Intel’s dismal Q4 2022 earnings cost the company $661 million and profit margins plunged to its lowest point in decades, so it’s surprising that the company announced new cost-cutting measures It’s not what you should do. This includes news that the network will stop investing in new products in its switch business, effectively ditching the division just as it recently decided to exit its Optane memory business. . Surprisingly, Intel also withdrew from his esteemed RISC-V Pathfinder program without a formal announcement, raising questions about its commitment to other broader investments in the RISC-V ecosystem. rice field.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said: “Since my return, we have exited seven of his businesses and realized savings of over $1.5 billion,” he added. However, Gelsinger also noted that the company has thoroughly analyzed Intel’s entire portfolio to look for other cost-cutting measures in areas that don’t generate significant returns.
Intel’s network switch business began with its 2019 acquisition of Barefoot Networks for an undisclosed amount (the company raised $144 million in several investment rounds). The Tofino series of network switches brings another tool to the data center “adjacency” arsenal that Intel can leverage to grow data center revenues. However, the unit faces stiff competition from established players such as Broadcom, Cisco and Nvidia’s Mellanox, making it an easy target for cost cutting.
Intel appeared to be investing in the network switch business for the long term. The company has demonstrated the integration of its proprietary Silicon Photonics engine into his Tofino switches, making a significant addition to its existing lineup of Silicon Photonics technologies. Intel later developed his Tofino 3 switch as well. Its development work has now ended as Intel downsized its business. In the meantime, Intel will continue to support existing customers and products. No word on how many Intel employees may face layoffs as a result of this action.
The network switch business will be the seventh non-core business Intel has exited since Pat Gelsinger took over. This includes curtailing production of Optane memory, dumping the company’s drone business and selling SSD storage units to his SK Hynix. Core to Intel’s business.
Intel also surprisingly ended its RISC-V program, Intel Pathfinder, without an official statement. Short notice to participants The company has discontinued the program.a visit to Intel’s Pathfinder website found the notice above that “Intel is discontinuing the RISC-V program Intel Pathfinder with immediate effect”. Intel’s site warns, “Since Intel will not provide additional releases or bug fixes, he recommends that any third party best suited for your development needs migrate to RISC-V software tools immediately.” increase.
Intel abandoned pathfinder for RISC-V program pic.twitter.com/jPGZ6JhCe9January 26, 2023
pathfinder program display of goodwill We are trying to grow an ecosystem of Intel Foundry Services (IFS) customers, from x86-only Intel to the RISC-V community. The program created a unified development environment for industrial users and hobbyists, so it was divided into his two tiers: Professional Edition for industrial users and Starter Edition for researchers and hobbyists.
The program was intended to facilitate the development of RISC-V chips through a unified integrated development environment (IDE) using industry-standard toolchains. Many of the big RISC-V companies, not to mention RISC-V International, supported the program.
Intel has many other RISC-V initiatives underway. Intel and SiFive jointly announced the HiFive Pro P550 RISC-V development board just three days ago. The board features a Horse Creek processor manufactured on the Intel 4 process by Intel Foundry Services. Intel is also co-investing with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to develop future zetascale supercomputers, AI accelerators, self-driving cars and his RISC-V processors for high-performance computing. is building a $426 million lab.
Intel has created a $1 billion fund to support the development of a wide range of chips that companies will build at the IFS foundry, including x86, Arm and RISC-V designs. The abrupt end of the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V program is not to mention his Gelsinger’s comment that Intel is also looking for other cost-cutting targets across the company, as well as Intel’s other moves into the RISC-V ecosystem. It casts doubt on new investments. We’ve reached out to Intel for comment and will update accordingly.
