Does Intel end up with arm?

Into the mobile era, a few happy several worries. Small manufacturers do not say that the big company big companies, although not to fall down, but the hit is no less than small companies. Microsoft doesn't have to say that Intel is one of them.

Joseph Moore, Morgan Stanley analyst, recently estimated that the 2014-year loss of Intel's mobile and communications group would reach $4 billion trillion, plus $3 billion trillion of losses in the sector last year, with a staggering $7 billion trillion in total losses in the last two years, according to Joseph Moore, a new foreign media source.

For the past 4 years, Intel has been paying for netbooks and tablets to switch from ARM's application processors to x86 atom processors, he said. These costs include joint promotion with manufacturers, subsidy rebates, etc. As the arm of the trend has become, Intel wants to horns, it will have to increase the "sweetness."

About Intel in the mobile sector is not lost to arm's analysis is everywhere, the author here will not repeat, just a simple analysis of Intel faced with such a dilemma (two years a huge loss of 7 billion U.S. dollars), in the end or not to insist? And how to adjust the strategy in order to have a place in the mobile field?

Don't be hostile to the trend.

Don't be hostile to the trend, really! What is the trend? Mobile interconnection. Since the move is the future trend, then Intel can not give up the future, insist on the development of mobile chips there is no room for manoeuvre. Indeed, Intel has no reason to give up even when Microsoft, the Wintel Alliance, shouted "move first" slogans.

So, while the trend is moving, what is the "trend" behind the big trend? From the user's point of view is the consumption habits, that people are accustomed to mobile computing, no longer confined to the PC, from the manufacturer's point of view is open collaboration, mobile era of the wind of arm and Android, should be this rule.

I believe Intel has the pulse of the change in user habits, so the next thing to do is open collaboration and not go it alone on your own. In all fairness, the Atom processor in performance and power consumption can do is not weak in the arm architecture of the CPU, but the problem is that the price of old, and the arm was robbed the camp first. Now arm flap has Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Bo Tong, Freescale ... (some words omitted here) come out to support the field, Intel is still playing with the traditional PC manufacturers, few new small partners.

Open collaboration must be a gallop

Of course, it's easy to say things, not easy to do things. Intel is really open to collaboration, to consider the risk of falling profits, open patented technology, after all, dozens of of hundreds of dollars a chip sold used to the Intel has not experienced a few dollars a chip of the "blood", suddenly put down the aristocratic descent to join the grassroots combat may not adapt. But to conform to the trend, there seems to be no other way.

In fact, Intel's recent performance has proved that the company is moving in this direction. It is reported that Intel is not prepared to continue to invest billions of U.S. dollars in Atom subsidies, but to emulate the arm and Qualcomm model, to Rui-core microelectronics, communications and RDA Microelectronics China Chip Enterprise authorized x86 Atom, 3G and LTE baseband intellectual property rights. In particular, the 9 billion-dollar stake in the communications and RDA, is seen as the real intel under the deep deep mobile chip determination, the main battlefield is selected in the most lively China market.

Of course, the pace of Intel's open collaboration doesn't seem to me to be big enough, and it's far from the egg. One is that Intel is too old-fashioned to develop its small partners, and to opt for a "pack-and-feed" approach, a move that works in the PC era may not work in the mobile era, because Intel is now a catch-up. Intel is still conservative in its technology use, and prior cooperation with the exhibition, it is also alleged that Intel may not be able to come up with the technical dry goods to support the development of the chip (of course, the U.S. authorities on High-tech export control is also a reason). Even on the Atom chip, Intel gives it a performance that is behind the 1-2 generation of the Core™ series processor. As a challenger against arm, Intel could no longer be so "amateurs".

Does Intel end up with arm?

Now, I know a lot of readers are going to call me an idiot--you're going to take a more than 160 billion dollar company to compare to a firm with a market capitalisation of less than 20 billion dollars. In fact, Nortel, Motorola, Nokia may have thought so before, and now they do not exist. No nonsense, limited mobile business, Intel in the future have a chance to do arm company? I think it's possible. Two reasons:

First, although the arm architecture is everywhere, but the real gain is not arm company, but Qualcomm, MediaTek, such as a handful of chip manufacturers, this flavor, there are a large number of "starving" companies can be alienated by Intel and support. "Sincerity, mountains", as long as Intel's conditions are sufficient to force, the defection is a minute will happen. And don't forget, there's a bunch of PC makers who have been very moist in the PC era and have been acclimatized to the mobile era, and are willing to follow Intel as a spoiler.

Second, Intel's financial, technical strength and technology is really leading a lot, if the momentum can not be underestimated. The arm camp, like Android, seems to be a luxury everywhere, but there is also the issue of versioning. Apple does not have to say, its a series of chips do not have a grid; even Qualcomm, also repeatedly expressed disdain with arm's posture, advocating its chip is based on arm deep-processing products, separated from the arm of the product array. In the long run, the arm architecture may not always occupy Tau, and Intel focused on financial and material resources to suppress the big strokes, with the help of a major step in the manufacturing process, is very likely under the x86 framework to make excellent chips.