Tag Archives: Intel

Politics, Technology

The Dream of U.S. Made Computer Chips

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“There is a lack of precision in thought,” said Robert D. Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a research group that supports U.S. government funding for essential technologies including computer chips. (The group gets funding from telecom and tech companies, including the U.S. computer chip giant Intel.)

Atkinson told me that he backed the proposals winding through Congress for government help for tech research and development, and for taxpayer subsidies for U.S. chip factories. But he also said that there was a risk of U.S. policy treating all domestic technology manufacturing as equally important. “Maybe it would be nice if we made more solar panels, but I don’t think that’s strategic,” he said.

Atkinson and people whom I spoke to in the computer chip industry say that there are important ways that computer chips are not like iPhones, and that it would be helpful if more were made on U.S. soil. About 12 percent of all chips are manufactured in the U.S.

In their view, manufacturing expertise is tied to tech innovation, and it’s important for America to keep sharp skills in computer chip manufacturing.“

We are one of the three nations on Earth that can do this,” Al Thompson, the head of U.S. government affairs for Intel, told me. “We don’t want to lose this capacity.” (South Korea and Taiwan are the other two countries with top-level chip manufacturing expertise.)

Source: The Dream of U.S.-Made Computer Chips – The New York Times

Business, Technology

Intel in the Best Position to be the Trailblazer of the Pack

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After Fighting Mobile Trend, Intel Now Embraces It

As a late start contender with a powerhouse engine to produce chip innovation, they can only take their business up beyond the current established producers.  It was only natural that Intel dragged it’s feet to the mobile game, excuse the play on words.  Now, Intel should perform a Barney Rubble, lift up the car, and run fast.  However, they must look where they are going.  Just like Disney dropped the other 3D movies of Star Wars to focus on the 7th movie in the Series of Star Wars, I feel like Intel is still holding on to what is sure to be a saturated market of streaming television through proprietary engines.  They need to primarily focus on guns blazing on mobile chip technology.  According to the article they are trying to seduce companies like Lenovo to partner with them to come to the mobile table.  Although this is a good strategy, I have always been told, “It’s better to be bought then to be sold.”  Meaning, Intel needs to produce such amazing mobile technology that third parties are banging on the door to partner with them, not the contrary, necessarily.

Intel needs to shoot for over the bar, like in the high jump, and not just by the current standard, they need to have their eyes on world records.  Were talking CPUs, GPUs, the whole array of mobile components, in essence, can almost be packaged up and OEM, although that is not their traditional bread and butter, they need to raise the bar, to continue with the high jump metaphor, and boldly go where they haven’t gone before.  I wish them all the best, and hope they can be a stellar player in this market.  Go for the platinum, all hands on deck, and shoot beyond where other players currently have their road map.