You will see what you are going to see, it is better that AMD be careful, much less Arm. This is pretty much the speech delivered by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in an interview with Computer Reseller News. The semiconductor maker, which will launch its 12th-generation CPU lines in the first quarter of 2022 (Alder Lake for the general public and Sapphire Rapids for servers), is confident that they will put an end to the growth of its competitors.
Alder Lake and Sapphire Rapids ATV
The Alder Lake line of processors, a hybrid architecture for desktops, laptops and ultra-notebooks, will succeed Tiger Lake. It will outperform AMD’s Ryzen processors, according to the leader. “AMD has done a good job over the past few years, but they did away with Alder Lake and Sapphire Rapids,” says Pat Gelsinger. “Our Alder Lake hybrid solutions allow us to achieve excellence in both performance and energy efficiency, not AMD.”
The Sapphire Rapids range is the next generation of scalable Xeon CPUs, dedicated to data centers and high-performance computing. In this segment, “Arm’s place is very small today, and since we have taken control, I think this is not going to change”, estimates the CEO of Intel. “I just don’t see people going through a complicated and difficult software environment change process to another architecture if there isn’t a significant direct and indirect cost benefit. It doesn’t exist if we’ve done our job right.”
Intel is losing market share
In short, “Intel is back, with best-in-class products,” says the CEO bluntly. “We have the best sourcing situation. We have the best software, the most respected and trusted brand in the business.”
Could it be a burst of pride? In 2020, AMD surpassed Intel in market share in the desktop PC segment according to Passmark. In laptops, Intel still has more than 80% market share. And for the server CPU market, which generates the most money, according to Mercury Research, AMD recorded a jump in market share from 1.8% to 8.9% in the first quarter of 2021.