In the history of business, Wintel, the most powerful "complementary" coalition, has finally collapsed. On September 13th, ARM, a chip maker specializing in mobile Internet, announced its cooperation with Microsoft. At the same time, Intel, who has lost, also announced that it is in contact with Google. The new chip war will bring us newer and brighter applications such as smart TVs and ultrabooks. Behind it is the fierce battle between Intel and ARM to restructure the IT landscape.
The most exciting commercial war is happening: A “small company†with annual turnover of more than US$600 million has forced another giant with an annual turnover of 43 billion US dollars to struggle, and the latter’s counterattack has only just begun.
The name of the giant is known as Intel. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, the heart of the Silicon Valley. And that "small company" called ARM (Advanced RISC Microprocessors), headquartered in Cambridge, near the suburbs of London.
Chip Wars They are two disparate and disparate semiconductor players: Intel was founded in 1968 and in 1991 it launched the Intel Inside program that has affected the PC industry for 20 years, when ARM was just born in the lab. In the semiconductor industry where the chain is complicated, Intel has played almost all of the players' roles - from chip architecture to chip design to manufacturing and marketing. It employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. ARM only has more than 2,000 people. It doesn't do anything but provide the R&D of the chip architecture and license it to the chip designer.
Three years ago, Intel attempted to kill the smartphone market and the war broke out. Their war is affecting each of us digital lives. The processor chip is the heart of every digital consumer product—including laptops, smart phones, tablet devices and game consoles that everyone carries with them, and even digital TVs in the living room.
The most recent and most intense battle took place in California. The two battlefields were separated by 120 miles.
September 13, San Francisco Moscone Conference Center, Intel Developer Forum (IDF). At the end of the keynote address, Intel CEO Paul Otellni suddenly invited Google's senior vice president of mobile products, Andy Rubin, to take office. Andy Rubin said that the Android operating system will be fully optimized for Intel's chip architecture. Otellini announced that the first Android smartphone with Intel architecture and Atom chipset will be available in January 2012.
Andy Rubin soon disappeared and stayed on the stage less than 3 minutes before and after. For him, supporting Intel architecture is no different from supporting ARM architecture. For Intel, this is indeed a big deal: it was an ARM-licensed vendor 10 years ago, and there was also a smartphone chip unit that sold it to Marvell in 2006 because of poor performance. In 2008 it wanted to return to the smart phone market again, and continued to use the X86 architecture (Intel architecture) on the smart phone chip that was used on the PC for more than 20 years. However, neither the operating system nor the handset makers rejected it. For three years, it has been nothing in this market.
Now it finally has Google's support. "The only thing I can say now is that the first smartphone with Intel architecture will be an Android phone." Otellini told the First Financial Weekly in San Francisco. He declined to give more details about the manufacturer and shipment of this smartphone. It is worth mentioning that Otellini is also a Google board member.
Almost at the same time, 120 miles south, in Anaheim, Los Angeles, Intel’s “allies†Microsoft is holding another “BUILD Global Developers Conference,†releasing Microsoft’s internally known “epochline†operating system. Windows8. Steven Shinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division, stated in his keynote: "Windows 8 will allow people to re-imagine operating systems from the chip and user experience." Using chips such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments Personal computers and tablet devices all appeared at the conference.
Regardless of whether Qualcomm, Nvidia or Texas Instruments, they are behind ARM - these companies' chip design and development are achieved through ARM's technology license. ARM provides the original technology of the chip kernel, and each one designs and re-develops on this basis. Qualcomm, in particular, is the player who stands at the forefront of the ARM camp against Intel and has annual revenues of more than US$16 billion. This time, it applied the Snapdragon processor to the personal computer of the Windows 8 operating system and built-in Gobi network module. For the first time, the computer no longer needs the network cable and wireless LAN signal, and can access the Internet through 3G/4G technology.
For more than 20 years, the PC camp has never tolerated an intruder outside the Intel architecture—even Intel’s rival AMD, was able to rely on Intel's X86 architecture cross-licensing agreement to gain a presence. But this time, the challenge is really coming.
Behind it lies a more complex grudge: ARM has actually stolen Intel, Microsoft’s closest ally of more than 20 years, and allowed Microsoft to open the borders of Windows on personal computers, tablet devices and smart phones. This makes Intel less important to Microsoft.
