Yeah, it's so easy to make great ARM SoCs by buying both companies up that somehow a pure chip vendor like Intel didn't do it when they had the chance, yet they have no qualms losing billions into the black hole of their mobile division. Or to think PA Semi/Intrinsity would have been remotely successful without Apple's war chest.
Quoting Emperor Palpatine: "You will pay the price for your lack of vision."
Just my own speculation here, but it seems to me anyway that both PA and Intrinsity were formed for acquisition at the outset. Intel had already dumped their ARM division sometime before though, so they weren't really a candidate. With Apple's war chest though, that talent, and talent picked up elsewhere has done some really great things with the A series SOC's. I'm sure Qualcomm and Samsung are kicking themselves for not buying them up.
Just my own speculation here, but it seems to me anyway that both PA and Intrinsity were formed for acquisition at the outset.
Yep, it's always the innocent, hard-working worker-bees that get shafted. What's even worse is that due to how large this layoff is, it's hard to keep it out of the public eye. So the poor guy who has a family to feed who tries to go get a job elsewhere in the semiconductor industry will have a harder time because it will be clear that he was laid off from Intel which might make him seem like somebody who couldn't cut it, even if this is not true.
Very sad situation, very disappointed in Intel.
I think not, most other companies see this as an oppurtunity.
12,000 people is a lot.
We reached out to Intel, which confirmed the news: SoFIA 3GX, SoFIA LTE, SoFIA LTE2, and Broxton have all been canceled.
Edit: BTW, if you think about it, this was inevitable. Or at least Atom: Intel doesn't *really* need Atom (Goldmont) because they have Core (cf. Apple's Cyclone or whatever the latest one is called). The problem, however, with Core is cost. It isn't optimized for smartphone TPDs, it's die area and feature set is probably too beefy. SoFIA is probably because they don't want to compete with the low-end, low-margin stuff. Not interesting.
I don't think Intel is going to make a surprise comeback with a Core powered phone SoC. They just flushed the entire x86 phone line-up for several years to come, at least. You don't come back from that- they're going to lose the few customers they had left, and the few x86-minded software developers that they had. They burnt over a billion dollars building up x86 marketshare and mindshare, and then they just undid it all.
I don't think Intel is going to make a surprise comeback with a Core powered phone SoC. They just flushed the entire x86 phone line-up for several years to come, at least. You don't come back from that- they're going to lose the few customers they had left, and the few x86-minded software developers that they had. They burnt over a billion dollars building up x86 marketshare and mindshare, and then they just undid it all.
Hey, but, but, they're at the forefront of diversity hiring! That's got to count for something, right? Who cares about products or quality or time-to-market...
I believe that placing arbitrary racial or gender quotas on corporate boards is fundamentally wrong. Therefore, not only does Cypress not meet your requirements for boardroom diversification, but we are unlikely to, because it is very difficult to find qualified directors, let alone directors that also meet investors' racial and gender preferences.
I'm not saying there will be Core soon. However, I've read somewhere that Intel is toying with it. I'm more thinking long-term, around 7nm (earliest).I don't think Intel is going to make a surprise comeback with a Core powered phone SoC. They just flushed the entire x86 phone line-up for several years to come, at least. You don't come back from that- they're going to lose the few customers they had left, and the few x86-minded software developers that they had. They burnt over a billion dollars building up x86 marketshare and mindshare, and then they just undid it all.
I'm not saying there will be Core soon. However, I've read somewhere that Intel is toying with it. I'm more thinking long-term, around 7nm (earliest).
I mean, they had Core m as their flagship 14nm device, talking about 4 year journey. They could now be starting a similar 4 year journey thing, so who knows. Although who knows who would ever put Core m in a phone. Probably no market for that. Not even Apple since they're doing well.
And the thing with Apple is this: if this were still 2013 and we didn't know about 14nm disaster failure that was coming and everything was still 2 year Tick-Tock sunshine, I would have said that Apple would be forced so sign up at Intel's foundry (which is opening the way for modem, CPU, etc.) because TSMC and Samsung would be falling enormously behind Intel in manufacturing. But of course quite the reverse happened: it seems Intel's lead is narrowing instead of expanding.
Is Intel down 1 USD today because of this news?
Edit: Intel has confirmed the news
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/227523-intel-kills-upcoming-smartphone-and-tablet-hardware
Edit: BTW, if you think about it, this was inevitable. Or at least Atom: Intel doesn't *really* need Atom (Goldmont) because they have Core (cf. Apple's Cyclone or whatever the latest one is called). The problem, however, with Core is cost. It isn't optimized for smartphone TPDs, it's die area and feature set is probably too beefy. SoFIA is probably because they don't want to compete with the low-end, low-margin stuff. Not interesting.
Always the option of taking an ARM license if Intel ever wants to be a serious mobile player.
And do what? Produce A72s on their 14nm without modem?
When is that 14nm modem coming, anyway? In 2017 probably not because they already announced their "7460" (actually called 7480). In 2018? Well, by then it should have been on 10nm for half a year. Maybe that's what they're doing? Cancelling the 14nm modem that is many years too late and get the 10nm one on time for 2017 iPhone -- I presume the 7s?
/dreaming
That was Kirk Skaugen talking about testing Core m in phones.
Apple didn't start building their CPU team until after Intel told them no. The ARM chips on the market weren't all that hot at the time either. It is very Apple-like to say 'screw it' and design their own if they can't buy the parts they want. And they have, to great success.
We'll see. But for graphics, sure.Prediction: when the A10 comes out and the world sees the kind of performance that this chip will deliver, I think there will be a lot of denial among the Intel-can-do-no-wrong crowd.
Yep. I feel really sorry for investors. But that's what's happens in technology, it's always more difficult than anyone thinks.Yep, Intel did a good job of spinning this story to the public and many, including myself, were duped into thinking that Intel's manufacturing lead would persist/grow. You are right, the gap is narrowing and there's a real chance that TSMC will take the lead within a couple of years.
In the good old days, I would've said that with Intel you never know. I mean, with the 1 year delay of 10nm, it would be very sad (but very unlikely) that 10nm launches in a bad health like 14nm did.10nm modem ramping in early 2017? ROFL! Well, ok, Qualcomm will have a 10nm modem as part of MSM8998 in 2017, but Intel?
I guess...Not a chance.
Intel could have perhaps managed something with XScale, but I don't think that was ever on the table.
Cortex A + Mali/PowerVR GPU + Intel modem.
EDIT: Though trying to move from TSMC to Intel fabs seems like a kiss of death. Both Altera and Infineon have had massive delays.
I don't think anyone has ever said exactly what Apple wanted from Intel. Xscale wasn't sold to Marvell until June 2006. So I suppose it could have been one of those families, to Apples specs they were after? Dunno, maybe someone else here does.