Intel gives Xiaomi free tablet CPUs

[DrMrLordX]

http://hexus.net/business/news/comp...one-get-one-free-cpu-deal-xiaomi-says-report/

More specifically, "according to sources from the upstream supply chain," Intel will be providing Xiaomi with a free tablet processor for every laptop processor it buys.

So this BOGO deal replaces contra-revenue?

 

[VirtualLarry]

...Intel having to slash prices, to keep the PC (mobile PC, in this case) market afloat? Or is Xiaomi really just that good a customer? (What about Dell and HP? Seriously.)

 

[Arachnotronic]

Speaks to the strength of Intel's tablet processors...how do you say "garbage"?

 

[monstercameron]

the question is, what kinda loopholes are they jumping through to make this legal?

 

[Burpo]

Nothing wrong with promoting some goodwill with their Chinese partners..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/in-china-intel-spends-billions-chasing-qualcomm

"Intel paid $1.5 billion in September for a 20 percent stake in state-run Tsinghua Unigroup"

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tsinghua-m-a-idUSKCN0T50DU20151116

"If you can't be the top-three giant, it will be very hard to develop your business in the chip industry," Zhao said, citing reports that China imported more chips than crude oil every year.

"The next five years is key... There is an enormous market out there."

 

[Arachnotronic]

the question is, what kinda loopholes are they jumping through to make this legal?

Easy...have you never bought something at a store and gotten something with it for "free"?

 

[Burpo]

Especially if you're part owner of the store?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Speaks to the strength of Intel's tablet processors...how do you say "garbage"?

I have an atom tablet, and I wouldnt call it garbage. I think that refers to their phone processors!!

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have an atom tablet, and I wouldnt call it garbage. I think that refers to their phone processors!!

Is it Bay Trail, or Cherry Trail, though? Most people think CHT is a step backwards in overall performance, as well as performance / watt. (Even though it was a shrink to 14nm.)

 

[ShintaiDK]

Cherry Trail performs the same CPU wise as Bay Trail. While the IGP is much better. Else the rest is about cost savings.

 

[VirtualLarry]

the question is, what kinda loopholes are they jumping through to make this legal?

Distributors often give free products, with purchase of bulk lots. They call them "samples", and are intended to drum up future business.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Easy...have you never bought something at a store and gotten something with it for "free"?

And "free" is always trash :|

 

[VirtualLarry]

Cherry Trail performs the same CPU wise as Bay Trail. While the IGP is much better. Else the rest is about cost savings.

Most benchmarks that I've seen around the web show CT performing, actually worse than Bay Trail. Maybe it has something to do with the programmable TDP being set 0.5W lower than BT. But the difference is real.

Edit: I went to find some data, and searching for "geekbench bay trail cherry trail" leads to a number of articles with "disappointing" in the title.

However, the actual article claims that CHT is 5% faster than Bay Trail. So, perhaps my memory is faulty.
http://www.extremetech.com/computin...-line-early-14nm-cherry-trail-benchmarks-leak

 

[Sweepr]

Cherry Trail performs the same CPU wise as Bay Trail. While the IGP is much better. Else the rest is about cost savings.

This. And the CPU performance should be improved this year with Apollo Lake / Broxton.

Also, there's enough Atom bashing threads already.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Most benchmarks that I've seen around the web show CT performing, actually worse than Bay Trail. Maybe it has something to do with the programmable TDP being set 0.5W lower than BT. But the difference is real.

More that you have compared CPUs of different platforms.

And did you check the link?

The data shows Cherry Trail outperforming Bay Trail by an average of roughly 5 to 8 percent.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1964705?baseline=1907721

Looks to me that Cherrytrail is faster.

But if we look at the Surface 3.
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/4796957
It pretty much performs identical to the Dell Venue 11.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Is it Bay Trail, or Cherry Trail, though? Most people think CHT is a step backwards in overall performance, as well as performance / watt. (Even though it was a shrink to 14nm.)