This is not important, because Intel and Microsoft's "Wintel" is a product of the PC era. The scientific community has been circulating the "Andy - Bill's Law" statement: Andy Grove (formerly Intel CEO) once launched a new chip product after 18 months, Bill Gates (former Microsoft CEO) will Upgrade Windows in time to absorb the high performance of new chips. It brings two results: first, from graphic computing to web browsing, to the leap of experience of search engines and video browsing; secondly, all PC manufacturers are stripped of their personality and soul and become microprocessors and Windows systems. Machine box.
Grove and Gates, two famous businessmen had an open dialogue in 1996. Gates said to Grove: "In fact, we don't have any exclusive cooperation relationship. If someone comes into Microsoft tomorrow, they have a faster and cheaper microprocessor..." Grove immediately interrupted Gates. : "Oh, you actually did this. You tried other people's chips but they failed."
Grove also criticized Microsoft's defense is too strong, a little bit of disagreement will also lead to their strong emotional response, but to stop the creative exploration. "But after 15 years of cooperation, we already know that these will be blown like a wind."
Now that another 15 years have passed, disagreements and contradictions are no longer being blown like the wind.
The emergence of smart phones and tablets changed everything, it abandoned the way the Mouse interacts with the interface, using fingers and a touch screen, it even sacrificed the physical Keyboard most of the time. Now, the growth rate of smart phone shipments has surpassed that of PCs, and tablet PCs are catching up. They can usually replace most of the functions of a laptop computer and are completely based on ARM-licensed chip makers.
The alliance between Microsoft and Nokia has formed a "third ecosystem" in the smartphone market that is independent of Apple iOS and Google Android. It is also trying to launch more Windows-based tablets - it seems more willing than Intel to cut off PCs. The umbilical cord. When the lower power consumption brought by the ARM-based chipset can easily make a laptop stand-by for 3 days, it simply replaces the notebook chip with an ARM licensee.
This seriously stimulated Intel. In January of this year, Microsoft CEO Ballmer announced in the keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show that Windows 8 will release a version that supports ARM processors. Otellini said publicly that the versions supported by ARM cannot be compatible with existing Windows applications. In other words, Microsoft must recompile the code for a series of tools for the ARM version - including Office and a series of Microsoft products. As a user who is familiar with the traditional Windows interface, when you purchase a laptop with Qualcomm or Nvidia chips, you will feel that its Windows system is different from the past regardless of interface design, application, or gaming experience. .
"We don't want to make our version compatible with our apps. Don't even think about it in this life!" Renee James, Intel's senior vice president in charge of the software business, made a statement. Supporting her to say so, is still Intel's intellectual property and core technology on the X86 architecture, but this makes Microsoft and program developers are very difficult. As early as Intel made the "incompatibility" decision at the beginning of the year, Microsoft had publicly stated in a statement: "We think that Intel's position is wrong in both facts and truth," but now Shionofsky, president of Microsoft Windows, also Clarification: The X86 program is indeed not compatible with the ARM platform.
On the Windows 8 platform, Microsoft has developed a Metro interface that is quite similar in style to Windows Phone—it makes your computer screen and Windows Phone's colorful "nine-squares" almost identical. However, Sinofsky said without hesitation: The value proposition of the application on the Metro platform is to reduce energy consumption, so it is more suitable for the ARM platform; although it also supports the X86 architecture, but he still worried that the X86 version of the application does not care about the province Electricity problem.
This statement poked Intel's sore spot. After the transition in computing performance became less important, Intel began to struggle with the balance between computing performance and power consumption. You know, ARM's invasion of the tablet or even the laptop market seems to be much smoother than the Intel offensive smart phone, largely because both manufacturers and most consumers prefer to tolerate slightly slower speeds (in fact it has Fast enough. Nor can you tolerate booming fan sounds, hot consoles and less than 5 hours of battery life.
Intel has been trying to reduce the power consumption of chips for three years, making it more suitable for smart phones and tablets. In early 2010, it launched Moorestown, an Atom-based smart phone platform, which claims to reduce power consumption by 90%. In addition, it also introduced a 5-inch screen smartphone from LG Foundry, but that phone was not listed.
"Intel's entry into the mobile phone market is not its confrontation with ARM, but it is against its entire ARM partners, including Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Freescale and MediaTek, etc. It will be its rival." ARM The global president Tutor Brown told CBN Weekly that "Intel controls everything and it makes all products the same. It's hard for manufacturers to have more innovations. Of course, you can use different colors. Product shell."
