It’s been a year since Pat Gelsinger returned to the company of his life, Intel. After these long days and after taking on a dying giant that was being dominated by its rival, the now CEO of the blue machinery has released a statement congratulating this 2022, reviewing in the meantime many key points and launching a very clear message: are ahead again and they will never be behind again. Future and excessive optimism or reality?
Bob Swan doesn’t have to take credit for what Intel has brought to market. Normally we attribute the achievements to the current CEO who is in force, but we must not forget that commercial strategies, products and especially architectures and lithographic processes are a matter of years ago, and here we must congratulate Intel. However, will he always be ahead?
Intel: Alder Lake is ahead, AMD “in the rearview mirror”
The simile used by Pat Gelsinger very aptly refers to the automotive world, which is clearly on the rise now with electric motors and the need for new and improved management, control and distribution systems for electronics as well as infotainment. What was declared is as clear as it is blunt:
Alder Lake. Suddenly… Boom! We are back. AMD has stayed in the rearview mirror for customers in the consumer market and they will never be on the windshield again; simply we are leading the market«.
It is true that Intel is ahead right now and by quite a bit with Alder Lake CPUs, but it is also true that in HEDT is totally absent and has let the Threadripper, while in servers it is expected as water from May to Sapphire Rapids to even be a real option in the market.
Can Intel be the dominant company again?
If something has characterized Intel’s bumps, it is precisely its aggressive reaction to AMD. We are experiencing this live right now with Alder Lake and if we look at the roadmaps we will certainly see it soon with Raptor Lake and the number of processors/architectures that are going to be launched on the market in just 3 years.
The low end of Alder Lake is the first step, the high end undoubtedly dominates and is the spearhead, but it is below where Intel is doing a lot of damage to AMD. Their products are not simply faster, they are cheaper, they integrate many interesting improvements and they have the time factor, since AMD is not going to present anything until Zen 4, so sales are being devoured by the blue giant.
When Lisa Su’s launch their new Intel processors, they already have the answer ready with Raptor Lake and it is more than likely that they will be, at least, competitive if they are not above. That’s not to mention the IDM 2.0 strategy that we already saw at the time and that is quietly dragging customers from Samsung and TSMC.
A global plan that seems to be a coup to the market in almost all its points and that next year will be consummated. Intel has all this 2022 to show that, indeed, it will not be behind AMD again.