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Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

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Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#331

Post by gambler »

dragandj wrote: post #198
jernfrost wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the tech industry has been incapable of coming out with new functionality that really requires more power. The only thing I can see which is going to benefit a lot from CPU power is more advance AI or machine learning built in. But we are only seeing very gradual moves in this area now. VR and Games are also candidates of course, but most people aren't hard core gamers. They are fine with Angry Birds ;-) And…

The problem for Intel is that AI and machine learning are going to be typically done on the GPU. So, Nvidia. Also, a chance for AMD to recover.

Well, that's just another way of stating that CPUs have fallen way, way behind graphics cards in terms of power. At some point in the past the difference in power wasn't nearly as large.

If there were consumer-grade 16- and 32- core Intel processors with reasonable prices I would consider buying them for the sake of certain experiments. It would save me from dealing with CUDA or OpenCL. But right now that's the domain of pricey high-end server stuff.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#332

Post by noir_lord »

mac01021 wrote: post #319
tostitos1979 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Nvidia seems like the exciting company in this regard. I have a bad feeling they're going to tumble because the latest announcements related to Pascal have focused on deep learning instead of 4K for consumers. As far as I know, they haven't even announced their consumer Pascal cards yet. The rumor I've read online is announcements in June.

What would it mean for Nvidia to focus on 4k? Do the new screen resolutions require architectural innovations in the GPU? (Honest question. I'm not a graphics engineer)

Me either so take this with a pinch of salt.

Mostly it's about shuttling around 4 times as much memory for each screen as well as 4 times as much processing.

1920x1080 has ~ 2 million pixels. 3840x2160 has ~ 8 million pixels.

Internally iirc this is often done as vectors before been rasterised out and having various filters and shaders applied but that step requires that you store multiple buffers etc, same reason a card that will play a game just comfortably at 1024x768 will run away crying at 1920x1080 I guess.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#333

Post by kaonashi »

tma-1 wrote: post #39

So Intel is cutting 11% of its workforce, Goldman Sachs just reported a 56% drop in profits, Morgan Stanley had a 50% drop in profits, Netflix missed subscriber growth estimates etc... yet, the Dow just hit a 9-Month high, and the S&P500 is now above 2100. The whole market is overvalued, not just the tech unicorns.

Money's gotta get parked somewhere.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#334

Post by floatrock »

taneq wrote: post #323
osweiller wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More computers are being sold than ever before. The market is absolutely saturated with computing devices. And aside from the intense competition Intel is facing, they're suffering the same issue that the GPU makers face -- I once upgraded yearly because the gains made it worthwhile. Now I upgrade pretty much only when something fails. It is absolutely picking a narrative.

That's precisely the "issue", and it's only a problem if you make it a problem. The early-adopter and rapid-early-development churn is slowing down because processor technology is maturing and has reached full market penetration, so the market for new devices is shrinking. It's like a hotdog stand calling it a "market crash" when they've sold everyone a hotdog and nobody's hungry after lunchtime. The automotive indus…

Ain't that a bit sad, all that energy and pollution going towards planned obsolescence so that he with the shiniest toys wins?

There is some legitimate utility derived from novelty -- I don't want to be walking around in my grandfather's battered rags either -- but I wonder if some day we can shift towards something more sustainable and less paying to dig consumerist holes then paying again to fill them back in.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#336

Post by ta_04192016 »

hiram112 wrote: post #234

Intel ranks #14 in H1B use and was a large proponent of the bill to increase the allowance foreign tech workers. So I'm assuming their inability to find 'talent' is no longer an issue? Same as Microsoft, IBM, and the numerous other big corps that have had massive layoffs recently, while also claiming an inability to find enough US tech workers?

The people fired don't have the right skills. They hire with H1B because the domestic labor market doesn't have enough people with these skills.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#337

Post by nxzero »

Being in hardware is getting harder and harder.

Increasingly the footprint of hardware is becoming sparser, replaced by software, etc.

It is time to make the push to make hardware open source mainstream from the point power hops on to where software picks up.

There are many, many really good reasons to do this, but in the end, to me, it will define how free the world is.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#338

Post by justin66 »

tostitos1979 wrote: post #247
noir_lord wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me as well, I built an i5-2500K system backend 2010(ish), it's still my main home desktop, 32GB RAM and an SSD and it's as fast as the machine at work that is two generations newer (or more correct it's imperceptibly slower). Things have really levelled out for average loads even developer loads (mostly do web dev, run vagrant machines that kind of thing). I can't see me upgrading til this thing dies tbh.

What you folks are saying is mostly true. VR and 4K are the drivers for a whole new compute cycle in the home. I think the current core counts for Xeon are good enough for cloud (by this I mean that I think CPU isn't the bottleneck for the average EC2, Google Compute, Azure instance). Any one care to comment?

> VR and 4K are the drivers for a whole new compute cycle in the home.

My i7 desktop will be four years old in June. I've done the research and all I need to run the Oculus or HTC Vive (or the upcoming games that look good) is a graphics card upgrade.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#339

Post by wolfgke »

msellout wrote: post #91
logfromblammo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closer to nonation, technically, but decimation is the word everyone already knows.

"decimation" is also the word with meaning. "nonation" is just turning "nineth" into a verb and then somewhat of a gerund, like "ninething". Without the historical context, it has little meaning.

> Without the historical context, it has little meaning.

This is what school is for.

Re: Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

#340

Post by eyeareque »

ta_04192016 wrote: post #336
hiram112 wrote: post #234

Intel ranks #14 in H1B use and was a large proponent of the bill to increase the allowance foreign tech workers. So I'm assuming their inability to find 'talent' is no longer an issue? Same as Microsoft, IBM, and the numerous other big corps that have had massive layoffs recently, while also claiming an inability to find enough US tech workers?

The people fired don't have the right skills. They hire with H1B because the domestic labor market doesn't have enough people with these skills.

Really, not because they are cheaper and wear handcuffs to their desk so-to-say since they'd have to go back home if they lose their job?
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