And ARM global CEO Warren East (WarrenEast) on Intel's Moorestown platform announced in 2010: Although Intel has been committed to narrowing the gap with ARM in the mobile space, but it will take time, and in order to allow equipment manufacturers to convert Architecture, Intel must ensure that the value of its products exceeds the cost of converting the architecture.
This makes Intel's executives very upset. "I think he should go to tuition math," said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president of Intel's smartphones. More than a month later, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp., which develops smart phone chips using the ARM architecture, also compared Intel’s Moorestown platform to “an elephant.†Anand was still responding: “Go back to mathematics. !â€
A year later, Anand, who wants all ARM supporters to go to cram mathematics, left Intel. A few months later, Otellini announced the cooperation with Google—since Android is the most favored platform for mobile phone manufacturers all over the world, using Google’s strength to influence manufacturers and developers is a good idea.
But does this mean that Intel has already solved the problem of power consumption? At least it looks like it is doing it. A few months ago, Intel released a new technology for 3D gate transistors that changed the structure of current semiconductor chips, allowing current to flow through the transistors from different spatial locations—that is, it would further reduce the size of the transistors and increase the number of chips. The speed of operation, and significantly reduce power consumption. It will use a 22-nanometer process that will be used in the next generation of Atom platforms for smartphones and tablets, and will also be used in Core platforms for other computing devices.
"Intel is very dependent on process technology, such as 22nm 3D chips, which will make their products compete with us." Brown said to ARM's global president, "Intel is constantly advancing the development of process technology, this is a It's a good thing, but we don't think this advantage is unique to it. It's only a little bit ahead of us in speed."
The other thing that Intel needs to do is to defend its own PC position. This is not necessarily a sensible approach, at least ARM executives do not feel that entering the PC market is an important matter. "Each year's shipments in the PC sector are far behind our ARM's annual shipments. Our partner shipments were 6 billion in 2010, while shipments of PC chips were only a few hundred million." Say.
But this is very important to Intel - even more important than the rapid acquisition of smart phone market share, which is the source of most of its cash flow. What's more, even if it is not important, Qualcomm and other companies have already entered the banner under the banner of ARM.
Intel launched an emergency plan. At the Taipei International Computer Show in June this year, Intel’s global executive vice president Sean Maloney’s keynote speech announced for the first time a new Intel product form: the Ultrabook.
"Ultrabook is the evolution of traditional laptops," said Mooly Eden, Intel's senior vice president of mobile computing products. "You can't just think of it as a thinner, less power-hungry laptop. It's a a new product form, we think it will be the mainstream."
The "Ultrabook" currently seen has included products from mainstream PC makers such as Toshiba, Asustek and Lenovo. They look no different from current laptops, but are lighter and thinner. “This is just the first phase of the Ultrabook. In the second phase, it can have both a keyboard and a touch screen. When you stand up the screen, it is a notebook with a keyboard. Turning the screen off will make it It turns into an ultra-thin touchscreen tablet; in the third stage, the keyboard can even be unloaded and reinstalled when you need it,†said Daming.
In other words, Intel hopes to use the "ultrabook" to solve two problems: first, it will make people less hate the PC, make it more light and easy to use, and then use it to divert the current increasing number of users of the tablet.
"If I trade your laptop for a tablet, will you change it for me?" Deng Murray asked the reporter. He said that "ultrabook" is not the next tablet, but an evolving computing device, with a screen no larger than 13 inches, a lighter volume than the MacbookAir, and touch and keyboard switching, with freedom Add and download applications and other functions.
Intel is trying to convince partners and customers that the PC market is still growing, while hiding its ambitions for tablets. "We know they are working hard, but you can see that there are hundreds of ARM-based tablets and less than 10 Intel architectures." June's International Computer Show in Taipei, ARM executive vice president Ian Ian Drew said.
In Intel's plan, the ultimate form of "ultrabook" will be a combination of a very thin and light laptop and a tablet computer.
"The 2013 Hassler platform will complete the evolution of the ultrabook." Deng Muli said. However, he believes that at least 40% of laptops in the world will transition to ultrabooks in 2012.
However, the current ultrabook does not seem very tempting. Intel originally planned to release ultrabooks when it launched the 3D chipset platform IvyBridge in 2012. However, due to the ups and downs of the tablet PCs, Intel could not launch a processor with lower power consumption than the ARM Cortex9 in the short term, plus Microsoft switched to the ARM camp, so in advance Ultrabook project was released.
