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Intel has never licensed its x86 CPU designs (well, not for a really long time), so the idea of licensing a real, genuine, official Intel CPU core is kind of exciting. Weirdly, Intel and AMD processors might soon be built side by side on the same production line. It’s already one of TSMC’s biggest customers, behind Apple but amongst companies like MediaTek, Qualcomm, nVidia, and AMD. While that seems like a big deal, Intel has been using third-party foundries for ages. In other words, Intel chips won’t necessarily be made by Intel. Intel will increase its use of outside third-party foundries for its own top-line CPUs. He’s unbundling Intel’s architecture from Intel’s manufacturing. (Horror!) Other people will be able to make Intel microprocessors, and Intel will make other people’s microprocessors. (Heresy!) And second, to rent out Intel’s production facilities like an independent foundry. First, to open up x86 to licensing as IP. An über-complex chip built on a second-rate fab line isn’t a good combination. Intel now lags, not leads, in semiconductor process nodes. And Intel made some bad decisions that, in hindsight, seriously hurt its manufacturing technology. Other architectures are making inroads into servers, PCs, laptops, and especially mobile devices. Demand for x86 chips ain’t what it used to be, and not just because Apple switched to M1.
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RISC challengers tried for decades to unseat Intel and failed every time.īut now both halves of that two-pronged strategy are failing. Even though Pentium, Core, and all of their siblings were creaky, byzantine designs, they were still faster than more modern, cleaner competitors. It manufactured its way around the problem. But Intel compensated with exceptional silicon fabrication. Microprocessors based on x86 (as opposed to, say, ARM, MIPS, or RISC-V) are insanely complex, which would normally make them slow and power-hungry. Intel’s historic dominance has been based on two things: the demand for its x86 microprocessor architecture, combined with the company’s outstanding manufacturing technology. That’s a completely nonintuitive reversal of fortune. Its most obvious competitor, AMD, is gaining market share in part because the AMD/TSMC pairing produces better silicon than Intel can with its in-house technology. The company that used to lead the world in fabrication technology is now one or two generations behind mere third-party foundries like TSMC. So, the future isn’t looking as bright as it usually does at Intel. Having said that, Intel has certainly lost its edge in manufacturing technology and new design wins. This is not a company circling the drain. It made about $6 billion in profit just in the last quarter. The company has a $250 billion market capitalization (in case you’re thinking of buying it) and its stock is trading at a 5-year high. It’ll be either a spectacular success or a splashy disaster.įirst of all, Intel isn’t in terrible shape, despite what many short sellers and doomsayers may portend. But, even if they don’t, it will mean a different Intel for all of us. He’s promising big changes – changes that might actually work. Gelsinger doesn’t just expect to do the same old thing as his predecessors and somehow get different results. But amidst all the optimism was some real news. Last week Gelsinger gave a speech/pep talk that outlined his strategy for righting the ship and steaming ahead. Now he’ll try to do the same for the entire company. That alone would have been enough to gold plate anyone’s resume. The ’386 was a huge technical feat and a complete success. Gelsinger helped design the ’386 and ’486 microprocessors, the chips that took Intel into the 32-bit world by dragging the old 8086 kicking and screaming into the 1980s. Gelsinger, a former Intel engineer returning to his previous employer after a 12-year absence to take on the biggest job of all. But is Intel really taking on water, or does it just need a minor course correction? Is the Good Ship Intel sinking or just listing a bit to starboard? It’s possible that its best days are already behind it. It’s no secret that Intel has stumbled lately, and the company’s unquestioned dominance of all things computing is under threat. That’s thanks to years of “Intel Inside” advertisements and the company’s dominance of personal computers over the past few decades. Intel is probably the only semiconductor company in the world that the average person can name. $INTC, otherwise known as Intel Corporation. And there’s no bigger vessel in our industry than the S.S. As the helmsman of the Ever Given, currently recently stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, can attest, turning a massive ship is no easy task.