6 ms·

Intel’s new boss wants to teach the chipmaker new tricks

42 points by js2 8y ago

js2 8y ago
paywall workaround - https://outline.com/3aH5Su https://outline.com/3aH5Su
theparanoid 8y ago
I'm bearish on Intel. The culture is conservative and unwilling to compete with FANG on pay for employees.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- CoolGuySteve 8y ago
  It’s funny you mention that since Intel was involved in antitrust lawsuits along with Apple and Google for conspiring to wage fix. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation#Civil_class_action https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust...
ethbro 8y ago
Not a good start when you count 4 incorrect statements in the first few paragraphs of the article.
- sanxiyn 8y ago
  What are those statements?
  - dfrage 8y ago
    I see simplifications in the the first six paragraphs, for example ignoring its leading role in commercially available DRAM starting around the same time it launched the 4004, but that's not very relevant after they exited the market in the 1980s due to Japanese fabs achieving much higher yields. But nothing I'd outright label "incorrect".
  - ethbro 8y ago
    Generally lazy writing or attempting to jazz up the piece without enough expertise to know when you've changed the meaning. "Intel dominates the market for chips that power desktop PCs." It has a bit over 85% market share, in a two-player market. Furthermore, because they didn't say CPU like they should have, they're technically inaccurate. Intel network PHYs don't "dominant" consumer boards, last I checked. "demand for server chips is growing, propelled by the profusion of internet-connected gizmos, from smartphones to cars." Really? IoT is the catalyst? "missed the arrival of the smartphone" Unfair and reductive. Intel didn't "miss" the smartphone: it saw it coming, didn't have a product that fit, looked at the margins, and didn't think it was worth investing. That probably wasn't a bad move in hindsight. "GPUs, specialised chips designed for video-game graphics" That tortures the definition of a different microarchitecture. "And its manufacturing technology, which used to advance with such metronomic regularity that Intel called its business plan “tick-tock”" This was it for me. Intel literally moved to the tick-tock cadency because Moore's Law was slowing down. Before, it was just an unending stream of process shrinks. Tick-tock accepted that there was now time for an entire microarchitecture update between process shrinks. "The firm’s latest generation of products, built on its “ten nanometre” manufacturing process" Also, since when do we air quote measurements?
    - pjc50 8y ago
      Intel did try to get into phones, they just failed. I have one of the Asus ZenFones with an Intel processor running x86 Android.
      - ethbro 8y ago
        They tried, but the power-optimized Atoms were still a hedged bet. They threw some spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick, while keeping the core suitable for other markets if it didn't.
    - uj8efdjkfdshf 8y ago
      >since when do we air quote measurements? Ever since the process name stopped being indicative of the minimum metal pitch, or any aspect of the process itself.
cameldrv 8y ago
Overall Intel's future looks bleak. Finance guy at the helm usually means milking existing markets and a slow decline. The bright spot IMO is Mobileye. I think that there is a good chance that they will end up the dark horse AV leader.
baybal2 8y ago
I don't see much new tricks here: he moves Intel as a business into the safe harbour of "enterprise" products a specialty server hardware that nobody, but easily upsellable corporate clients will buy.
- bhouston 8y ago
  Easily upsellable corp clients have lots of money. Intel is a sitting duck to disruption of all types.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  IBM wannabee.. sad
- cvs268 8y ago
  > a specialty server hardware that nobody, but easily upsellable corporate clients will buy. Sounds like the "Hooli Box 3 - Signature Edition" https://youtu.be/xbBhH_spfBo?t=123 https://youtu.be/xbBhH_spfBo?t=123
Traster 8y ago
> firms from Microsoft to Facebook to Tesla have begun designing custom chips specialised for the sorts of number-crunching their businesses need. >That is unlikely to harm Intel directly, since such accelerator chips are complements to its server chips, not replacements. This is just straight down the line wrong. In the data centre there is just 'compute' it doesn't matter if it's a GPU or CPU doing the compute. What does matter is that if you're doing all your compute on a GPU or ASIC then the CPU you're buying can be a lightweight chip just to do a little control & synchronization. Intel doesn't make huge money on those chips. It's the massive 512core 100GHz monsters where it's making the most cash. So these custom solutions absolutely present a threat to Intel's server revenue. As well as that Tesla are going for ASIC in their car. Automotive was a key growth area for Intel which is one of the reason s it bought Altera and MobilEye. If they miss automotive (which they will given most big movers are on Nvidia platforms with ASICs coming after, and Intel is failing in their fab business). >he hopes to continue Mr Krzanich’s strategy of expanding the firm’s reach. Intel cannot execute on this until Intel's culture changes. The problem they have is they're trying to cost cut in legacy businesses whilst investing for growth in new businesses. Firstly this pisses off the legacy businesses like you wouldn't believe. Secondly, legacy business spends it's entire time dressing up in make-up and a new dress and screaming "Look at me! I'm a growth area!". And finally, the actual growth areas are hamstrung by inappropriate cost-saving, 1-size fits all management and spending 99% of their time trying to persuade the rest of the business they really are a growth area. Intel is just not set up to win new markets.
- robomartin 8y ago
  This is a classic The Innovators Dilemma scenario, as described in the book back in the ‘90’s. If the people running Intel read the book and understand the problem they’ll know what to do. Otherwise the opening will be there for someone (Nvidia) to take the ball, run with it and own the industry. Being aware of history is important. Very few things in business are new once you distill things down to their essence.
toomuchequate 8y ago
I don't see any experienced programmer making an investment in an Apple language(unless they are being paid). If you are old enough, you have been jerked around by Apple enough to know better. Expecting $500$+ dev packages in the next 10 years from Apple.
- ksec 8y ago
  What has this got to do with Apple?