In essence, Ultrabook is still the product of Intel's drive PC maker, but it is very different from the past. Although Dame Murray insisted that Microsoft is still an important partner of Intel, the current Ultrabook also uses the latest Windows 8 operating system, but he revealed to "First Financial Weekly" that Intel's chipset development has now turned to different operations. The system provides support. "It can be Android, Chrome, MeeGo, or even WebOS and Linux. We give the choice to manufacturers and users. Which operating system they are willing to use depends on which one we will cooperate with."
When Ultrabook is more and more like a tablet, you can easily imagine what operating systems manufacturers and users prefer.
The alliance between Intel and Microsoft is doomed to go "post-PC era", but Ultrabook is clearly the most stable springboard for Intel's transition from the PC era to the post-PC era. It made a huge bet for this. In August, Intel announced the establishment of a $300 million Ultrabook Fund to support component manufacturers, designers and manufacturers worldwide, providing the ultimate design for Ultrabooks.
"These funds may be spent in mainland China and Taiwan," said Dunmurry. Because of the rich resources of precision manufacturers in mainland China and Taiwan. As long as manufacturers can propose solutions to optimize the ultrabook, such as making its shell thinner, reducing the screen power consumption, and enhancing the user interface interaction experience, etc., can be from Intel's 300 million US dollars in funding.
Companies that can help Intel lower the cost of ultrabooks are more likely to get the money. The price of a Superbook is now maintained at around $1,000. "The future must be under $1,000. There is no doubt about it!" said Dame Murray.
ARM executives said that this investment is unacceptable for ARM. "We never try to define a product. We just keep updating our product roadmap. Intel believes that we can sell products called Ultrabooks at a price of $1,000, but you can see products like the iPad on the market. As long as a few hundred dollars." ARM president Brown said.
After the map is overshadowed, both sides will not be able to talk and talk saliva. Among the enemies that have been difficult to resolve, there are two battlefields that lead to the future.
One is smart TV, which is an emerging market for any player. In early 2010, Intel, together with Google, Sony and Logitech, and other companies released the first smart TV based on the Android operating system, Samsung and LG's Android smart TV has also entered the market, Microsoft also has similar preparations.
However, it was quickly reported that ARM had to enter the field of smart TV. "I can't give you specific time. I just want to say that we do have similar plans," Brown said.
“We obviously have more experience in this area,†said Erik Hugger, Intel’s vice president for smart TV and digital homes. "In the past, Intel also had a digital home plan, but at that time they always felt that they should be PC-centric. Now it is different. Even if smart TV is not the center of digital home devices, users are the center."
"We haven't seen them do something else so far." He commented on ARM's attempt at the smart TV market.
But beware of Apple. This is a company that is alienated from Intel. Although Jobs and Intel’s global executive vice president Sean Maloney are neighbors of Palo Alto, who are at home and encourage each other because of pancreatic cancer and stroke, Apple’s attitude toward Intel is always the same. It did not fully introduce Intel architecture processors to the Macbook product line until 2006, and insisted that it would not join Intel's marketing plan and refused Intel to paste colorful labels on its machines. According to recent rumours, Apple is preparing to replace the Macbook series with the ARM architecture in the future. In the smart TV field, the ARM architecture has always been its first choice in order to integrate with the iPhone and iPad.
Another battlefield is in servers and data centers. The rise of cloud computing has helped Intel's big efforts - they need to consume more servers and data centers, these servers almost all need Intel's chips. Although the growth of PC shipments has been declining, the business of Intel's server processors is getting better and better.
ARM will not give up any of Intel’s promised land. Just like its slogan “ArchitectureForDigitalWorld†describes it, its ambition is in the entire digital world. Although Brown said that in the server area ARM may need to spend at least two years to launch mature products. ARM aims to fuse the CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processor) together to form a unit, and even use the GPU instead of the CPU to perform independent operations - thus bypassing Intel's advantage in the CPU field. Currently, Nvidia has made breakthroughs in GPU computing and has introduced a Tesla chip product line suitable for large enterprise servers.
This is Intel taboo. It tries to form a new generation of barriers through server processors and software security solutions. "Our acquisition of McAfee has a total solution from chip to software security, and we think this is what those large customers need most in cloud computing," said Jason Waxman, general manager of high-density computing at Intel Data Center Division.
This is a war on the narrow path of the mobile Internet era. The era seems to be temporarily disregarding ARM and its authorized partners, but don't forget that Intel was 26 years ago. At that time, Intel was in trouble. Grove asked the then CEO Gordon Moore: "If we were driven away by the board, what would the new CEO do?" They came up with an answer and then said to themselves why we don't Go out of the revolving door and come back? In doing so, it was Intel's abandonment of memory chips and the transition to CPU. The success of decades began.
