While the _engineers_ of Intel are definitely not idiots - otherwise they couldn't have been getting enough success - the quasi-engineer layer over it, which ma

While the _engineers_ of Intel are definitely not idiots - otherwise they couldn't have been getting enough success - the quasi-engineer layer over it, which makes the real technical decisions, showed a truly summit of folly, multiple times. - Foolhardy snatch 1: iAPX 432. - Degradation in first half of 1990s, concluded with FDIV bug, and marvellous savior "ASCI Red" which paid all OoO development (PPro and following). - Foolhardy snatch 2: RAMBUS + Itanium. Nearly collapse with P4 and miracle #2 with Israel team, Core, and stealing AMD64. I can't imagine that a person adopted EPIC-based Itanium had had a real engineering competence. (Not sure for iAPX 432, this is a complicated issue.) On a lower layes, as ISA details, every Intel move looks like using prediction less than for 1 move forward! Maybe 1/2 move sounds more veracious. Loads of examples. And, this also seems a guy that just remembered he was an "engineer" 30-40 years ago is now a decision maker.