42 points by js2 8y ago

js2 8y ago

paywall workaround - https://outline.com/3aH5Su https://outline.com/3aH5Su

theparanoid 8y ago

I'm bearish on Intel. The culture is conservative and unwilling to compete with FANG on pay for employees.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
CoolGuySteve 8y ago
It’s funny you mention that since Intel was involved in antitrust lawsuits along with Apple and Google for conspiring to wage fix. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation#Civil_class_action https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust...

ethbro 8y ago

Not a good start when you count 4 incorrect statements in the first few paragraphs of the article.

sanxiyn 8y ago
What are those statements?
- dfrage 8y ago
  I see simplifications in the the first six paragraphs, for example ignoring its leading role in commercially available DRAM starting around the same time it launched the 4004, but that's not very relevant after they exited the market in the 1980s due to Japanese fabs achieving much higher yields. But nothing I'd outright label "incorrect".
- ethbro 8y ago
  Generally lazy writing or attempting to jazz up the piece without enough expertise to know when you've changed the meaning. "Intel dominates the market for chips that power desktop PCs." It has a bit over 85% market share, in a two-player market. Furthermore, because they didn't say CPU like they should have, they're technically inaccurate. Intel network PHYs don't "dominant" consumer boards, last I checked. "demand for server chips is growing, propelled by the profusion of internet-connected gizmos, from smartphones to cars." Really? IoT is the catalyst? "missed the arrival of the smartphone" Unfair and reductive. Intel didn't "miss" the smartphone: it saw it coming, didn't have a product that fit, looked at the margins, and didn't think it was worth investing. That probably wasn't a bad move in hindsight. "GPUs, specialised chips designed for video-game graphics" That tortures the definition of a different microarchitecture. "And its manufacturing technology, which used to advance with such metronomic regularity that Intel called its business plan “tick-tock”" This was it for me. Intel literally moved to the tick-tock cadency because Moore's Law was slowing down. Before, it was just an unending stream of process shrinks. Tick-tock accepted that there was now time for an entire microarchitecture update between process shrinks. "The firm’s latest generation of products, built on its “ten nanometre” manufacturing process" Also, since when do we air quote measurements?
  - pjc50 8y ago
    Intel did try to get into phones, they just failed. I have one of the Asus ZenFones with an Intel processor running x86 Android.
    - ethbro 8y ago
      They tried, but the power-optimized Atoms were still a hedged bet. They threw some spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick, while keeping the core suitable for other markets if it didn't.
  - uj8efdjkfdshf 8y ago
    >since when do we air quote measurements? Ever since the process name stopped being indicative of the minimum metal pitch, or any aspect of the process itself.

cameldrv 8y ago

Overall Intel's future looks bleak. Finance guy at the helm usually means milking existing markets and a slow decline. The bright spot IMO is Mobileye. I think that there is a good chance that they will end up the dark horse AV leader.

baybal2 8y ago

I don't see much new tricks here: he moves Intel as a business into the safe harbour of "enterprise" products a specialty server hardware that nobody, but easily upsellable corporate clients will buy.

bhouston 8y ago
Easily upsellable corp clients have lots of money. Intel is a sitting duck to disruption of all types.
agumonkey 8y ago
IBM wannabee.. sad
cvs268 8y ago
> a specialty server hardware that nobody, but easily upsellable corporate clients will buy. Sounds like the "Hooli Box 3 - Signature Edition" https://youtu.be/xbBhH_spfBo?t=123 https://youtu.be/xbBhH_spfBo?t=123

Traster 8y ago

> firms from Microsoft to Facebook to Tesla have begun designing custom chips specialised for the sorts of number-crunching their businesses need. >That is unlikely to harm Intel directly, since such accelerator chips are complements to its server chips, not replacements. This is just straight down the line wrong. In the data centre there is just 'compute' it doesn't matter if it's a GPU or CPU doing the compute. What does matter is that if you're doing all your compute on a GPU or ASIC then the CPU you're buying can be a lightweight chip just to do a little control & synchronization. Intel doesn't make huge money on those chips. It's the massive 512core 100GHz monsters where it's making the most cash. So these custom solutions absolutely present a threat to Intel's server revenue. As well as that Tesla are going for ASIC in their car. Automotive was a key growth area for Intel which is one of the reason s it bought Altera and MobilEye. If they miss automotive (which they will given most big movers are on Nvidia platforms with ASICs coming after, and Intel is failing in their fab business). >he hopes to continue Mr Krzanich’s strategy of expanding the firm’s reach. Intel cannot execute on this until Intel's culture changes. The problem they have is they're trying to cost cut in legacy businesses whilst investing for growth in new businesses. Firstly this pisses off the legacy businesses like you wouldn't believe. Secondly, legacy business spends it's entire time dressing up in make-up and a new dress and screaming "Look at me! I'm a growth area!". And finally, the actual growth areas are hamstrung by inappropriate cost-saving, 1-size fits all management and spending 99% of their time trying to persuade the rest of the business they really are a growth area. Intel is just not set up to win new markets.

robomartin 8y ago
This is a classic The Innovators Dilemma scenario, as described in the book back in the ‘90’s. If the people running Intel read the book and understand the problem they’ll know what to do. Otherwise the opening will be there for someone (Nvidia) to take the ball, run with it and own the industry. Being aware of history is important. Very few things in business are new once you distill things down to their essence.

toomuchequate 8y ago

I don't see any experienced programmer making an investment in an Apple language(unless they are being paid). If you are old enough, you have been jerked around by Apple enough to know better. Expecting $500$+ dev packages in the next 10 years from Apple.

ksec 8y ago
What has this got to do with Apple?