The most exciting commercial war is happening: A “small company†with annual turnover of more than US$600 million has forced another giant with an annual turnover of 43 billion US dollars to struggle, and the latter’s counterattack has only just begun.
The name of the giant is known as Intel. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, the heart of the Silicon Valley. And that "small company" called ARM (Advanced RISC Microprocessors), headquartered in Cambridge, near the suburbs of London.
Chip Wars They are two disparate and disparate semiconductor players: Intel was founded in 1968 and in 1991 it launched the Intel Inside program that has affected the PC industry for 20 years, when ARM was just born in the lab. In the semiconductor industry where the chain is complicated, Intel has played almost all of the players' roles - from chip architecture to chip design to manufacturing and marketing. It employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. ARM only has more than 2,000 people. It doesn't do anything but provide the R&D of the chip architecture and license it to the chip designer.
Three years ago, Intel attempted to kill the smartphone market and the war broke out. Their war is affecting each of us digital lives. The processor chip is the heart of every digital consumer product—including laptops, smart phones, tablet devices and game consoles that everyone carries with them, and even digital TVs in the living room.
The most recent and most intense battle took place in California. The two battlefields were separated by 120 miles.
September 13, San Francisco Moscone Conference Center, Intel Developer Forum (IDF). At the end of the keynote address, Intel CEO Paul Otellni suddenly invited Google's senior vice president of mobile products, Andy Rubin, to take office. Andy Rubin said that the Android operating system will be fully optimized for Intel's chip architecture. Otellini announced that the first Android smartphone with Intel architecture and Atom chipset will be available in January 2012.
Andy Rubin soon disappeared and stayed on the stage less than 3 minutes before and after. For him, supporting Intel architecture is no different from supporting ARM architecture. For Intel, this is indeed a big deal: it was an ARM-licensed vendor 10 years ago, and there was also a smartphone chip unit that sold it to Marvell in 2006 because of poor performance. In 2008 it wanted to return to the smart phone market again, and continued to use the X86 architecture (Intel architecture) on the smart phone chip that was used on the PC for more than 20 years. However, neither the operating system nor the handset makers rejected it. For three years, it has been nothing in this market.
Now it finally has Google's support. "The only thing I can say now is that the first smartphone with Intel architecture will be an Android phone." Otellini told the First Financial Weekly in San Francisco. He declined to give more details about the manufacturer and shipment of this smartphone. It is worth mentioning that Otellini is also a Google board member.
Almost at the same time, 120 miles south, in Anaheim, Los Angeles, Intel’s “allies†Microsoft is holding another “BUILD Global Developers Conference,†releasing Microsoft’s internally known “epochline†operating system. Windows8. Steven Shinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division, stated in his keynote: "Windows 8 will allow people to re-imagine operating systems from the chip and user experience." Using chips such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments Personal computers and tablet devices all appeared at the conference.
Regardless of whether Qualcomm, Nvidia or Texas Instruments, they are behind ARM - these companies' chip design and development are achieved through ARM's technology license. ARM provides the original technology of the chip kernel, and each one designs and re-develops on this basis. Qualcomm, in particular, is the player who stands at the forefront of the ARM camp against Intel and has annual revenues of more than US$16 billion. This time, it applied the Snapdragon processor to the personal computer of the Windows 8 operating system and built-in Gobi network module. For the first time, the computer no longer needs the network cable and wireless LAN signal, and can access the Internet through 3G/4G technology.
For more than 20 years, the PC camp has never tolerated an intruder outside the Intel architecture—even Intel’s rival AMD, was able to rely on Intel's X86 architecture cross-licensing agreement to gain a presence. But this time, the challenge is really coming.
Behind it lies a more complex grudge: ARM has actually stolen Intel, Microsoft’s closest ally of more than 20 years, and allowed Microsoft to open the borders of Windows on personal computers, tablet devices and smart phones. This makes Intel less important to Microsoft.
This is not important, because Intel and Microsoft's "Wintel" is a product of the PC era. The scientific community has been circulating the "Andy - Bill's Law" statement: Andy Grove (formerly Intel CEO) once launched a new chip product after 18 months, Bill Gates (former Microsoft CEO) will Upgrade Windows in time to absorb the high performance of new chips. It brings two results: first, from graphic computing to web browsing, to the leap of experience of search engines and video browsing; secondly, all PC manufacturers are stripped of their personality and soul and become microprocessors and Windows systems. Machine box.
