1. continue driving sales of PC processors (cow)
With about 80% of the PC (really laptop) processor, Intel can continue to milk this cow.
Who knows - with a successful execution into the ultra notebook (thin, light, touch screen,
believable as a tablet), this entire "PC" market might be revived. Might need help from
Microsoft Windows 8 to make it more enterprise / business relevant.
2. move aggressively into mobile computing (question mark)
Smartphones and tablets is forecast to grow in emerging economies (such as the BRIC block).
Atom processors are making some headway into this.
3. accelerate growth in the data center market (star)
Virtualization, cloud, SAAS, IAAS, PAAS - all are driven by servers (web, application, storage).
Xeon processors gives Intel about 90% of the server market.
Watch out for AMD/ARM combo.
4. continue Intel's leadership in chip manufacturing technology (star)
"What" you make drives market (create, grow).
"How" you make it drives margins.
In Intel's case, the "how" is important.
They are the best at it with their 3-D, FinFET technologies.
Without manufacturing, Intel is a mere "me too" in the star spaces.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Intel Four Clear Goals
Iconic (but maybe fading) Intel has a new CEO, and he has set out a VISION.
The VISION is supported by four GOALS:
1. continue driving sales of PC processors
2. move aggressively into mobile computing
3. accelerate growth in the data center market
4. continue Intel's leadership in chip manufacturing technology, Mulloy said.
Let's examine each one of these GOALS using BCG's framework for analysis. Through this framework, perhaps we can analyze Intel's STRATEGY for success.
BCG Framework:
1. continue driving sales of PC processors (cow)
With about 80% of the PC (really laptop) processor, Intel can continue to milk this cow.
Who knows - with a successful execution into the ultra notebook (thin, light, touch screen,
believable as a tablet), this entire "PC" market might be revived. Might need help from
Microsoft Windows 8 to make it more enterprise / business relevant.
2. move aggressively into mobile computing (question mark)
Smartphones and tablets is forecast to grow in emerging economies (such as the BRIC block).
Atom processors are making some headway into this.
3. accelerate growth in the data center market (star)
Virtualization, cloud, SAAS, IAAS, PAAS - all are driven by servers (web, application, storage).
Xeon processors gives Intel about 90% of the server market.
Watch out for AMD/ARM combo.
4. continue Intel's leadership in chip manufacturing technology (star)
"What" you make drives market (create, grow).
"How" you make it drives margins.
In Intel's case, the "how" is important.
They are the best at it with their 3-D, FinFET technologies.
Without manufacturing, Intel is a mere "me too" in the star spaces.
1. continue driving sales of PC processors (cow)
With about 80% of the PC (really laptop) processor, Intel can continue to milk this cow.
Who knows - with a successful execution into the ultra notebook (thin, light, touch screen,
believable as a tablet), this entire "PC" market might be revived. Might need help from
Microsoft Windows 8 to make it more enterprise / business relevant.
2. move aggressively into mobile computing (question mark)
Smartphones and tablets is forecast to grow in emerging economies (such as the BRIC block).
Atom processors are making some headway into this.
3. accelerate growth in the data center market (star)
Virtualization, cloud, SAAS, IAAS, PAAS - all are driven by servers (web, application, storage).
Xeon processors gives Intel about 90% of the server market.
Watch out for AMD/ARM combo.
4. continue Intel's leadership in chip manufacturing technology (star)
"What" you make drives market (create, grow).
"How" you make it drives margins.
In Intel's case, the "how" is important.
They are the best at it with their 3-D, FinFET technologies.
Without manufacturing, Intel is a mere "me too" in the star spaces.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Speculative Execution/Pre-Fetch/Super-Scalar at Starbucks
Waiting in line at Starbucks is sometimes fun because you can think about life or people watch.
But it can also thwart business.
Little's Law tries to predict the average wait in line with
L = λW
where
L is the average time a customer has to wait
λ is the arrival rate of customers at Starbucks
W is the average time it takes Starbucks to serve a customer
So if customers arrive at Starbucks at the rate of 60 / hour (or 1 / min), and the college kid at Starbucks can only make 30 lattes / hour (or 0.5 latte / minute, or 2 minutes / latte ), we have:
L = 1 customer / min * 2 minutes / latte
= 2 minute wait average
How can we speed this up? Taking some principles from computer science, let's explore the idea of speculative execution, pre-fetch, and super-scalar parallelization.
If Starbucks implement speculative execution, it would probably have fresh lattes pre-made. If Starbucks pre-fetched, they will send an order taker to find out orders from people in the back of the line. If Starbucks deployed parallization, they will have multiple stations and workers, ensuring that there are no hardware hazard (fancy talk for resource contention - two baristtas waiting on one latte machine).
So for Starbucks, if they can pre-fetch, paralleize, or execute speculabitvely, this will reduce "W", and the result will be:
L = 1 customer / min * 1 minutes / latte
= 1 minute wait average
Resulting in more business because a shorter line entices customers, increases throughput (sell more lattes), reduces latency (sell lattes quicker).
But it can also thwart business.
Little's Law tries to predict the average wait in line with
L = λW
where
L is the average time a customer has to wait
λ is the arrival rate of customers at Starbucks
W is the average time it takes Starbucks to serve a customer
So if customers arrive at Starbucks at the rate of 60 / hour (or 1 / min), and the college kid at Starbucks can only make 30 lattes / hour (or 0.5 latte / minute, or 2 minutes / latte ), we have:
L = 1 customer / min * 2 minutes / latte
= 2 minute wait average
How can we speed this up? Taking some principles from computer science, let's explore the idea of speculative execution, pre-fetch, and super-scalar parallelization.
If Starbucks implement speculative execution, it would probably have fresh lattes pre-made. If Starbucks pre-fetched, they will send an order taker to find out orders from people in the back of the line. If Starbucks deployed parallization, they will have multiple stations and workers, ensuring that there are no hardware hazard (fancy talk for resource contention - two baristtas waiting on one latte machine).
So for Starbucks, if they can pre-fetch, paralleize, or execute speculabitvely, this will reduce "W", and the result will be:
L = 1 customer / min * 1 minutes / latte
= 1 minute wait average
Resulting in more business because a shorter line entices customers, increases throughput (sell more lattes), reduces latency (sell lattes quicker).
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