In the past AMD needed to survive for antitrust reasons. Now x86 is losing in relevance now as alternatives are established. Nobody needs to keep intel alive.
In the past AMD needed to survive for antitrust reasons. Now x86 is losing in relevance now as alternatives are established. Nobody needs to keep intel alive.
AMD also received many Hail Marys as a result of Intel’s anticompetitive behavior. Directly via payouts Intel and partners had to make, and indirectly via companies being more willing to work with them for their GPU expertise and better (out of desperation) licensing/purchase agreements.
Intel can’t rely on the same. They haven’t been directly impacted by another larger company, they rely too much on a single technology that’s slowly fading from the spotlight, and they can’t compete against AMD on price.
Maybe if they ended up in a small and lean desperation position they could pivot and survive, but their current business model is a losing eventuality.
AMD could not afford their own foundries anymore. The same is likely to happen to intel. The CPU business may be sold off to some other company, so x86 and intel will "survive" for sure but they will rely on other fabs to produce and they will milk the legacy cow instead of holding the overall performance crown.
Did you completely ignore the last paragraph?
As I said, AMD survived by going into a lean pivot out of desperation. Intel has that opportunity as well, but the deck is stacked against them due to their size and over-reliance on specific IPs.
Which alternatives? Other than Apple, where can I get a non-x86 desktop?
1. Desktop market share is shrinking and shrinking. 2. https://system76.com/desktops/thelio-astra-a1.1-n1/configure 3. NVidia N1x is not yet for sale but benchmarks are promising.
1) Shrinking compared to what? The moment you want to do any serious work or gaming, you need a desktop (or a laptop, but a real PC in any case).
2) Ok, so there is expensive workstation available. It is a step forward I guess.
3) Call me when it is available and I can buy it in any normal computer shop.
Look, I hate the x86 architectur with a passion, having grown up with MS-DOS and the horrors of real mode. But the truth is that if I want to buy a computer right now, today, it is either a x86 PC or an Apple, and I have zero interest in Apple's closed ecosystem, so a PC it is.
Does the Nvidia DGX Spark qualify as a desktop?
Technically yes, but I don't see the average person getting one. Much like the Raptor Talos, it is a very niche product.