Grove and Gates, two famous businessmen had an open dialogue in 1996. Gates said to Grove: "In fact, we don't have any exclusive cooperation relationship. If someone comes into Microsoft tomorrow, they have a faster and cheaper microprocessor..." Grove immediately interrupted Gates. : "Oh, you actually did this. You tried other people's chips but they failed."
Grove also criticized Microsoft's defense is too strong, a little bit of disagreement will also lead to their strong emotional response, but to stop the creative exploration. "But after 15 years of cooperation, we already know that these will be blown like a wind."
Now that another 15 years have passed, disagreements and contradictions are no longer being blown like the wind.
The emergence of smart phones and tablets changed everything, it abandoned the way the Mouse interacts with the interface, using fingers and a touch screen, it even sacrificed the physical Keyboard most of the time. Now, the growth rate of smart phone shipments has surpassed that of PCs, and tablet PCs are catching up. They can usually replace most of the functions of a laptop computer and are completely based on ARM-licensed chip makers.
The alliance between Microsoft and Nokia has formed a "third ecosystem" in the smartphone market that is independent of Apple iOS and Google Android. It is also trying to launch more Windows-based tablets - it seems more willing than Intel to cut off PCs. The umbilical cord. When the lower power consumption brought by the ARM-based chipset can easily make a laptop stand-by for 3 days, it simply replaces the notebook chip with an ARM licensee.
This seriously stimulated Intel. In January of this year, Microsoft CEO Ballmer announced in the keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show that Windows 8 will release a version that supports ARM processors. Otellini said publicly that the versions supported by ARM cannot be compatible with existing Windows applications. In other words, Microsoft must recompile the code for a series of tools for the ARM version - including Office and a series of Microsoft products. As a user who is familiar with the traditional Windows interface, when you purchase a laptop with Qualcomm or Nvidia chips, you will feel that its Windows system is different from the past regardless of interface design, application, or gaming experience. .
"We don't want to make our version compatible with our apps. Don't even think about it in this life!" Renee James, Intel's senior vice president in charge of the software business, made a statement. Supporting her to say so, is still Intel's intellectual property and core technology on the X86 architecture, but this makes Microsoft and program developers are very difficult. As early as Intel made the "incompatibility" decision at the beginning of the year, Microsoft had publicly stated in a statement: "We think that Intel's position is wrong in both facts and truth," but now Shionofsky, president of Microsoft Windows, also Clarification: The X86 program is indeed not compatible with the ARM platform.
On the Windows 8 platform, Microsoft has developed a Metro interface that is quite similar in style to Windows Phone—it makes your computer screen and Windows Phone's colorful "nine-squares" almost identical. However, Sinofsky said without hesitation: The value proposition of the application on the Metro platform is to reduce energy consumption, so it is more suitable for the ARM platform; although it also supports the X86 architecture, but he still worried that the X86 version of the application does not care about the province Electricity problem.
This statement poked Intel's sore spot. After the transition in computing performance became less important, Intel began to struggle with the balance between computing performance and power consumption. You know, ARM's invasion of the tablet or even the laptop market seems to be much smoother than the Intel offensive smart phone, largely because both manufacturers and most consumers prefer to tolerate slightly slower speeds (in fact it has Fast enough. Nor can you tolerate booming fan sounds, hot consoles and less than 5 hours of battery life.
Intel has been trying to reduce the power consumption of chips for three years, making it more suitable for smart phones and tablets. In early 2010, it launched Moorestown, an Atom-based smart phone platform, which claims to reduce power consumption by 90%. In addition, it also introduced a 5-inch screen smartphone from LG Foundry, but that phone was not listed.
"Intel's entry into the mobile phone market is not its confrontation with ARM, but it is against its entire ARM partners, including Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Freescale and MediaTek, etc. It will be its rival." ARM The global president Tutor Brown told CBN Weekly that "Intel controls everything and it makes all products the same. It's hard for manufacturers to have more innovations. Of course, you can use different colors. Product shell."
And ARM global CEO Warren East (WarrenEast) on Intel's Moorestown platform announced in 2010: Although Intel has been committed to narrowing the gap with ARM in the mobile space, but it will take time, and in order to allow equipment manufacturers to convert Architecture, Intel must ensure that the value of its products exceeds the cost of converting the architecture.
