Google May Be Designing Chips In Threat To Intel

[Imouto]

All I can see is Intel eating $500 million when you can put that into your own designs. You can hire a lot of people with that and going ARM can save a lot of power. Google has so much money that it doesn't know where to invest it.

And then there is Motorola to consider.

 

[Tsavo]

They need an entire team to design their own server chips... Hundreds of people will need to be hired if they want to get this done in a timely matter. You think they could do this without making the public aware that they are hiring?

...except they got a team with the purchase of Agnilux.

 

[Intervenator]

Think what you will. In my opinion, there is much more evidence that refutes Bloombergs "report" (which consisted of no solid evidence to begin with) than there is to support it. It looks like nothing more than a clever article designed to bring page views and site attention. I do not pretend that I know what Google is planning, and for all I know Bloomberg is spot on, however at this point any logical person would assume otherwise.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Might note that Google have bought 7 robotics companies:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-acquires-boston-dynamics-robot-overlords-imminent/66794.html

And still nothing that points to Google developing its own server CPUs. However if they want to manufactor their own smartphones and tablets. Then its another story with other possibilities.

Its no different than the rest of the tech hypes we had over the years. People wish to believe due to different motives, and none of them is fueled by rational logic.

Just because a company got money, doesnt mean they want to throw it down a black hole. I assume people learned that last time, when the asusmption was AMD would be bathed in endless oil money.

 

[Exophase]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1896211-intel-dont-believe-bloombergs-google-rumor

Lets put this thread to a rest. Read my link. Enough said?

I'm going to post here instead of there since I don't want to get bogged down in the investment stuff I know nothing about

I agree that Google is not in any place to make a custom ARM CPU core any time soon. That isn't necessarily relevant. If Google is looking to make some custom chip where most of the heavy lifting is done by custom logic it makes a lot more sense to affix a standard ARM chip in there than it does to use anything off chip. I have no idea what's even feasible for Google to make dedicated accelerator hardware for.

I don't buy for a minute that it'd be just as easy for Google to throw an Intel CPU on this custom ASIC and have it manufactured by Intel. Just because Intel says they're willing to negotiate custom SoCs with user provided IP blocks doesn't mean that they're automatically the best choice, they're in a totally different position vs ARM and the big foundries like TSMC when it comes to license model, support, IP libraries, etc.

 

[Nothingness]

I'm going to post here instead of there since I don't want to get bogged down in the investment stuff I know nothing about

And you'd be attacked by consanguineous Intel bulls which brain has suffered far too long from an impoverished genetic pool, so the discussion would be void.

I agree that Google is not in any place to make a custom ARM CPU core any time soon. That isn't necessarily relevant. If Google is looking to make some custom chip where most of the heavy lifting is done by custom logic it makes a lot more sense to affix a standard ARM chip in there than it does to use anything off chip. I have no idea what's even feasible for Google to make dedicated accelerator hardware for.

IBM PowerEN might be a hint of what can be accelerated.

I don't buy for a minute that it'd be just as easy for Google to throw an Intel CPU on this custom ASIC and have it manufactured by Intel. Just because Intel says they're willing to negotiate custom SoCs with user provided IP blocks doesn't mean that they're automatically the best choice, they're in a totally different position vs ARM and the big foundries like TSMC when it comes to license model, support, IP libraries, etc.

Intel isn't even able to build its own modems on its own process in a timely manner, so there's little doubt they're still not in a position to be a foundry for mass production of lower cost chips coming from others. And when you start adding HW accelerators you don't care what the CPU is, might be Intel, ARM, POWER, MIPS, and out of the three Intel is the less likely to easily license its core.

That being said, I'm not sure I buy this whole story of Google building its own chips. At least not until there's some more evidence.