Re:Ask HN: Is Intel doomed? They’re still unable to compete ...
by smoldesu on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:46AM
(#31448182)
No? I'd even argue that Apple is the doomed one here:
- ARM is still a second-class architecture in the world of software. I work with Mac packaging every day, and M1 is still pretty poorly-supported, all things considered.
- Apple has pretty much no way to increase their performance besides horizontal scaling or increasing their silicon density. That puts them in an awkward spot, and it's probably the reason why M1 hasn't been a year-over-year upgraded chip.
- Intel competes with Apple pretty hard on 10nm already. Alder Lake has much better single-core performance, and will beat pretty much everything except the Ultra in raw performance metrics. Keep in mind, that's with silicon that is 4x (!!!) larger than what Apple is working with. Once Intel is on the same node as Apple (estimated to be by the beginning of 2024), I don't really think there will be a contest anymore.
Having used the latest-and-greatest from both camps, I don't think anyone really has bad chips, per se. Like the other commentors suggested though, Apple and Intel don't really occupy the same product space anyways. Both will likely continue to be successful, the real question is "who's going to crack first?" For my money, the answer is Apple. Your mileage may vary.
- ARM is still a second-class architecture in the world of software. I work with Mac packaging every day, and M1 is still pretty poorly-supported, all things considered.
- Apple has pretty much no way to increase their performance besides horizontal scaling or increasing their silicon density. That puts them in an awkward spot, and it's probably the reason why M1 hasn't been a year-over-year upgraded chip.
- Intel competes with Apple pretty hard on 10nm already. Alder Lake has much better single-core performance, and will beat pretty much everything except the Ultra in raw performance metrics. Keep in mind, that's with silicon that is 4x (!!!) larger than what Apple is working with. Once Intel is on the same node as Apple (estimated to be by the beginning of 2024), I don't really think there will be a contest anymore.
Having used the latest-and-greatest from both camps, I don't think anyone really has bad chips, per se. Like the other commentors suggested though, Apple and Intel don't really occupy the same product space anyways. Both will likely continue to be successful, the real question is "who's going to crack first?" For my money, the answer is Apple. Your mileage may vary.