Their development model was 'tick / tock'[0] with the tick being smaller processes, increased frequency, lower-power. All of those are largely outsourced (or ou

Their development model was 'tick / tock'[0] with the tick being smaller processes, increased frequency, lower-power. All of those are largely outsourced (or outsourceable) to a fab. The tock step was introduction of new microarchitectures. Intel has been historically hit or miss with this, the default is to take what they did and do more of it rather than come up with entirely new and sound designs. I would say for large established companies the greatest factor in these kinds of differences is how high the engineering culture goes up the reporting chain. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick%E2%80%93tock_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick%E2%80%93tock_model