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Intel acquires Linutronix

community.intel.com

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Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#11
post #7

Intel seems to be making all the right moves. I'm excited to see what Pat Gelsinger can do over the next 5 years (I'm long INTC).

Their current CPU-features-as-a-service marketing push doesn't look like a right move to me.

It's probably the right move financially. People love to pay more for less. Prebuilt desktop, server and cloud companies have built businesses around that concept.

The average person is undereducated and easily parted from their money. It's a lot easier to make a bad product that appeals to them and get half the market for free than it is to make a good product and try to appeal to the best.

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel is currently worth less than AMD even though Intel's profit is quite a bit higher than AMDs entire revenue. I recognize that Intel has huge problems to solve but they absolutely seem undervalued currently.

Intel have been making balls-out plays (i.e. they could've just sold the fab business and MBA-ed themselves to death) and making good money but their stock is 30% or so down from last year so I am inclined to agree. They'll never have a run like they did from Nehalem through to Zen's launch, but I think they're about to prove that they still have it and that they know how to sell chips.

But they have mba'd themselves to death.

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel is currently worth less than AMD even though Intel's profit is quite a bit higher than AMDs entire revenue. I recognize that Intel has huge problems to solve but they absolutely seem undervalued currently.

Intel have been making balls-out plays (i.e. they could've just sold the fab business and MBA-ed themselves to death) and making good money but their stock is 30% or so down from last year so I am inclined to agree. They'll never have a run like they did from Nehalem through to Zen's launch, but I think they're about to prove that they still have it and that they know how to sell chips.

AMD spun off their fab business, they didn't MBA themselves to death so I'm not sure why that's the only possible end result you see?

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#14
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel have been making balls-out plays (i.e. they could've just sold the fab business and MBA-ed themselves to death) and making good money but their stock is 30% or so down from last year so I am inclined to agree. They'll never have a run like they did from Nehalem through to Zen's launch, but I think they're about to prove that they still have it and that they know how to sell chips.

But they have mba'd themselves to death.

Not really. Intel’s two core issues are engineering failures — process technology and processor architecture

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#15

Intel seems to be making all the right moves. I'm excited to see what Pat Gelsinger can do over the next 5 years (I'm long INTC).

Really? Name a single successful Intel acquisition, especially open source.

I read your statement and I thought "should be easy to find at least one"!

Turns out it isn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel#Acquisitions_and_investm...

Not only does none of these ring a bell, all the software ones seem to be legitimate garbage. Why did intel buy a cloud gaming startup?

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#16
post #7

Intel seems to be making all the right moves. I'm excited to see what Pat Gelsinger can do over the next 5 years (I'm long INTC).

Their current CPU-features-as-a-service marketing push doesn't look like a right move to me.

Like it or not, that's probably where the industry will be in 5 years. You might not like it, but X-as-a-service make way more money for the company, and shareholders.

It'll probably look like this: buy a 'cheap' Intel CPU for $99 (say, 4P, 12E cores clocked at 2 GHz), with "Turbo" to 4.5 GHz being a $79/year subscription and "Extreme Turbo Max" to 5.1 GHz being an additional $35/year. First year free, of course, to get you hooked on the 'turbo' speeds.

Intel would be able to capture ~97% of those proceeds; instead of having to pay XX% to the distributor and retailer.

Would consumers revolt? Some might, but the masses will click 'Buy Now' with a $99 sticker price versus competitor offerings at $400; give it one financial year and AMD's board will force them to follow suit.

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#17
post #7

Intel seems to be making all the right moves. I'm excited to see what Pat Gelsinger can do over the next 5 years (I'm long INTC).

Their current CPU-features-as-a-service marketing push doesn't look like a right move to me.

>> Their current CPU-features-as-a-service marketing push doesn't look like a right move to me.

That was bothering me a bit too, but then I realized it may have a use that most of us don't care about. Sure they could charge more for AVX512 or whatever, and they might try to charge rent for such options which I'm not a fan of. But what if they are being asked by 3-letter agencies for chips with custom circuitry that would be relatively low volume, somewhat annoying to produce? If it's not too much area they could just add those features to every CPU and only enable them for those agencies via SDSi interface. Just speculation in a direction that is IMHO less awful than excess monetization.

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#18
post #11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their current CPU-features-as-a-service marketing push doesn't look like a right move to me.

It's probably the right move financially. People love to pay more for less. Prebuilt desktop, server and cloud companies have built businesses around that concept. The average person is undereducated and easily parted from their money. It's a lot easier to make a bad product that appeals to them and get half the market for free than it is to make a good product and try to appeal to the best.

Calling the cloud "less" in terms of return is certainly a take. Writing software in a DC was pretty miserable, managing the systems in a DC while having zero control over provisioning, having to file tickets, sending endless emails, and dealing with single lane DCs with little to no redundancy was particularly miserable.

The cloud has a lot of flaws, and I do think we'll end up back in DCs again, but it'll be different this time. Companies will have to have redundant internet providers, they'll have to provide APIs as opposed to helpdesks, they'll have to implement a redundant internal structure that scales well, storage will demand options. All of these things existed before the cloud, but became expectations when the cloud hit the market. That's why a lot of companies moved and I doubt they see it as "less".

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel is currently worth less than AMD even though Intel's profit is quite a bit higher than AMDs entire revenue. I recognize that Intel has huge problems to solve but they absolutely seem undervalued currently.

AMD is way more nimble than Intel though, since they're fabless.

That puts them more at the mercy of their suppliers. Replace "nimble" with "not in control".

Re: Intel acquires Linutronix

#20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Name a single successful Intel acquisition, especially open source.

I read your statement and I thought "should be easy to find at least one"! Turns out it isn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel#Acquisitions_and_investm... Not only does none of these ring a bell, all the software ones seem to be legitimate garbage. Why did intel buy a cloud gaming startup?

Maybe acquihires
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