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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

#301
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently purchased a MacbookPro w/ an M1 chip and i'm taken aback at the value/dollar, compute/power, compute/heat, compute/noise. I love the MBP-m1. I realize that WinTel machines arent going anywhere because of entrenched business use -- but between NVIDIA GPUs for heavy workloads and M1s for day-to-day activities -- what is the feeling inside Intel right now? Is this like a Microsoft-Netscape moment in the 90s?

An M1 equipped Mac Mini with 16 GB of ram and some more storage is still more than £1000. The M1 has to get a lot cheaper to be anything more than a warning shot for Intel. What it should definitely be, however, is a death-sentence for x86. I bet Intel are proud of it, but ultimately they must be at least somewhat jealous of those who don't have to use it.

you can get a 6c/12t, 64gb ram, 1tb nvme disk intel nuc for that price.

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

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pat's a great guy and first class engineer, but I think it's just too late for him to turn Intel around at this point. The problems have become too entrenched. They needed someone like him at the helm 10 years ago. Apple's M1 shows that the world has passed Intel by. I wish him luck, though.

Yea, I'm not sure what their plan is other than to keep trying to sell to institutions until everyone makes the switch to someone else. If they actually want to survive long term, there are two paths as I see it: A) Be legitimately better than AMD, this could include opening up the management engine, much higher performance chips at lower price points, or some sort of space magic utilizing their Altera acquisition. B…

Imagine what Apple does to x64 to work on ARM, Intel having Altera, could do x86 translation to FPGA gates... It wouldn't take whole programs, but it could reconfigure itself to run most commonly executed routines on FPGA.

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

#303
post #215
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure, since a lot of software is somewhat cross-platform now anyway. You need to port the JVM, .NET, and Chromium (for electron), and you've effectively ported a large part of the desktop application space already. Web applications are portable if you have a browser Many modern languages that compile to native, like Rust, trivially recompile for multiple target architectures. Others are dynamic and don't n…

Porting the JVM to a new CPU architecture is hard but it has already been done for AArch64.

I know, I'm just thinking in today's day and age an architecture change isn't that hard anymore. We're already paying for all these abstractions, why not use them.

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

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right, there’s nothing to restrict them except inertia and that they haven’t done it so far when the writing is on the wall. There’s also the coordination problem with windows and third parties. Without vertical integration and tight OS support they’ll fall behind. Something will have to give, but the future doesn’t look good.

The reason that AMD didn't release their ARM design I think is that they know it is better to only have to compete with Intel than being one of the many ARM designs.

I'm sure amd could make a monster arm chip but without an oem who would put it in a laptop or desktop and without killer arm apps for windows whats the point?

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

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's just too late to turn them around" is pretty much what people said about Apple when Steve Jobs returned, though (in fact, it's more or less what I thought as well). As Adam Smith said, "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation", and likewise, big companies generally get more opportunities to reinvent themselves than one would expect.

How often do big companies like Apple and Intel succeed in righting a sinking ship though? You can’t keep pointing to the one guy that succeeded.

Perpetually. These companies are always in competition, always under pressure, and always advancing their products. Not every tech company is IBM or Research In Motion. Intel and Apple are juggernauts.

If you have $233 billion (a LOT of money) and you want to own a world-class chipmaker, would you rather start from scratch or just buy Intel for cash?

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

#306
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pat went to my high school and computer science program. It’s in a small rural, Pennsylvania farming town - pop 2000. Somehow we got an amazing math teacher turned CompSci and he turned out world class students - we always ranked high enough each year to compete internationally in ACSL. A few years back when the teacher retired, we all gathered together to thank him, including Pat! World-class guy, and makes us proud…

A single good teacher can make all the difference in the world.

Which is kind of sad, isn't it?

Doesn't that mean that a lot of people will never be on the receiving end just because they did not win the teacher-lottery (arguably the chance of getting such a teacher is rather slim)?

Shouldn't our systems be more robust? (Not talking about normalizing these effects down, but creating a better environment for everyone, using these effects en masse)

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

#307
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A single good teacher can make all the difference in the world.

Which is kind of sad, isn't it? Doesn't that mean that a lot of people will never be on the receiving end just because they did not win the teacher-lottery (arguably the chance of getting such a teacher is rather slim)? Shouldn't our systems be more robust? (Not talking about normalizing these effects down, but creating a better environment for everyone, using these effects en masse)

We must pay teachers on par with Senior Software Developers at least.

We need our very best to go into teaching. It's the ultimate multiplier role.

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

#308
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is kind of sad, isn't it? Doesn't that mean that a lot of people will never be on the receiving end just because they did not win the teacher-lottery (arguably the chance of getting such a teacher is rather slim)? Shouldn't our systems be more robust? (Not talking about normalizing these effects down, but creating a better environment for everyone, using these effects en masse)

We must pay teachers on par with Senior Software Developers at least . We need our very best to go into teaching. It's the ultimate multiplier role.

I hear my wife and her friends constantly talk about XYZ job that makes more than they do and it's very demoralizing to them. I can definitely see why there aren't many passionate teachers. My wife has been teaching 6 years and is just now at the $42,000 mark. The state health insurance is decent at least.

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent. I first noticed the phrase "leaning into" a couple of years ago and I'm still not sure I understand how to use it. It's like "flex". I don't hate them (I hate "relatable" and "addicting" but those are apparently acceptable as real words now) but it's odd how they seem to bubble up suddenly out of nowhere. (British by the way - that might have a bearing)

Here I think of it as “committing to the direction,” the way you “lean into” a tight turn on a bike or motorcycle. It’s similar to “doubling down” or other euphemisms for committing harder to a course of action. The metaphor works for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

> the way you “lean into” a tight turn on a bike or motorcycle.

Ah. It makes a lot more sense now. I never made that connection.

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

#310
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pat went to my high school and computer science program. It’s in a small rural, Pennsylvania farming town - pop 2000. Somehow we got an amazing math teacher turned CompSci and he turned out world class students - we always ranked high enough each year to compete internationally in ACSL. A few years back when the teacher retired, we all gathered together to thank him, including Pat! World-class guy, and makes us proud…

A single good teacher can make all the difference in the world.

From an economics perspective, it's kinda insane that teachers are paid so poorly, since they are such force multipliers. A single brilliant teacher can positively influence the future educational trajectory (and future earnings) of thousands of kids. Investing in making that happen more often seems like it would have great dividends.
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