“Intel this week cancelled Larrabee, its proposed graphics processing unit (GPU) that was intended to compete with both nVIDIA and ATi (now a part of AMD). The moment AMD bought ATi Intel had to decide whether to build or buy its own GPU to stay in contention,” Cringely writes. “They decided to build, or at least said they had. It’s hard to say how viable Larrabee ever was but at some point it turned from a weapon against nVIDIA to a barrier to Intel buying nVIDIA. So Larrabee had to go, because without that chip Intel presents a much less imposing target for the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission which might oppose a merger on anti-trust grounds.”
Cringely writes, “With Larrabee, Intel could be seen as crushing a major rival. Without Larrabee, Intel is just trying to enter a new market.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Someone tell me, would it be a good thing or a bad thing if Intel swallowed nVidia? It seems to make sense to me especially if AMD bought ATI.
HazMatt
Anti-trust law ?
I hope this anal-ist is wrong. The consumer can only lose in this deal. Unless there is a third up and coming GPU maker.
just my $0.02
Such a great track record. Let’s review:
2006
• A huge expansion of .Mac to one TERABYTE per month of download capacity per user
• 2 new Intel Macs with huge plasma displays, but with keyboards and mice as options — literally big-screen TVs that just happen to be computers, too.
2007
• Apple releases iTV, a bunch of flat-panel MacTV’s that contain Mac Minis.
• The year the net crashed (in the USA). Video overwhelms the net and we all learn that the broadband ISPs have been selling us something they can’t really deliver.
2008
• Microsoft will indefinitely extend the life of Windows XP.
• Not only will Bill Gates be retiring from Microsoft in 2008, CEO Steve Ballmer will, too.
• Apple will introduce a subnotebook/tablet computer/media player
• Along the same lines look for OS X to bifurcate clearly into two lines — Mac OS X and plain OS X (for devices like the iPhone) with Apple licensing (non-Mac) OS X to a few companies, including Sony.
• Apple will build into some Macs support for the Windows API, allowing Mac and Windows apps to run side by side with no need for virtualization software except to run Linux.
2009
•The next Yahoo CEO will dismember the company and sell it piecemeal, made possible by the fact that only the Internet companies have much real cash. The Yahoo name will survive but the company will not.
As Bubbles points out….Cringely is wrong WAY WAY WAY WAY more than he is right.
The Morton Salt company cannot provide enough grains of salt to take his predictions with.
The Dude abides.
Nice review, Bubbles. Excellent context.
Wow – thanks Bubbles, with a track record like that, he definitely puts the “cringe” in “Cringely”!
I wonder if Bubbles is Cringely’s alter-ego or his righteous twin.
With a grain of salt, there is the possibility that Intel sees a NVIDIA purchase would also help keep Apple around as a long time customer.
The problem is Larrabee was never cancelled.
How come nobody mentions PASemi and the fact Apple might not need intel or nvidia in the future ?
me … are you sure it wasn’t cancelled? I’d have sworn that’s what the Google News Feed said … last week? I may have mis-read it, or it may have been mis-information, but I believe that was the gist of the article.
I understand PASemi to be for mobile devices not regular old computers. That’s why it never gets mentioned in these types of stories.
more competition is good for the consumer, but not for the manufacturers. since i’m a consumer, i’d love to see some action between the 3 parties, instead of just 2!
Julian @ http://no-spamming/
Cosolidation means loss of competition which is bad for the consumer, imo.
Sorry, left out the ‘n’ in consolidation.
Go for it intel!
Apparently intel cant figure out how to make a graphics card
so they are going to buy a company that also doesn’t know how to make them