Intel impressed by AMD’s success – “formidable competitor”

On July 7, AMD launches its next-generation processors, which introduce the new Zen 2 architecture with 7-nanometer manufacturing technology from TSMC and a new chiplet-design. The expectations among enthusiasts are sky high and everything points to the expectations not being unjustified.

Externally, Intel has so far tried to play down the significance of AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 3000 series and the performance tests where the upstart is expected to gain an advantage. An internal PM from Intel is now published on Reddit, which was first posted on the company’s internal portal called “Circuit News”.

In the announcement to employees, AMD is recognized as a “formidable competitor”, which Intel mainly attributes to the fact that AMD changed its strategy a few years ago and put all the gunpowder on high-performance components for desktops, data centers and servers. An analysis that can be considered correct, as AMD’s strategy for many years was unclear and outward-looking.

From Intel’s perspective, a major shift for AMD is the transition to TSMC and that they are no longer locked into Globalfoundries. With 7 nanometers, AMD can push in more cores with higher clock frequencies and energy efficiency than today. Intel also points to AMD’s new chiplet-design as an advantage, as it allows AMD to scale up the number of cores in its products relatively quickly and easily.

That AMD uses chiplets where the processor cores are manufactured at 7 nanometers and the I / O part with memory controls is manufactured at 12/14 nanometers also offers advantages in price. Intel also believes that AMD will have “significantly” lower prices and that this is where they will compete, which is considered to be the big risk for Intel.

Apart from desktops and servers, Intel continues to see a strong grip on laptops, especially for businesses. Among the benefits the company sees are performance, battery life and manageability, where Intel sees itself as having a continued clear advantage. At the same time, they point to the upcoming processor family Ice Lake at 10 nanometers, which will strengthen the advantage in the portable segment.

When Intel instead talks about its own products, they point to single-wire performance as an advantage, as it is a point where the company is still expected to have an advantage over AMD. Software is another part where Intel sees an advantage as they contribute a lot of code to outside players, where they point to everything from the Linux kernel to Adobe’s software suites. Intel currently has 15,000 software developers, which is more than AMD’s total number of employees of just over 10,000 people.

Intel also gives a historical look back where for many years there was an ongoing battle for the top performance. AMD’s past triumphs are mentioned here as being the first to blow up the 1 GHz barrier, integrate a memory controller, 64-bit support for x86 and the like. According to Intel, at such moments they have faced the challenge and “almost always” got through the “better and stronger”.

► Intel’s internal PM can be read in full on the next page of the article

At the end of the announcement, the company calls for a rally and cites the company’s new CEO, Bob Swan, that Intel is “unstoppable” when all 107,000 employees work together and work as “One Intel”.

Intel employees agree with the chorus about AMD

At Techpowerup, several of the comments are published on Intel’s internal platform, where employees agree with the analysis and direct sharp criticism at management. Among them, a “John” writes that AMD until now has competed with the number of cores / threads and that it is “exactly what our customers asked for” and that “there is no excuse for why we did not do the same thing, and now it is we who is lagging behind. “

John continues that what Intel is now experiencing is the consequences of the last 5-8 years’ decisions and priorities from management. Another person, “Ben”, writes about the security issues that have been discovered and that Intel has become a “standing joke” among enthusiasts as a result of the handling and performance losses.

“Nizar” states that Intel had an advantage in games against AMD, which instead had a clear lead in multi-threaded performance (at the same price point / editor’s note), and that the trend on forums is that more and more people buy and recommend AMD processors. He also believes that if AMD’s claims about performance are true, it would be bad for Intel, which would then have fewer concrete benefits to point out.

In response to Nizar’s post, “Andre” writes that he agrees and that Intel has become one meme among Reddit users. He also develops that no matter what anyone at Intel thinks of these users, it is the company’s customers who are no longer willing to pay “our premium” for processors. He concludes that it will be “interesting” to see if this affects Intel’s own pricing in the future.

Source: Reddit