7 dispatches
One of the most exciting technological developments from the semiconductor side of things is the rapid development of the ecosystem around the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). One landmark in its rise is that the architecture appears to be moving beyond just behind-the-scenes projects to challenging Intel/AMD’s x86 architecture and ARM (used by Apple and...
Historically, Intel has (1) designed and (2) manufactured its chips that it sells (primarily into computer and server systems). It prided itself on having the most advanced (1) designs and (2) manufacturing technology, keeping both close to its chest. In the late 90s/00s, semiconductor companies increasingly embraced the “fabless model”, whereby they would only do the (1)...
Once upon a time, the hottest thing in chip design was “system-on-a-chip” (SOC). The idea is that you’d get the best cost and performance out of a chip by combining more parts into one piece of silicon. This would result in smaller area (less silicon = less cost) and faster performance (closer parts = faster communication) and resulted in more and more chips integrating more...
Intel has been interested in entering the foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) space for a long time. For years, Intel proudly boasted of being at the forefront of semiconductor technology — being first to market with the FinFET and smaller and smaller process geometries. So it’s interesting how, with the exception of the RibbonFET (the successor to the FinFET),...
(Note: this is part of my ongoing series on cheaply selfhosting) I spent a few days last week setting up a cheap home server which now serves my family as: * a media server — stores and streams media to phones, tablets, computers, and internet-connected TVs (even when I’m out of the house!) * network-attached storage (NAS) — lets computers connected to my home network store...
Technology in the 1990s and early 2000s marched to the beat of an Intel-and-Microsoft-led drum. Source: IT Portal Intel would release new chips at a regular cadence: each cheaper, faster, and more energy efficient than the last. This would let Microsoft push out new, more performance-hungry software, which would, in turn, get customers to want Intel’s next, more awesome chip.
Working on tech strategy consulting case for 18 months ingrains a thing or two in your head about strategy for tech companies, so I thought I’d lay out, in one blog post the major lessons I’ve learned about how strategy in the technology sector works. To understand that, it’s important to first understand what makes technology special? From that perspective, there are three...