This is not the time for major technological maneuvers at Intel. At least, not without some of its closest partners/competitors.
In May 2023, Intel was behind schedule on several of its most eagerly-awaited technologies, but the situation did not seem "that delicate" for the American microprocessor giant. At the time, Intel intended to simplify the x86 instruction set used in its own processors, as well as those of AMD, for example. Perhaps this is the crux of the problem. Intel may have thought it was still in a position to dictate x86 developments, but competition from AMD is growing stronger by the day, and the brand is having to deal with the wishes of its partners.
x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group © AMD/Intel
Since the start of 2024, the company's position has been further weakened by poor financial results, forcing it to revise its forecasts downwards and, worse still, to prepare a major redundancy plan: no fewer than 15,000 employees were let go in the third and fourth quarters of this year, but this was not enough to turn around the company's accounts, which were weighed down by the results of its foundry business. In fact, for its latest chips - Lunar Lake / Arrow Lake - Intel called on the services of TSMC, and a few weeks ago, it was the company's boss, Pat Gelsinger, who was pushed out.
A few days ago, Intel put an end to its plans to review the x86 instruction set. The initiative dubbed x86S has been abandoned, and Intel will be concentrating its forces on the " x86 ecosystem advisory group " set up in October with long-time rival AMD. Other partners from both groups are attached to the project - Broadcom, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Lenovo, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and Red Hat - which looks far more viable than x86S. However, there's nothing to say that the innovations imagined for x86S won't be taken up by the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group. This would be the lesser evil for Intel.
