https://www.theverge.com/news/693528/intel-automotive-business-shutdown-layoffs
Is Intel the next DEC?
On 28/06/2025 1:04 am, john larkin wrote:
https://www.theverge.com/news/693528/intel-automotive-business-shutdown-layoffs
Is Intel the next DEC?
Seems unlikely. DEC essentially ignored personal computers. Intel isn't making that kind of mistake - it's a big player in a complicated market,
and while it clearly didn't make the right choices in the automotive
business market, there are lots of other markets where it still seems to
be doing well.
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
On 28/06/2025 1:04 am, john larkin wrote:
https://www.theverge.com/news/693528/intel-automotive-business-shutdown-layoffs
Is Intel the next DEC?
Seems unlikely. DEC essentially ignored personal computers. Intel isn't
making that kind of mistake - it's a big player in a complicated market,
and while it clearly didn't make the right choices in the automotive
business market, there are lots of other markets where it still seems to
be doing well.
They're outsourcing marketing to Accenture. Surely marketing should be a >core competency for any substantial company? You need to understand the >product and the customers, and I can't see how a third party agency is going >to do that better than the company itself?
Ah, Accenture has an AI. That makes it alright then. All fine, most fine, >nothing to see here. >https://www.techradar.com/pro/intel-set-to-transfer-marketing-jobs-to-ai-that-could-ironically-be-running-on-intel-processors
Theo
On 29/06/2025 1:01 am, john larkin wrote:
Bean-counting mostly works - more often in a relatively mature
technology. Your list of things that they "messed up" is a bit strange -
I was in England when "ARM" was being invented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture_family
Intel never had a chance to mess it up.
Intel was always a customer for EUV lithography, and quite how Philips
ended up doing so well with it (ASML is a Philips spin-off) is a bit of
a mystery. Philips had an electron-beam microfabricator business, and
messed it up badly enough that they sold it off to Cambridge
Instruments. The machine was fine, but the customer service wasn't good enough.
When your compensation is mostly the value of your stock options, complicated things like transistors are an annoyance.
Not when they are your entire business.
On 28 Jun 2025 10:09:44 +0100 (BST), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
On 28/06/2025 1:04 am, john larkin wrote:
https://www.theverge.com/news/693528/intel-automotive-business-shutdown-layoffs
Is Intel the next DEC?
Seems unlikely. DEC essentially ignored personal computers. Intel isn't
making that kind of mistake - it's a big player in a complicated market, >>> and while it clearly didn't make the right choices in the automotive
business market, there are lots of other markets where it still seems to >>> be doing well.
They're outsourcing marketing to Accenture. Surely marketing should be a
core competency for any substantial company? You need to understand the
product and the customers, and I can't see how a third party agency is going >> to do that better than the company itself?
Ah, Accenture has an AI. That makes it alright then. All fine, most fine, >> nothing to see here.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/intel-set-to-transfer-marketing-jobs-to-ai-that-could-ironically-be-running-on-intel-processors
Theo
Intel doesn't need PR or marketing; they need good semiconductors.
Intel spent $110 billion on stock buybacks that they should have spent
on technology.
They messed up phones, DRAM, flash, CISC, RISC, ARM, EUV, FPGAs, and a
bunch of other stuff. They are run by rich moron bean counters now.
When your compensation is mostly the value of your stock options,
complicated things like transistors are an annoyance.
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
On 29/06/2025 1:01 am, john larkin wrote:
Bean-counting mostly works - more often in a relatively mature
technology. Your list of things that they "messed up" is a bit strange -
I was in England when "ARM" was being invented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture_family
Intel never had a chance to mess it up.
They did:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale
It came from DEC, of course. So they both messed it up, in sequence.
Intel was always a customer for EUV lithography, and quite how Philips
ended up doing so well with it (ASML is a Philips spin-off) is a bit of
a mystery. Philips had an electron-beam microfabricator business, and
messed it up badly enough that they sold it off to Cambridge
Instruments. The machine was fine, but the customer service wasn't good
enough.
Philips was good at optics (lighting, medical imaging, LCDs) and the >semiconductor research divisions were really good. Another company to add to >the list of messes.
Exactly.When your compensation is mostly the value of your stock options,
complicated things like transistors are an annoyance.
Not when they are your entire business.
Theo
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
On 29/06/2025 1:01 am, john larkin wrote:
Philips was good at optics (lighting, medical imaging, LCDs) and the semiconductor research divisions were really good. Another company to add to the list of messes.
Exactly.When your compensation is mostly the value of your stock options,
complicated things like transistors are an annoyance.
Not when they are your entire business.
They're outsourcing marketing to Accenture. Surely marketing should be a core competency for any substantial company? You need to understand the product and the customers, and I can't see how a third party agency is going to do that better than the company itself?
On 28 Jun 2025 17:12:27 +0100 (BST), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
On 29/06/2025 1:01 am, john larkin wrote:
Bean-counting mostly works - more often in a relatively mature
technology. Your list of things that they "messed up" is a bit strange - >>> I was in England when "ARM" was being invented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture_family
Intel never had a chance to mess it up.
They did:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale
It came from DEC, of course. So they both messed it up, in sequence.
Intel was always a customer for EUV lithography, and quite how Philips
ended up doing so well with it (ASML is a Philips spin-off) is a bit of
a mystery. Philips had an electron-beam microfabricator business, and
messed it up badly enough that they sold it off to Cambridge
Instruments. The machine was fine, but the customer service wasn't good
enough.
Philips was good at optics (lighting, medical imaging, LCDs) and the
semiconductor research divisions were really good. Another company to add to >> the list of messes.
Exactly.When your compensation is mostly the value of your stock options,
complicated things like transistors are an annoyance.
Not when they are your entire business.
Theo
Intel kicked in a billion or so to help ASML buy Cymer for the
tin-droplet EUV source. Then they failed to invest in the machines for
their own fabs.
Meanwhile Intel kept buying back their own shares. That's like trying
to grow by eating your own legs; it doesn't scale. [1]
Intel lost a heap on Altera too, ballpark 8 billion. They lost our
business too; now we use mostly Efinix and some Xilinx SOCs.
The pattern seems to be that Intel chases fads and always messes them
up. That will become business school courses some day.
[1] Hey, one could raise some venture capital, go public, and do
nothing but buy back shares. Sorta like bitcoin.
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