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0 pointsklelatti5y ago0 comments

Fair points, but if you're saying that if we moved to a non-x86 (and presumably Arm based) world then its business as usual for Intel and AMD then I'd strongly disagree - it's a very different (and much less profitable) commercial environment with lots more competition.

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mhh__5y ago

The likelihood of Intel moving to ARM is probably nil. They have enough software to drag whatever ISA they choose with them, whereas AMD bringing up an ARM core could be fairly herculean as they have to convince their customers to not only buy their new chip but also trust AMD with a bunch of either missing or brand new software.

klelattiOP5y ago

The days when Intel could single handedly successfully introduce a new (incompatible) ISA are long gone (if it ever could). I expect they will stick with x86 for as long as possible.

yjftsjthsd-h5y ago

> The days when Intel could single handedly successfully introduce a new (incompatible) ISA are long gone (if it ever could).

Given itanium, I'd say they never could (although that could have been a fluke of that specific design)

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hpcjoe5y ago

AMD has already done an ARM 8 core chip. Then abandoned it.

ISA changes require a long term investment and building up an ecosystem. Which were out of scope for AMD at the time.

I think the market has changed somewhat, and they don't have to do all the heavy lifting. Would be interesting to see what happens there.

klelattiOP5y ago

They still have an architecture license I think.

Given that x86 still has an advantage on servers makes sense for them to push that for then time being. When the Arm ecosystem is fully established I can't imagine it would be that hard to introduce a new Arm CPU using the innovation they've brought to x86 (chiplets etc).

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mhh__5y ago

klelattiOP5y ago

The days when Intel could single handedly successfully introduce a new (incompatible) ISA are long gone (if it ever could). I expect they will stick with x86 for as long as possible.

yjftsjthsd-h5y ago

> The days when Intel could single handedly successfully introduce a new (incompatible) ISA are long gone (if it ever could).

Given itanium, I'd say they never could (although that could have been a fluke of that specific design)

2 more replies

hpcjoe5y ago

AMD has already done an ARM 8 core chip. Then abandoned it.

ISA changes require a long term investment and building up an ecosystem. Which were out of scope for AMD at the time.

I think the market has changed somewhat, and they don't have to do all the heavy lifting. Would be interesting to see what happens there.

klelattiOP5y ago

They still have an architecture license I think.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse