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Comment by mcdermott | Hacker News Reader

It's too late for Intel. x86 doesn't have a future, ARM64 SoC architectures like Apple's M1 (TSMC) are the future of computing. Just as fast (and often faster in many benchmarks) with only 20-25% the power consumption and heat. Even Microsoft is preparing for the shift to ARM, at Build 2⁰22 they announced project Voltera, an ARM Windows 11 PC loaded with Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 7 all for ARM to give devs a head start for the coming ARM Microsoft systems. Microsoft will partner with Qualcomm and have their own custom SoC like the M1. Intel is toast (because their CPUs are too hot). This is going to be a massive shift in the PC industry.

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> Microsoft will partner with Qualcomm and have their own custom SoC like the M1

Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm 6 years ago and there have been a number of terrible systems released. You probably haven't heard of them because of how bad they are. If there's any progress for Windows+ARM, it's really from Qualcomm's exclusive agreement expiring. They're hyping the Nuvia team right now, but Qualcomm's track record is ridiculously bad, and there's a bit more work involved here than incanting "ARM".

But Intel is investing in ARM/RISC-V and x86 will be with us a bit longer (probably even 10+years). I would be more concerned about AMD then I'm about Intel tbh.

AMD recently acquired Xilinx, who makes ARM SoCs https://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/soc.html

Intel acquired Altera in 2015, Altera has been producing FPGAs with ARM cores since 2011 at least (https://www.embedded.com/altera-integrates-arm-processor-in-...).

The Xilinx devices above are also FPGAs with ARM cores (a natural evolution from FPGAs with soft cores, MicroBlaze in the case of Xilinx and Nios in the case of Altera).

than

And the desktop will die as well. Even the fans of x86 say that it sucks but it still remains the main target for serious software.

Microsoft first needs to recapture their developers. They still have those that target their platform with Visual C++.

Desktop will never die.

The form factor might change. We might go from a large box to a docking station for a tablet or laptop, but the mouse + keyboard + monitor(s) is never going away.

Been thinking for a while - I need some serious BGA rework equipment and some training because I'd rather die in a ditch than not be able to replace any components in my computer :D

At that point, might as well start my dream recycling business where we desolder, test everything and sell them as parts. They do it in China at scale, why not Europe... Main question is, would there be enough buyers? Small repair shops are also dying...

Intel protects itself against x86_64 becoming deprecated by investing into RISC-V.

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