Intel's answer to ARM: Customisable x86 chips with HIDDEN POWERS
Intel is dabbling in the customization of its x86 processors for specific large-scale customers in the server market. The effort is a strategy to expand its dominance and increase competition vs ARM. Intel will not only select parts based on unusual temperature, power supply or overclocking tolerances, but will now even implement different features or instructions onto chips for specific customers.
Everyone expects any processor package maker to do deep sorts through their chip bins, finding components that can handle slightly higher temperatures or that have their voltages and clock speeds altered to fit in a specific thermal envelope, or that can deliver higher performance as clocks are cranked above the thermal limits of standard processors.
(Over in the ARM world, this has been going on for years and far more comprehensively: the British processor core designer flogs its technology blueprints to Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom et al, who package the CPUs with all manner of electronics to build heavily customised chips for specific applications.)
As it turns out, Intel has been doing more than just picking out devices with unusual temperature, power supply and over-clocking tolerances, and is in some cases actually etching different features or instructions onto its silicon for specific customers. This is a step outside the chip giant's comfort zone.
Intel's desktop Ivy Bridge Core i3 processors pricing - 04/23/2012 10:51 AM
Despite the fact that Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge based Core i3 processors aren't expected to arrive until early June, pricing for three of Intel's upcoming models have now made an appearance at sever...
Intel's 910-series of PCI Express SSDs - 04/11/2012 05:55 PM
PCI Express is the future interface for Intel's high-end SSDs as vr-zone uncovers. The company is about to announce its new 910-series of PCI Express based SSD's, previously known as Ramsdale MLC and ...
Intel's Fake Ultrabook Gaming Demo - 01/11/2012 07:54 PM
Here's a video showing that a CES 2012 ultrabook gaming demo by Intel was not actually a demonstration of the ultrabook's ability to run F1 2011 smoothly, but rather its ability to run a video of the ...
OCZ Deneva 2 mSATA SSDs for Intel's 2012 Ultrabook - 01/04/2012 09:25 PM
OCZ announced that the OCZ Deneva2 30GB and 60GB mSATA SSDs, part numbers D2CSTEMS1A10-0030 and D2CSTEMS1A10-0060 have been tested with Intel Smart Response Technology and have passed the performance ...
Intel's first quarter profit nearly quadruples - 04/14/2010 09:57 AM
Intel had an excellent first quarter, the company reported a net income of $2.4 billion, or 43 cents per share, on a revenue of $10.3 billion. This compares to a profit of 11 cents per share on a reve...
Senior Member
Posts: 7441
Joined: 2012-11-10
Seems a lot like AMD's recent plan. The only difference is I feel like intel won't do as good of a job, because companies will request something from them and they're either going to charge an unreasonable price or they're going to argue with requests and do things their own way. AMD isn't in a position to do either of those things - if someone requests something of them, they'll do it as long as they know it is profitable.
Senior Member
Posts: 19051
Joined: 2009-01-25
Sounds like both AMD and Intel are copying what IBM has done for years with their PowerPC architecture. Customize it for their large enterprise customers. While it's new that they're doing it. It's not a new concept.
deltatux
Senior Member
Posts: 6814
Joined: 2006-01-18
Once Intel gets started, you better get out of the way.