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Does Intel still have a competitive advantage? It seems like they've hit a wall and competitors like TSMC and Samsung have basically caught up.

I think they've acknowledged that they're slowing down with their new strategy [1].

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/03/intel-...

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I suggest reading the following article: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8367/intels-14nm-technology-in...

The plot 2/3 down the page compares Intel's process with competitors. It's a bit out of date in the sense that it only shows projections instead of the result after-the-fact, but the plot shows that Intel is still ahead.

Intel has been leading the world in semiconductor process technology almost since the beginning. Because they've been the world's largest semiconductor company for a long time, they can afford to keep R&D spending as a major expenditure.

Won't those competitors hit a wall as well? Seems like Intel doesn't need to be fast, just faster than the competition. I imagine the rate of change will slow for the whole industry.

You're right they are all hitting the wall at the same time. The 7 nm node is going to be a problem node for all of the companies [1]. Popular opinion is that Intel always has enough tricks up it's sleeve to effectively be a node ahead (even when on paper it isn't), but I've never been able to find a source on that. But honestly the industry has been hitting this wall for over a decade, and making less progress then it appears on paper (through not fault of their own. Moore's law has been dead for a long time now. "Node size" has only a loose relation to the size of any structure on the chip and is really just a marketing term.

[1] http://semiengineering.com/7nm-market-heats-up/

I would suggest reading the following article to see a source for comparing Intel vs competitors: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8367/intels-14nm-technology-in...

If they aren't a generation ahead as they have been then I think it ceases to be a competitive advantage. Then they would have to start asking questions like "Why not fab Intel chips at TSMC or Samsung if they offer better pricing?"

They've already decided they're going to fab ARM chips, so I think they've already come to this conclusion.

Here's the trick: they already do. Only the biggest margin products get fabbed at Intel fabs.

Is there some x86 fanned outside Intel ?

Isn't the new tech that comes out of R&D patented?

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