PC Ekspert Forum - View Single Post - Vijesti i novosti o Intel procesorima i čipsetima

The Exiled · 21.09.2024., 12:23

Citiraj:

Intel has announced it is postponing a $30 billion investment in Germany due to financial problems at the firm
Qualcomm is reportedly eyeing a takeover of Intel + Qualcomm wants to buy Intel

Citiraj:

On Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported Intel had been approached by fellow chip giant Qualcomm about a possible takeover. While any deal is described as “far from certain,” it would represent a tremendous fall for a company that had been the most valuable chip company in the world, based largely on its x86 processor technology that for years had triumphed over Qualcomm’s Arm chips outside of the phone space. The New York Times corroborated the report on Friday evening, adding that “Qualcomm has not yet made an official offer for Intel.” If a deal were made — and survived regulatory scrutiny — it would be a massive coup for Qualcomm, which reentered the desktop processor market this year as a part of Microsoft’s AI PC strategy after years of dominance in mobile processors.

In fact, Chipzilla may not be worth much to Qualcomm unless it can renegotiate the x86/x86-64 cross-licensing patent agreement between Intel and AMD, which dates back to 2009. That agreement is terminated if a change in control happens at either Intel or AMD. While a number of the patents expired in 2021, it's our understanding that agreement is still in force and Qualcomm would be subject to change of control rules. In other words, Qualcomm wouldn't be able to produce Intel-designed x86-64 chips unless AMD gave the green light. It's also likely one of the reasons why no one bought AMD when it was dire straits; whoever took over it would have to deal with Intel.

Intel and Qualcomm: This 'odd' couple won't solve America's chipmaking woes

Citiraj:

Intel was the best at this for decades. Then, around 2018, its lead began to crumble, thanks to a series of missteps. TSMC, an upstart from Taiwan, steadily gained and is now unquestionably the best chipmaker in the world. Since then, Intel has plummeted and TSMC has soared. Intel is now worth less than $100 billion. It doesn't even crack the top 150 companies based on this measure. TSMC is worth almost $1 trillion these days, putting it in the top 10. This is an astounding fall from grace for Intel, and a huge strategic and geopolitical problem for the US.

If you want the best chips, you have to go to Taiwan to get them made. Or maybe South Korea, where Samsung has built an impressive so-called foundry business making semiconductors for other companies. Many of the famous "chipmakers" we think of in the US today don't actually make chips. nVidia, Qualcomm, AMD, and all the others design chips, then they usually have TSMC manufacture them. Apple and a host of other big tech giants also have TSMC make the chips they design in-house.

Intel's Foundry business won't really be able to challenge TSMC until it gets several big customers. Again, to get good at chip manufacturing you need huge, diverse volumes so you can spot defects, fix processes, and feed that knowledge back into your fabs. It's a chicken-and-egg situation. Without big volumes, outside customers will be wary of having Intel make their precious chip designs. But without customers, Intel can't improve.

Izvor: Interneti

Ko zna kaj bude na kraju ispalo iz svega, ali ne bi bilo ništa čudno da Microsoft bude financijsko zaleđe dok Qualcomm pregovara potencijalnu kupnju Intela.