221–230 of 268 posts
Does AMD really dominate the gaming market? I was still under the impression that AMD is what you buy when you're on a budget and Intel is what you get if you care about gaming performance. I just did a quick search and it looks like most people are still saying single core performance is better on Intel chips?
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> They are currently somewhere between 3-5 times behind TSMC lithographically No they aren't. The nanometer names are only kinda comparable within a single company, but they are not comparable beyond that. It's like saying that Chrome is 6x further ahead than Safari because Chrome is on 87 and Safari is only on 14. Same thing with fabs here, it's just a version number that counts down and has been for a long while. I…
> Remember that as far as the fab goes, performance is just what clock speeds can be hit, and Intel's clocks are the highest - they have the fastest transistors. 14nm+++++ is a meme/joke, but the actual transistor speed of it is still downright impressive. My understanding is that Intel's fast transistors come at a cost of not being particularly dense for the process node they are implemented on. So it's a question o…
I see Intel not being dominant, having to take a back seat, shrinking a bit. But dying?? Nup, I'm not seeing this at all. I mean AMD for years survived in a situation much worse then Intel currently is. Intel's productions nodes might be behind TSMC's but they are still quite valuable, not all chips need 5nm processes. Heck we could say most chips don't need it. Intel is still innovating, just because they currently…
Intel is ABSOLUTELY just about CPUs. I can’t think of a single thing that they produce that I would ever pay them money for other than CPUs, especially if they aren’t relevant in the CPU world anymore. Intel has tried to get into so many other markets over the years, but the company’s culture and the nature of their high margin, high R&D business made it impossible to compete in those other markets.
Intel's productions nodes might be behind TSMC's but they are still quite valuable, not all chips need 5nm processes. Heck we could say most chips don't need it.
That’s a very different market with very different margins. If they shrank so much that they became like Maxim or something, then that’s really not much different than going out of business altogether.
Intel has at least 20 more years and probably dozens of real chances to reclaim past market position and maybe even more so. Intel is a large company with a massive market cap. The bigger they are, the longer they fall. They just have so much runway and market gravity. For comparison, Apple shot itself in the foot repeatedly for at least 10 years before Steve Jobs rejoined, and it took 10 more years after that before…
Intel has a very impressive balance sheet for a failing company, it has almost no debt and is generating double-digit billions in free cash flow from almost state of the art fabs. They are still number three on process technology, and number one on volume. The fact that Intel's management have chosen to spend two decades flushing that amazing free cashflow down the M&A toilet instead of fixing their workplace culture…
Mobile? No, thanks, those are peanuts. Cheap/home PCs? Nah, either. PC builders very sensitive to prices? The don't want them. And slowly they are being sweetly cornered in the top market of the very expensive servers with very juicy margins, but feeling how the small dogs keep bitting up. Suddenly ARM wants to build for cheap servers, and AMD has a chip that also fights for that top market.
Let's all just come to a common agreement: there's no planet on which the US military allows Intel to die. Period. End of story. Having a US based company with fabrication facilities on US soil is vital to national security and will be for the entirety of my lifetime and likely my grandchildren's lifetime (if I ever have any). For all the bluster of the investors wanting to chop Intel up: they will find a swift and f…
I know rare-earth metals aren't that rare and we could ultimately supply them locally but the lack of any open mines or refining setups is just as big a strategic hole as losing domestic Fab isn't it?
I am happy to be corrected.
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Fast forward a few years. Look at the time it takes to design chips. Look at where the market and tech is going (M1 and AMD especially). Compare with RIM and Nokia. There is a "roadrunner" effect where a colossal company will continue for a few years on pure momentum. There are so many things speaking against Intel. And the facts you bring up as speaking for Intel seams more like short term momentum to me. I would gu…
The idea here must be that somehow Apple or AMD have figured out the magic sauce to making faster processors, while Intel of all companies is oblivious to it and won't be able to catch up. In reality, there is nothing that Apple or AMD are doing that Intel could not also do, isn't already doing, or isn't in a hurry to also do. Consider that at 14nm+++++, Intel still manages to outpace AMD with its 7nm CPUs and latest…
Have you been living under a rock for this past year? This is not true. AMD is beating Intel in performance in every market segment right now.
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The EU is worried about it to the tune of 145bn EUR... https://www.eetimes.eu/eu-signs-e145bn-declaration-to-develo...
So is China: https://www.tomshardware.com/features/zhaoxin-kx-u6780a-x86-... > As such, China began an initiative to build its own processors back in the early 80's that eventually evolved into the "Made in China 2025" campaign that has the goal of producing 70% of the chips used in China by 2025.
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How important is it, strategically, to have the most advanced process tech? As far as I know, military tech tends to lag commercial significantly.
Only so much as it leads to faster AI.
I'm not sure that I've personally bought in to the AI revolution, but it sounds like it's generally agreed to be the future.
At the same time, there is so much room for basic improvement in the defense space. I have a hard time believing 5nm vs 10nm is a serious problem when half the vetronics system is analog.
But yes, in a big picture strategic sense, AI capabilities seems like the area most likely to pose a serious risk by not leading the world in chip technology.
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So is China: https://www.tomshardware.com/features/zhaoxin-kx-u6780a-x86-... > As such, China began an initiative to build its own processors back in the early 80's that eventually evolved into the "Made in China 2025" campaign that has the goal of producing 70% of the chips used in China by 2025.
That should be a pretty easy goal for them to hit, right? Just buy the chips that are manufactured at TSMC.
(ignoring that TSMC is Taiwanese and not currently under PRC rule but is instead de-facto independent and mostly internationally recognized as being independent...)
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The idea here must be that somehow Apple or AMD have figured out the magic sauce to making faster processors, while Intel of all companies is oblivious to it and won't be able to catch up. In reality, there is nothing that Apple or AMD are doing that Intel could not also do, isn't already doing, or isn't in a hurry to also do. Consider that at 14nm+++++, Intel still manages to outpace AMD with its 7nm CPUs and latest…
> Consider that at 14nm+++++, Intel still manages to outpace AMD with its 7nm CPUs and latest architecture. AMD competes mainly on price, which is not a great position to be in. Intel's profit margins are massively better. Have you been living under a rock for this past year? This is not true. AMD is beating Intel in performance in every market segment right now.
If you look at the mobile chips that did ship on 10nm, Intel is ahead as well.