Category: Business

As we all know 2020 has been a rollercoaster for everyone including businesses, even the giant tech companies have faced several issues during this global pandemic that is Covid-19.

In 2020, Intel got a lot of negative attention, it happened mostly because of the latest the most stunning releases of tech devices by its competitors. Intel’s releases were great in 2020, but the actual problem came from the launch of AMD and Apple’s outshining Team Blue’s hardware.

Although, Intel’s Core i3 had HyperThreading this feature meant that Intel users will enjoy great multi-threaded performance. However, it was not enough when AMD Ryzen 5000 series were launched.

As we know, Intel’s latest mobile chips are brilliantly developed to provide excellent battery life, provided the fact that a lot of mobile applications are used by users at the same time. In November 2020, Intel’s mobile progress was reduced slightly when it’s major competitor and tech giant – Apple announced MacBook Air, Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro which directly impacted the progress of intel’s silicon for processors that were designed in-house at Apple.

Few of the releases in 2020 might stay the same in 2021, for instance Intel Xe. It did allow consumers to use graphics themselves, however it still do not provide enough graphics to run an application or game such as, Cyberpunk 2077.

Considering the rapid change in technology and intel’s competitors are launching new products quickly with stunning new features, Intel users are looking forward to Intel graphics cards, but it feels like we have been waiting for this our entire life. I guess, we’ll have to wait and see if their concepts will translate into an actual product or not in 2021.

Apart from desktop applications that are often used by all consumers and are working quite well on Intel’s devices, their mobile side is also still competitive. Intel will face a hard time to stay competitive especially due to the heavy competition coming from both AMD and ARM.

According to Bloomberg report earlier this day states that Microsoft is now in the process of developing its own ARM CPU designs, they will build their infrastructure based on the path of Apple’s M1 mobile CPU and Amazon’s Graviton datacentre CPU.

Bloomberg claims to spread the word based off-record conversations with the Microsoft employees, their identity is not disclosed. According to them Microsoft is currently working on the development of ARM CPU designs and developing its own ARM processor for datacenter and exploring different possibilities of another for its Surface line of mobile PCs.

Bloomberg’s sources wisely pointed out Microsoft’s datacenter efforts part as “more likely” and a Surface devices part as “possible.” This seems reasonable, provided that Microsoft’s chip design unit reports to the Microsoft Azure cloud VP, with absolutely no direct linkage to the reporting of the Surface division. However, representatives of Microsoft declined to comment on any specific plans of whether Microsoft is working on server or PC processors. Instead, preferred to say that they’ll invest in their own capabilities in areas of design, manufacturing and tools. They will also foster their relationship with a wide range of chip providers.

It is highly noticeable the fact that Microsoft has deep partnerships with Intel, AMD, and now Qualcomm, hence this would be a sensitive topic for the software giant. With very few anonymous sources it is too early to make final verdict about Microsoft’s actual plans.

Maybe Microsoft’s IT Consultants is still co-developing designs with existing hardware partners like Qualcomm, the same way it has with the SQ1 and SQ2 processors in Surface Pro X. For instance, if Microsoft does follow the footsteps of Apple’s and Amazon’s direction in designing its own custom ARM processors.

Even if Bloomberg’s report proves to be 100 percent precise and true, the outcome is likely to be to follow Amazon’s lead as compared to Apple’s. Although Amazon constricted its supply chain by producing its own Graviton hardware, its software ecosystem still remains open—without solid Linux operating system support, a server’s future in a datacenter is very poor indeed.

It is highly possible that Microsoft will face the same challenges with a datacentre-focused product, and for similar reasons—although the “less likely” Surface ecosystem would be considerably less constrained.

Even if Microsoft is actually going to develop its own infrastructure for ARM CPU design, let’s just admire that fact that their Microsoft Office 365 services are offered worldwide.