Thursday, July 13, 2017

Intel's Ho-Hum Strategy And Why It's Not Generating Any Returns

#Intel formalizes launch of #PurleyPlatform Just yesterday, Intel (INTC) announced its new platform via a more in-depth presentation that’s inclusive of performance claims driven primarily by platform-specific advances as opposed to chip-level improvements. Though we’re somewhat optimistic on platform level advances, we’re not certain whether it’s price competitive when compared to #Nvidia ’s (NVDA) CUDA platform, or #AMD ’s (NASDAQ:AMD) #HPC specific hardware. Intel’s stranded between good and great. It’s a mixed bag, because the advantages apply to more conventional workloads and is more software specific and dependent on specific developer kits, though the refresh of memory, storage network interconnects creates a solid x factor. It’s also worth noting that interconnects, memory and storage are in a bull market, but the scope of financial upside when pertaining to Intel is limited due to its joint venture with #Micron (MU) and competition from #Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) and #WesternDigital (WDC). Furthermore, the platform specific advantages aren’t enough to deter a server OEM from buying interconnects, GPUs, storage and memory from other vendors. There’s some meaningful competition in these other segments. Enterprise storage is still somewhat of a commodity with solid HDD presence, whereas enterprise SSDs are getting more adoption, but with market share modestly improving due to Toshiba’s diminished presence in the segment. #3DXpoint isn’t really storage, nor does it provide as much speed as conventional memory sticks. In other words, a hybrid storage/memory product has the sort of niche appeal you’d find in other markets like BEV (battery electric vehicles). A niche product tends to perform about as well as other niche products in other big markets do. So, we’re not sold on the hype, though the technical advances were still meaningful.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4087289-intels-ho-hum-strategy-generating-returns

No comments:

Post a Comment