This makes Intel's executives very upset. "I think he should go to tuition math," said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president of Intel's smartphones. More than a month later, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp., which develops smart phone chips using the ARM architecture, also compared Intel’s Moorestown platform to “an elephant.†Anand was still responding: “Go back to mathematics. !â€
A year later, Anand, who wants all ARM supporters to go to cram mathematics, left Intel. A few months later, Otellini announced the cooperation with Google—since Android is the most favored platform for mobile phone manufacturers all over the world, using Google’s strength to influence manufacturers and developers is a good idea.
But does this mean that Intel has already solved the problem of power consumption? At least it looks like it is doing it. A few months ago, Intel released a new technology for 3D gate transistors that changed the structure of current semiconductor chips, allowing current to flow through the transistors from different spatial locations—that is, it would further reduce the size of the transistors and increase the number of chips. The speed of operation, and significantly reduce power consumption. It will use a 22-nanometer process that will be used in the next generation of Atom platforms for smartphones and tablets, and will also be used in Core platforms for other computing devices.
"Intel is very dependent on process technology, such as 22nm 3D chips, which will make their products compete with us." Brown said to ARM's global president, "Intel is constantly advancing the development of process technology, this is a It's a good thing, but we don't think this advantage is unique to it. It's only a little bit ahead of us in speed."
The other thing that Intel needs to do is to defend its own PC position. This is not necessarily a sensible approach, at least ARM executives do not feel that entering the PC market is an important matter. "Each year's shipments in the PC sector are far behind our ARM's annual shipments. Our partner shipments were 6 billion in 2010, while shipments of PC chips were only a few hundred million." Say.
But this is very important to Intel - even more important than the rapid acquisition of smart phone market share, which is the source of most of its cash flow. What's more, even if it is not important, Qualcomm and other companies have already entered the banner under the banner of ARM.
Intel launched an emergency plan. At the Taipei International Computer Show in June this year, Intel’s global executive vice president Sean Maloney’s keynote speech announced for the first time a new Intel product form: the Ultrabook.
"Ultrabook is the evolution of traditional laptops," said Mooly Eden, Intel's senior vice president of mobile computing products. "You can't just think of it as a thinner, less power-hungry laptop. It's a a new product form, we think it will be the mainstream."
The "Ultrabook" currently seen has included products from mainstream PC makers such as Toshiba, Asustek and Lenovo. They look no different from current laptops, but are lighter and thinner. “This is just the first phase of the Ultrabook. In the second phase, it can have both a keyboard and a touch screen. When you stand up the screen, it is a notebook with a keyboard. Turning the screen off will make it It turns into an ultra-thin touchscreen tablet; in the third stage, the keyboard can even be unloaded and reinstalled when you need it,†said Daming.
In other words, Intel hopes to use the "ultrabook" to solve two problems: first, it will make people less hate the PC, make it more light and easy to use, and then use it to divert the current increasing number of users of the tablet.
"If I trade your laptop for a tablet, will you change it for me?" Deng Murray asked the reporter. He said that "ultrabook" is not the next tablet, but an evolving computing device, with a screen no larger than 13 inches, a lighter volume than the MacbookAir, and touch and keyboard switching, with freedom Add and download applications and other functions.
Intel is trying to convince partners and customers that the PC market is still growing, while hiding its ambitions for tablets. "We know they are working hard, but you can see that there are hundreds of ARM-based tablets and less than 10 Intel architectures." June's International Computer Show in Taipei, ARM executive vice president Ian Ian Drew said.
In Intel's plan, the ultimate form of "ultrabook" will be a combination of a very thin and light laptop and a tablet computer.
"The 2013 Hassler platform will complete the evolution of the ultrabook." Deng Muli said. However, he believes that at least 40% of laptops in the world will transition to ultrabooks in 2012.
However, the current ultrabook does not seem very tempting. Intel originally planned to release ultrabooks when it launched the 3D chipset platform IvyBridge in 2012. However, due to the ups and downs of the tablet PCs, Intel could not launch a processor with lower power consumption than the ARM Cortex9 in the short term, plus Microsoft switched to the ARM camp, so in advance Ultrabook project was released.
In essence, Ultrabook is still the product of Intel's drive PC maker, but it is very different from the past. Although Dame Murray insisted that Microsoft is still an important partner of Intel, the current Ultrabook also uses the latest Windows 8 operating system, but he revealed to "First Financial Weekly" that Intel's chipset development has now turned to different operations. The system provides support. "It can be Android, Chrome, MeeGo, or even WebOS and Linux. We give the choice to manufacturers and users. Which operating system they are willing to use depends on which one we will cooperate with."
