Intel Under Assault
Intel is under assault from all sides. From AMD (and others) on servers. From Qualcomm (and others) on PCs. From NVIDIA (and everyone) on AI capabilities. Their COMPUTEX talk was an attempt to swing back on all three, but it feels like they still havenât regained the market trust to do so credibly. We need to see it all, to believe it. On the other hand, such a precarious position gives you the leeway to say things such as:
On a briefing call with reporters, Intel said that a Gaudi 3 accelerator kit, which includes eight of the AI chips, sells for about US$125,000, and the earlier generation Gaudi 2 has a list price of US$65,000.
Speaking in Taipei, Gelsinger said the prices looked "pretty compelling", especially compared with competitors.
"In other words, it crushes the competition."
I believe heâs technically talking about the relatively low prices versus, say, NVIDIA (and AMD). Still, âcrushes the competitionâ is big company anti-competitive no-no lesson number one, always. The sad fact is that Intel simply hasnât been that competitive in recent years. So no one, let alone regulators, are likely to care too much.
Also on Tuesday, Intel said its next generation laptop chip, called Lunar Lake, uses 40 per cent less power and has more a powerful AI processor in it. Intel said it will ship the chip in the third quarter.
Gelsinger said he was "just thrilled" at seeing so many new PCs using Lunar Lake.
"It will power the largest number of next gen AI PCs in the industry," he added. "We are committed to the AI PC."
Thatâs undoubtedly true simply because Intel still does far more PC volume than Qualcomm which is just entering the space in a real way (with many of the same OEM partners that Intel has long counted on â not to mention, Microsoft). Meanwhile, the âLakeâ codenames Intel uses are fine, but Iâm surprised theyâre not considering a complete overhaul of their chip branding when it comes to consumers. Presumably, thee âLunar Lakeâ chips will still be branded as âCore Ultraâ or the like â same with âArrow Lakeâ and âPanther Lakeâ (okay, now weâre pushing the âLakeâ thing) in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
âCoreâ is beyond boring. âCore Ultraâ is beyond silly. While I recognize that Intel is trying like hell to move forward, fast, I canât help but wonder if in resetting the branding, they shouldnât try to call back to the halcyon days of the company by resurrecting the âPentiumâ brand, or something similar. While that brand undoubtedly means nothing to young people, it would evoke strong nostalgia in my generation, who would immediately remember Intel as the powerhouse chip maker. The NVIDIA of its day, as it were.
Instead, the company seems caught in the past in other, weird ways:
âItâs x86 power like youâve never seen it before,â claims Intel technical marketer Rob Hallock, who says Intel tweaked every part of the chip to make it happen. He says itâll âdefinitelyâ beat Qualcomm, too.
While I remain somewhat dubious of Qualcommâs claims (versus Apple Silicon) until we see the chips and performance in the wild, I would be beyond dubious of Intelâs claims here. The last time I was using an Intel chip in a laptop, it was cooking my legs like sausages on a skillet. Maybe Intel has miraculously solved such heating and power issues with x86, but I doubt it. And maybe thatâs fine if they want to be desktop-only, but of course they donât. Itâs a laptop world now.
Intel says a big wave of Lunar Lake laptops will arrive later this year, with 80 different designs across 20 hardware partners at launch, including all the biggest PC vendors â though not Microsoft, which chose to go with Qualcommâs chips for its Surface Laptop and Surface Pro instead. Intelâs client chip boss Michelle Johnston Holthaus says all 80 designs should be available ahead of the holidays this year.
âThough not Microsoftâ is a big, big, big ouch. Nor Apple, of course đ.