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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

Geslinger was smart to reference Grove: I think people at all levels of Intel finally realize that their ship is on fire and are willing to change. I believe the M1, though costing them a very small amount of sales, was the true wake up call, despite being just the most recent arrow from a flock of arrows that has been piercing Intel for decades.

If Intel can pull this off it will be one of the most impressive recoveries in history, up there with Watson at IBM, Gerstner at IBM, and Jobs' return to Apple.

And if Intel can pull this off I wonder if someone will be able to do the same for GE.

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First time I've felt cautiously optimistic about 'Intel the company' in 10+ years. I think it's possible Intel makes a comeback, but it'll be several years. Hope the new IBM research partnership becomes more integrated as well, I can only imagine positive outcomes from trying to consolidate fundamental semi research there.

Compared to GE... there's been more structural changes to GE over the years which would hurt its ability to regain a useful position in vertical integration from where they're at - they need multiple decades of long term planning to get around this, especially as their industrial side becomes increasingly costly. This is unlike Intel, who is still in a "good" position to pivot on the reality that x86 is a lot less valuable compared to 2009 into a more up-to-date vertical monopoly.

Don’t forget Lisa Su’s turnaround of AMD as a more proximate example!

Yes, that's an excellent one too!

I'm sorry, I was totally on board and in full agreement with your comment until you mentioned IBM. Am I correct in understanding you're calling Watson a successful recovery for IBM? Jobs returning to Apple, sure. But I don't think I know anyone that would describe IBM as anything other than a flagging behemoth. Please, feel free to convince me otherwise, maybe I missed something.

I mean Thomas J. Watson Sr (turned CTR into IBM) and Thomas J Watson Jr (turned IBM into a computer company), not the dumb software platform that the sad, current IBM is overselling. Perhaps you didn't realize why the program bears that name.

Gerstner was astonishing too. I just thought of him as the "cookie guy" when he showed up. But he saved a company that was spiraling towards the ground...he didn't restore it to its former glory but did bring it back to a successful life. An achievement subsequently squandered.

Oh, that makes so much more sense. Thanks so much for clarifying!

I guess he referred to Thomas J. Watson, not the "AI" Watson.

You missed what Waston was named after.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/bu...

S/360 was/is a big deal in history.

Is Su at AMD on par with those giants?

Yes, it was an oversight on my part.

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