Were would Intel be if AMD were awesome?

[FuryRosewood]

It as was said earlier, would be Netburst vs 64 all over again. Price for AMD chips would rise due to demand, and price of Intel would drop, would not change anything, just would change who was more expensive...

 

[Mishkin]

Intel hasn't set the architecture for the mobile market though and is really losing out massively on smart phones and tablets to the ARM based processors and with that market growing faster than any other at the moment, if Intel don't change quickly they won't have anything left to give for the likes of you and me, they will only provide to servers that are running your phones and tablets

I disagree with this as well, at least in part. I don't see desktops going anywhere soon, and ARM and the other mobile processors are a lifetime away from even coming close to competing with AMD (let alone Intel) in this area.

I do see Intel as very likely losing out on the mobile market, with maybe an eventual clear winner (along with a mobile-AMD type in 2nd) for both tablets and phones. In the not-so-distant future, I could easily see one gadget replacing both the tablet and phone in this scenario. Then you would have X company(s) as the leader of the mobile market and presumably still Intel as the leader of the desktop (as well as server) market.

Everyone keeps saying mobile technology is the future as if everything is going to boil down to that, save perhaps more traditional-like servers for the heavy lifting. I disagree. I don't see tablets and the mobile computing sector as a fad like some do, but there is no way in hell it's going to replace desktops. Not in a million years. Hell, even if some mobile cpu manufacturer came up with an ultimate chip that was vastly superior to any desktop chip, desktops wouldn't be going anywhere. The screen-size ALONE would guarantee this, among other factors. The mobile market is a viable market and rapidly growing (as does all similar newer technologies), but it will eventually slow down and level off. At best, it will be a second primary computing device. At worst...it will probably be a second primary computing device.

The desktop has absolutely nothing to fear from mobile devices, regardless of how many 15 yr old girls scream with joy about their new phone or tablet, how many insecure sheep just have to have one because everyone else does, or the sheer amount of advertising being crammed down our throats. That statement isn't exactly fair to say and there definitely is a place and benefits for/from using mobile devices. But they are far from the be-all and end-all of the future of computing.

Sorry about the rant. I got sidetracked.

 

[StrangleHold]

Now if AMD had simply continued its reign since then, after another few years the status quo would have changed, possibly even flip-flopped. AMD would have slowly snowballed into being a true powerhouse, and who knows what would have happened. With this scenario, Intel's incredible profit lead over AMD would no longer be valid, as it would be an unknown. AMD could be the clear #1 processor company in the world, taking the spot that Intel used to hold years ago. AMD and Intel could be incredibly competitive and running consistently neck-and-neck. Or AMD could be much better off than they are now, but due to superior PR (as a whole) by Intel, or PR blunders (or lack of effort in this area) by AMD...Intel might still have a healthy overall advantage over AMD.

True, another factor that held them back when AMD had the IPC lead was Intels unfair business practices that kept them from getting a bigger market share. AMD got hit hard when they paid 5 billion bucks for ATI, about the same time the Core 2 was released. Intel came out with a faster processor and AMD just spent all the money they had and then some. That move is starting to pay off now somewhat, but it killed there RD budget for a few years.

 

[Okedokey]

The real question i had in mind was where competition was high, what innovations might we see?

 

[Mishkin]

The real question i had in mind was where competition was high, what innovations might we see?

I don't know. Integrated memory right on the die? Different/improved caches on die? I can't really think of anything else, other than a complete fusion of motherboard/cpu/memory/graphics...one big motherboard-sized chip with everything on it, a la Raspberry Pi. I seriously don't think they would be even close to that by now, but the memory and caches would have been a definite possibility.

I suppose it would be safe to assume the integrated graphics on die would be better than they are now.

 

[Aastii]

I disagree with this as well, at least in part. I don't see desktops going anywhere soon, and ARM and the other mobile processors are a lifetime away from even coming close to competing with AMD (let alone Intel) in this area.

I do see Intel as very likely losing out on the mobile market, with maybe an eventual clear winner (along with a mobile-AMD type in 2nd) for both tablets and phones. In the not-so-distant future, I could easily see one gadget replacing both the tablet and phone in this scenario. Then you would have X company(s) as the leader of the mobile market and presumably still Intel as the leader of the desktop (as well as server) market.

Everyone keeps saying mobile technology is the future as if everything is going to boil down to that, save perhaps more traditional-like servers for the heavy lifting. I disagree. I don't see tablets and the mobile computing sector as a fad like some do, but there is no way in hell it's going to replace desktops. Not in a million years. Hell, even if some mobile cpu manufacturer came up with an ultimate chip that was vastly superior to any desktop chip, desktops wouldn't be going anywhere. The screen-size ALONE would guarantee this, among other factors. The mobile market is a viable market and rapidly growing (as does all similar newer technologies), but it will eventually slow down and level off. At best, it will be a second primary computing device. At worst...it will probably be a second primary computing device.

The desktop has absolutely nothing to fear from mobile devices, regardless of how many 15 yr old girls scream with joy about their new phone or tablet, how many insecure sheep just have to have one because everyone else does, or the sheer amount of advertising being crammed down our throats. That statement isn't exactly fair to say and there definitely is a place and benefits for/from using mobile devices. But they are far from the be-all and end-all of the future of computing.

Sorry about the rant. I got sidetracked.

I don't see desktops going either, but I see them changing. For anything specialist and enthusiast uses, like 3D rendering, games (to a point), simulations etc, a desktop as we know it with its own processing power and a decent amount of grunt will be needed, however if everything is done from the cloud you need a thin client computer and nothing more. That would mean your desktop could have an ARM processor or a power efficient, mobile CPU, like an Atom based off x86 rather than ARM, and it would perform as well as our expensive, power hungry, bulky ones do now.

I personally prefer it as it is now where we are able to store our own data here, build our own systems here and customise it as we need, but I can see it all going full circle, back to the days of dumb terminals. That means you will have your monitor sat there with your large display and you will have the mouse + keyboard, but it will be low power, won't have its own storage, will have limited processing power and really all it will be is a display with network input for the data that is processed elsewhere and ports for peripherals.

Why would you need the i7 of today if it is going to sit there taking data from elsewhere and putting it onto your monitor? A 10 year old what was low end at the time system can do that, same concept here. Low power, low performance for consumers is on the way in, that is the trend we have seen in the last few years and that we are seeing now and that is the market Intel haven't really touched until very recently with the Lenovo products.

The real question i had in mind was where competition was high, what innovations might we see?

If both were on parr with each other, the development of new technologies like faster on-die cache, complete chipset integration on the one chip and having die shrinks come in sooner or even developments of technologies like phototonics coming in sooner with more money plowed into it to get that performance sooner and have the edge.

 

[Machin3]

R&D and owange. That's what happened with Sandy Bridge vs. FX Series. If it happened then, it'll happen again. Maybe AMD with release 16 cores next to get even or something.

 

[Okedokey]

R&D and owange. That's what happened with Sandy Bridge vs. FX Series. If it happened then, it'll happen again. Maybe AMD with release 16 cores next to get even or something.

Showing your (young) age. AMD also owned similarly in the past.

Remember rules

2 sentences, max
Gotta provide evidence/.

 

[FuryRosewood]

I agree...theres some wordy stuff here.

But yes, They have switched places before, just not sure what would be the next step. The 3D transistor is a nice move, but I am waiting for light-enabled computing and switching.