When Ultrabook is more and more like a tablet, you can easily imagine what operating systems manufacturers and users prefer.
The alliance between Intel and Microsoft is doomed to go "post-PC era", but Ultrabook is clearly the most stable springboard for Intel's transition from the PC era to the post-PC era. It made a huge bet for this. In August, Intel announced the establishment of a $300 million Ultrabook Fund to support component manufacturers, designers and manufacturers worldwide, providing the ultimate design for Ultrabooks.
"These funds may be spent in mainland China and Taiwan," said Dunmurry. Because of the rich resources of precision manufacturers in mainland China and Taiwan. As long as manufacturers can propose solutions to optimize the ultrabook, such as making its shell thinner, reducing the screen power consumption, and enhancing the user interface interaction experience, etc., can be from Intel's 300 million US dollars in funding.
Companies that can help Intel lower the cost of ultrabooks are more likely to get the money. The price of a Superbook is now maintained at around $1,000. "The future must be under $1,000. There is no doubt about it!" said Dame Murray.
ARM executives said that this investment is unacceptable for ARM. "We never try to define a product. We just keep updating our product roadmap. Intel believes that we can sell products called Ultrabooks at a price of $1,000, but you can see products like the iPad on the market. As long as a few hundred dollars." ARM president Brown said.
After the map is overshadowed, both sides will not be able to talk and talk saliva. Among the enemies that have been difficult to resolve, there are two battlefields that lead to the future.
One is smart TV, which is an emerging market for any player. In early 2010, Intel, together with Google, Sony and Logitech, and other companies released the first smart TV based on the Android operating system, Samsung and LG's Android smart TV has also entered the market, Microsoft also has similar preparations.
However, it was quickly reported that ARM had to enter the field of smart TV. "I can't give you specific time. I just want to say that we do have similar plans," Brown said.
“We obviously have more experience in this area,†said Erik Hugger, Intel’s vice president for smart TV and digital homes. "In the past, Intel also had a digital home plan, but at that time they always felt that they should be PC-centric. Now it is different. Even if smart TV is not the center of digital home devices, users are the center."
"We haven't seen them do something else so far." He commented on ARM's attempt at the smart TV market.
But beware of Apple. This is a company that is alienated from Intel. Although Jobs and Intel’s global executive vice president Sean Maloney are neighbors of Palo Alto, who are at home and encourage each other because of pancreatic cancer and stroke, Apple’s attitude toward Intel is always the same. It did not fully introduce Intel architecture processors to the Macbook product line until 2006, and insisted that it would not join Intel's marketing plan and refused Intel to paste colorful labels on its machines. According to recent rumours, Apple is preparing to replace the Macbook series with the ARM architecture in the future. In the smart TV field, the ARM architecture has always been its first choice in order to integrate with the iPhone and iPad.
Another battlefield is in servers and data centers. The rise of cloud computing has helped Intel's big efforts - they need to consume more servers and data centers, these servers almost all need Intel's chips. Although the growth of PC shipments has been declining, the business of Intel's server processors is getting better and better.
ARM will not give up any of Intel’s promised land. Just like its slogan “ArchitectureForDigitalWorld†describes it, its ambition is in the entire digital world. Although Brown said that in the server area ARM may need to spend at least two years to launch mature products. ARM aims to fuse the CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processor) together to form a unit, and even use the GPU instead of the CPU to perform independent operations - thus bypassing Intel's advantage in the CPU field. Currently, Nvidia has made breakthroughs in GPU computing and has introduced a Tesla chip product line suitable for large enterprise servers.
This is Intel taboo. It tries to form a new generation of barriers through server processors and software security solutions. "Our acquisition of McAfee has a total solution from chip to software security, and we think this is what those large customers need most in cloud computing," said Jason Waxman, general manager of high-density computing at Intel Data Center Division.
This is a war on the narrow path of the mobile Internet era. The era seems to be temporarily disregarding ARM and its authorized partners, but don't forget that Intel was 26 years ago. At that time, Intel was in trouble. Grove asked the then CEO Gordon Moore: "If we were driven away by the board, what would the new CEO do?" They came up with an answer and then said to themselves why we don't Go out of the revolving door and come back? In doing so, it was Intel's abandonment of memory chips and the transition to CPU. The success of decades began.
SOUTH EAST (ASIA) LIMITED , http://www.chheadphone.com