Intel Is Dying, And We Can’t Save It

How I realized that this is truly the end of the Intel era.

If you keep up with the tech world, even to a minimal extent, you may be aware that Intel has been struggling for the past few years. I was recently catching up on some news, however, and I (rather abruptly) concluded that Intel, the company which had all but dominated the world of computer processing in the past 42 years, is dying.

That’s right, I’m calling it here.

Intel is dying.

For someone who had been an Intel fan from childhood, this was quite a shock. The first PC I toyed with at a very young age was powered by Intel. My first laptop was powered by Intel. Back in 2012, I built my first computer, and it was powered by Intel. And yet, I dare to say that Intel is dying. How did this happen? Why would I come to such a bold conclusion? Am I insane?

Arch-nemesis AMD

Although my first instinct is to attribute the death of Intel to the release of AMD’s Zen platform, AMD isn’t solely to blame. Since 2012, Intel was the hare taking a nap under a tree. Performance-wise, Intel did not progress, leading many (including myself) to proclaim that “Moore’s Law is dead!”

In 2017, AMD sounded the alarm for Intel to wake up, and for a while, it seemed like Intel was going to do just that. I quite distinctly remember being excited, as now there would be some real competition in the computing space for the first time since I was little.

And then three more years went by. Today, AMD dominates the workstation and gaming niches, is making massive bounds in laptops and similar devices, and is suddenly one of the most prominent names in servers and the cloud.

Despite all this, Intel would be able to recover if this were the only factor.

Apple Silicon, RISC-V, and other developments

Then came WWDC 2020, Apple’s annual conference held to prepare software developers for upcoming changes and additions (and, of course, show them off to the world.) Apple is another idol from my childhood, and I remember watching each keynote through to the end.