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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

#171

Post by Leherenn »

danpalmer wrote: post #86
tw04 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

I get your point, but I think the M1 is more significant as proof of what is possible than because I think everyone will buy a Mac. I can absolutely see Qualcomm offering laptop chips off the back of the M1's success. They may not be as good, but they might be much cheaper. I can also see Microsoft pushing Windows on ARM harder, and rolling out their own chips at some point. Also once the market gets "used to" multi-…

Maybe. Apple has solved the chicken and egg problem regarding software compatibility by forcing everyone to move on to ARM in the near future. Microsoft will not abandon x64 though, so there are far less incentives to port things. Also Microsoft cares far more about compatibility (e.g. 32-bit software). That means means a lot of things will run under a Rosetta 2 like system (probably less efficient if you need to support 32-bit as well). If you add the fact that Qualcomm is unlikely to match Apple in performance, the resulting product might not be very appealing compared to a classic x64 system.

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

#172

Post by chrisseaton »

bjornsing wrote: post #166
chrisseaton wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Richard Stallman uses the title 'Doctor' with only an honorary doctorate - people seem to think it's fine for some reason.

Isn’t it a bit petty to deny him that? It seems a hell of a lot harder to me to get a honorary doctorate than a normal PhD, and I can think of a lot of PhDs who deserve their doctor title a lot less than Stallman.

Kanye West, Ben Affleck, Jon Bon Jovi, etc, all have honorary doctorates. Why does nobody call them Doctor? For the same reason you shouldn't call Stallman Doctor - because you don't do that for honorary doctorates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree#Use_of_title_a...

Almost all universities explicitly and strongly tell people they give honorary degrees to to not do this.

https://www.wthrockmorton.com/2017/12/11/honorary-doctorate-...

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

#173

Post by rossdavidh »

satya71 wrote: post #13

The CEO of a semiconductor company needs to have an engineering background, IMO. The tech is too complex and too important to the business to have a CEO who doesn't understand the nuances. Wish Pat all the success at Intel. We need Intel to do better.

Disclosure: I worked at AMD for about a decade, although that's a while back now. It is traditional in semiconductor companies (or was, anyway) to have a triumvirate:

1) the "outside" guy (sales, know the customer) 2) the "inside" guy (operations, now the employees) 3) the "tech" guy

Any of these three can run the company, but whichever one it is, they need to have the other two near at hand, and they need to listen closely to them. The problem comes when, as at Intel and perhaps also at Boeing, you have options (1) or (2) in charge, and they're not listening to the person who is position (3) in the triumvirate, or they don't have a triumvirate at all. If the person in position (3) is in charge (as at AMD currently), they will still need to have experts in (1) and (2), and they will need to listen to them.

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

#174

Post by bjornsing »

chrisseaton wrote: post #172
bjornsing wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it a bit petty to deny him that? It seems a hell of a lot harder to me to get a honorary doctorate than a normal PhD, and I can think of a lot of PhDs who deserve their doctor title a lot less than Stallman.

Kanye West, Ben Affleck, Jon Bon Jovi, etc, all have honorary doctorates. Why does nobody call them Doctor? For the same reason you shouldn't call Stallman Doctor - because you don't do that for honorary doctorates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree#Use_of_title_a... Almost all universities explicitly and strongly tell people they give honorary degrees to to not do this. https://www.wthrockmorton.com/2017…

Well that’s just social convention, and I don’t place much emphasis on that. I reserve the right to address anyone I choose as “doctor”, and if Stallman prefers to be addressed that way I’m happy to oblige. He has certainly earned it in my book.

Same goes for Benjamin Franklin btw, whom I see you left out of your list.

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

#175

Post by m463 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #172
bjornsing wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it a bit petty to deny him that? It seems a hell of a lot harder to me to get a honorary doctorate than a normal PhD, and I can think of a lot of PhDs who deserve their doctor title a lot less than Stallman.

Kanye West, Ben Affleck, Jon Bon Jovi, etc, all have honorary doctorates. Why does nobody call them Doctor? For the same reason you shouldn't call Stallman Doctor - because you don't do that for honorary doctorates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree#Use_of_title_a... Almost all universities explicitly and strongly tell people they give honorary degrees to to not do this. https://www.wthrockmorton.com/2017…

Good thing Dan Aykroyd got an honorary doctorate (Carleton) to back up Doctor Detroit.

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

#176

Post by gscott »

PedroBatista wrote: post #31

The trillion dollar question is: Is the board leaning into the usual MBA moves 101 and turn Intel into a "services company" gradually going fabless and milking those sweet patents OR will they put the work boots on and start building an actual tech company with the people who actually can save them on the payroll? cutting on the usual contractors meat grinder and invite the vast armies of middle-management and market…

All of the other fabs are so busy they can't handle Intel's chip production plus Intel's technology is wound around their own labs. Switching wouldn't be easy and might end up being a failure and taking the company with it.

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

#177

Post by WatchDog »

chrisseaton wrote: post #163
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…

Richard Stallman uses the title 'Doctor' with only an honorary doctorate - people seem to think it's fine for some reason.

He apparently has 14 honorary doctorates, maybe after receiving 10 it's ok.

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

#178

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

throwawayriver wrote: post #165

All those hundreds of millions of dollars Intel shelled out over the past five years for SJW and "diversity" initiatives are finally paying off!!!

I think you're raising an interesting point regarding the CEO's focus vs. company performance.

Friendly advice from someone who's learned this the hard way: If you edit your comment so that it's tone is a bit more friendly, it's more likely to foster a real discussion.

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

#179

Post by angry_octet »

chrisseaton wrote: post #163
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…

Richard Stallman uses the title 'Doctor' with only an honorary doctorate - people seem to think it's fine for some reason.

If no one (including MIT) decided they could grant him a PhD on the basis of publications (rather than the more traditional thesis route) I don't see why we should use the honorific. Also, I know plenty of distinguished engineers who don't have a PhD, and they seem fine with it. It is the extremely vain who travel around being feted for faded laurels who I have no time for.

Also, what's up with Peru? Marxism? https://stallman.org/biographies.html

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

#180

Post by totalZero »

atniomn wrote: post #169
totalZero wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as Third Point's public commentary goes, you're right. [0] (Who knows what they said in private.) "Strategic alternatives" often means "split up the businesses." Silver Lake proposed something similar to AMD in 2015. In the end, the Silver Lake deal didn't happen [1] and AMD stock is up 45x since then. [0] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/third-point-full-letter-... [1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing…

Splitting up Intel's fabrication and design businesses would it make similar to AMD, the stock which is up 45x since 2015. Intel's fabrication business needs more volume, so it can increase R&D spending and capital expenditure, it can get this volume as a merchant fab. Intel's design business doesn't need to be held back by Intel's fabrication delays. I imagine designers at Intel would prefer to compete with AMD on t…

AMD chose to spin out GlobalFoundries in 2008, several years prior to the 2015 Silver Lake near-deal [0], becoming a fabless company on the tail end of a 90% slide in AMD stock. AMD share price continued to decline and remained in the low single digits for seven years after AMD and GlobalFoundries parted ways.

My understanding is that Silver Lake wanted AMD to split apart its product segments. They were going to buy 20-25% of the company, but the deal never materialized.

Intel's vertical integration is an asset IMO, especially in a supply-constrained environment like the present.

[0]: https://www.eetimes.com/amd-foundry-spinoff-open-for-busines...

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