
hangonhn wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at VMware when Pat first became the CEO. Pat is very much an engineer. If you ever wanted an engineer as your CEO, then that's Pat. That comes with some goods and some not-so-greats. Pat isn't very inspiring, at least not when he first became CEO. But I always got the feeling that he genuinely love engineers and is more comfortable around them than anything else. I once hosted a fun little engineering challe…

What does this mean for VMware? By all accounts, it seems like Pat was well liked at VMware.

$VMW down 6.5%, $INTC up 7.5%, sounds like the market liked him at least

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#155

Post by vasco »

tw04 wrote: post #48
danpalmer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this description sounds like a specialist high performance computing company rather than a consumer technology company. That may be a perfectly reasonable market to be in, but is that type of company worth $200bn? I'm not sure. Roughly 40% of their revenue is consumer chips where, apart from some games optimisation, they are no longer standing out from the crowd, and the leader is arguably Apple, with AMD doing…

>Roughly 40% of their revenue is consumer chips where, apart from some games optimisation, they are no longer standing out from the crowd, and the leader is arguably Apple, with AMD doing well. You lost me at Apple. Apple owns around 15% of the PC market space and almost the entirety of that is Intel-based systems. Outside of HN, nobody cares about the M1 chip, it isn't a selling point to my mom or her friends. If so…

You misunderstand the point of the M1 out of Apple, and for that matter the graviton2 instances out of AWS. What was demonstrated in the marketplace is that the biggest tech companies are now able to develop in-house processors that are more cost efficient and more performant. These processors are based on ARM and have minimal overhead licensing costs, as compared to buying Intel or AMD chips for their vast fleets / products.

If AWS and Apple can do it, soon other very large companies will, but in a few years, even OEMs will be able to develop their own chips. The market for high end gaming is unlikely to be touched, but the vast consumer market is going to be eaten by custom made ARM-based chips.

So in a world where processor design becomes a commodity, what does that mean for Intel and AMD? And what does that mean for the overall datacenter, consumer markets?

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#156

Post by effie »

hangonhn wrote: post #132
heyheyhey wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I'm impressed by your persistence. Have you worked with him or know him personally?

I worked at VMware when Pat first became the CEO. Pat is very much an engineer. If you ever wanted an engineer as your CEO, then that's Pat. That comes with some goods and some not-so-greats. Pat isn't very inspiring, at least not when he first became CEO. But I always got the feeling that he genuinely love engineers and is more comfortable around them than anything else. I once hosted a fun little engineering challe…

What are your thoughts on VMware? It seems they are too in decline...

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#158

Post by frereubu »

tw04 wrote: post #97
terafo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it isn't a selling point to my mom or her friends Gargantuan battery life isn't a selling point? For laptop? In what universe?

For who? My mom uses her laptop at home 99% of the time, if the battery gets low she plugs it in. She needs a battery that will last 1-2 hours for the 3 times a year she flies. You can find a place to plug in at basically any coffee shop or library you go to. My mom isn't spending 10 hours in a datacenter, so it doesn't really matter to her if the battery life is 3 hours or 12. For the average consumer, battery life…

> For the average consumer, battery life has just been another stat on the spec sheet for years now.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think if you asked someone whether battery life was a priority, they might say no. And if you asked them to rank tech specs I'm not sure it would necessarily be that high either. But the experience of using a laptop with a noticeably better battery is, for me, quite likely to be one of those things that you didn't know you were missing, even if you just charge it every now and then.

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#159

Post by bluGill »

belval wrote: post #143
nikanj wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Management rule of thumb: For every % you cut from the bottom, you lose from the top. Cut 10% of workforce, and 10% of your best people say "yes" to the next headhunter trying to poach them.

It's actually more complex than that, when a big company wants to reduce workforce they will fire the bottom and offer retirement packages to their oldest employees which are above or near retirement age, sometime as much as a full year of salary. The intuition is that older employees cost more and by cutting them you can reduce your payroll more significantly while doing what looks like smaller employee cuts from th…

Those older employees better be replaceable! Many will be gone in a few more years because they retire anyway, so you should have a plan in place to save their knowledge.

The above applies to everyone. When I was an intern the company folklore was full of horror stories because the last guy knew anything about a very profitable product died suddenly. (the product was for mainframes: clearly near end of life, but it was still mission critical for major customers and got had to get minor updates)

I've also known important people to find a better job. Even when an offer of more money gets them to stay, my experience is they always wonder if they made the right decision and so are never again as good as they were before.

Moral of the story: don't allow anyone in your company to get irreplaceable. This is good for you too: it means you won't stagnate doing the same thing over an over.

Re: Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

#160

Post by [deleted] »

graton wrote: post #152
MangoCoffee wrote: post #114

https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-services/294637-2020-was-... >A few years ago, back in 2016, Intel did a “RIF” (reduction in force) of about 11%. Intel had previously done a significant reduction way back in 2006 of about 10% >In an industry that runs on “tribal knowledge” and “copy exact” and experience of how to run a very, very complex multi billion dollar fab, much of the most experienced, best talent walked o…

Plus Intel for many years has paid slightly above average wages. If I recall correctly they targeted paying at about 55-60 percentile. The problem with that is that the FAANG companies will literally pay their engineers twice that. Many of the competent people I knew at Intel have left (not all), while many of the incompetent people I knew are still there.

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