Bay Trail. I have mercifully put Cherry Trail out my mind. I wouldnt say CT is a step backwards, but they certainly did not come up with the needed lmprovements.

 

[dark zero]

Cherry Trail performs the same CPU wise as Bay Trail. While the IGP is much better. Else the rest is about cost savings.

Actually is considered a heavy nerf since it reduces TDP and with bigger iGPU, it nerfs even more the consumption limit of their CPU. Suposedly a smaller node was supposed to bring way more CPU performance (going to 2.7 or even 3 Ghz planned limit), however it failed miserably.

I expossed it previously that even AMD Mullins became somehow competent again is Intel ditchs Bay Trail.

 

[Phynaz]

The bigger news is Xiaomi is getting into the laptop business. That's going to upset a few apple carts.

 

[dark zero]

That means that Intel wants Xiaomi out of their own core business... even more, maybe Intel wants to buy Xiaomi for them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The bigger news is Xiaomi is getting into the laptop business. That's going to upset a few apple carts.

I see what you did there...

 

[frozentundra123456]

Well, if they want to upset any "apple" carts, they are going to have to do a helluva lot better than atom laptops.

 

[DrMrLordX]

the question is, what kinda loopholes are they jumping through to make this legal?

I'm not sure it's illegal. It would really depend on where the end products - in this case, the tablets or other devices that wind up with Cherry Trail chips in them - are sold. If Xiaomi keeps their el cheapo devices restricted primarily to the Chinese market and various Asian markets, it might not ruffle too many of the right feathers to upset anyone.

Furthermore, it's a BOGO deal since Intel has to sell them a "laptop processor" - probably mobile Skylake- per CT. So I'm not sure if regulators would see it as manipulation of sales/shipping numbers, market manipulation (selling below cost), or what. BOGO deals go mostly unnoticed from an competition/anticompetition perspective in retail space, often due to the fact that BOGO deals are associated with a slightly higher unit cost for the non-free item one must purchase to get the free premium. For example, if I offer you a free can of Great Looking Hair when you buy some piece of junk I'm selling in an infomercial, I'm probably raising the price of the piece of junk (or the shipping) to cover the cost of the GLH.

In the case of the Intel/Xiaomi deal, it's not clear that the price of "laptop processors" is being adjusted at all to account for the extra CT hardware that Intel is kicking in for free. It might not matter.

What is clear is that Intel is still going to be subsidizing the cost of any device using one of Xiaomi's freebie CTs, so the tablet market gets dumped on again. It's a great time to be a cheap tablet hunter.

Well, if they want to upset any "apple" carts, they are going to have to do a helluva lot better than atom laptops.

See above, Xiaomi is probably not going to be using these Atoms in laptops . . . to get the free CT Atoms, they have to buy something more substantial.

 

[386DX]

Bay Trail. I have mercifully put Cherry Trail out my mind. I wouldnt say CT is a step backwards, but they certainly did not come up with the needed lmprovements.

Seriously they came out with the exact improvements they need for the targeted platform. Intel could of stripped down the GPU on CHT and IO and probably made CHT 20-25% faster then BT on the CPU but is that going to matter on a phone or tablet if it meant you can't decode/encode the latest H.265 codec? Give up USB 3.0, etc, etc. Your device would be outdated before it even reached market. It's those support that is needed on low powered devices as there is no software you can fall back on to perform these functions like on the big core CPU's with much more powerful CPUs.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Wow, even the intel fans on these forums dont defend CT. I have a bay trail tablet, and h265 dlesnt really interest me at all. But I sure could use some more cpu power. In any case, maybe they could have you know, improved both. It just seems very unbalanced toward gpu as it is.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Wow, even the intel fans on these forums dont defend CT. I have a bay trail tablet, and h265 dlesnt really interest me at all. But I sure could use some more cpu power. In any case, maybe they could have you know, improved both. It just seems very unbalanced toward gpu as it is.

Apollo Lake/Broxton should be much, much better in this regard. The SoC architecture itself will be entirely new, CPU cores new, GPU new, ISP new, etc.

These chips can't come soon enough.