Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Resigns

jigger · 23 Jun 2018 at 11:59

humbug said:
In which case he's a failure saved by AMD's lack of competition over the last 5 years, now that AMD are back his shortcomings now and during those last 5 years are laid bare.

Yeah. He had an easy ride that's for sure. I bet he made himself a few quid though.

jigger · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:01

Destination said:
Sounds close enough to the truth, hard to keep pressing onwards with invention when there is no necessity.

Kind of is a nesetity though. Im a strong believer that every day you go work you do the best work possible and encurraged everyone around you to do the same.

humbug · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:02

Destination said:
Sounds close enough to the truth, hard to keep pressing onwards with invention when there is no necessity.

Right, but a smart man would have realised that he cannot predict the future with certainty, a smart man would have bolstered his lead with the same purpose as if in fatal competition, he didn't, like an incompetent laymen he rested on his laurels assuming AMD have no way back, he should have known, it was his job to be smart enough to know, from the history between them that AMD are much much more capable than that, right now, on the technology front Intel are playing catchup to AMD, again.

Destination · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:10

The 'smart man' was off banging someone else on company time while he could have been running his company.
Things like TIM, use paperglue instead of solder, saves 1% on CPU production cost right across production, on a global scale, massive change, mucho $$ for the company.

jigger · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:18

I'd imagine over past 12-24 months the big question at Intel has been how long have we knowingly been selling broken CPU's and how long are we going to be selling broken chips for? I think the answer to both would have been many years.

humbug · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:24

Yes that too, and a few other things, like failing to realise the danger nVidia pose to them, which they have only just woken upto and that danger is very real, potentially fatal, its why i think AMD and Intel should come to an agreement and relax some of their rivalry and come together to challenge nVidia, Intel need AMD's IP, Raja is nothing without the IP that is ingrained in the space nVidia operate in, AMD need to challenge nVidia themselves and they need Intel's money to do it.

jigger · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:37

humbug said:
Yes that too, and a few other things, like failing to realise the danger nVidia pose to them, which they have only just woken upto and that danger is very real, potentially fatal, its why i think AMD and Intel should come to an agreement and relax some of their rivalry and come together to challenge nVidia, Intel need AMD's IP, Raja is nothing without the IP that is ingrained in the space nVidia operate in, AMD need to challenge nVidia themselves and they need Intel's money to do it.

Yeah Intel need a working relationship with AMD. At some point probably a unified socket.

drunkenmaster · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:52

Hotwired said:
This happens everywhere.

As long as the company is happy with you, you get away with all kinds of bad behaviour.

The moment the company wants you gone every single misdemeanour will be dug up and your work will be double checked until they find something to get rid of you with.

The thing is in this situation you'd expect the board to use a affair as grounds for firing him OR leverage to force him to resign and they'll keep it quiet. Outing it publicly while getting him to resign is.... odd. In this case if feels more like, this is the story we want for you to resign and we'll give you a huge golden parachute if you go with this story to help protect our stock prices rather than fire you for poor performance and drastic failures to enable 10nm to go forwards.

Hagar · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:55

jigger said:
Yeah Intel need a working relationship with AMD. At some point probably going back to a unified socket.

jigger · 23 Jun 2018 at 12:58

That's going back a while now. Although Intel and AMD did have plans for a unified socket a few years back IIRC.

4K8KW10 · 23 Jun 2018 at 14:04

Aren't the chips too different, thoough? AM4 has 1331 pins, TR4 has 4094 pins, LGA1151 has 1151 pins, socket 2066 has 2066 pins, etc.

EsaT · 23 Jun 2018 at 14:08

Agree that this is publicly acceptable way to get rid of him while "washing Intel's face/hands" from some of the failings.
For example that toothpaste under heatspreader to make chips run hot has been one of the smaller failures under his watch.

If we look at this two years old article even that data center/server business and personal computer side has been enjoying such market domination only because of AMD having nothing competitive with failed Bulldozer architecture:
https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...oration-its-time-to-replace-ceo-brian-kr.aspx
And that manufacturing process problem is still going...

Sure not all these like technological problems can be put just on him.
But hasn't there been talks that leading/managing style of Krzanich hasn't been exactly "optimal" for inspiring employees and fostering innovation?
For all its resources Intel's been like standing still for many years.
And then killing Intel Developer Forum?
Isn't that like saying "we know better than customers what they need"?
https://techspective.net/2018/01/24/5-executives-replace-brian-krzanich-intel/

smilingcrow · 23 Jun 2018 at 17:18

As unlikely as it seemed at one point that AMD would even survive let alone come back with a vengeance it would have cost Intel relatively little to have had a backup plan, but what exactly would that plan be?
EMIB seems to be the answer but when will that be ready for prime time meaning Servers and HEDT?

It has been a number of things that are pressurising Intel and the combination of a broken 10nm process and the Zen modular design were hard for them to predict.
I wonder how good a Xeon on 10nm+ with EMIB would be?
I doubt it will be enough to conclusively regain the lead over EPYC to the point where AMD disappear again but it might help them stabilise the ship.
Interesting times anyway.

4K8KW10 · 23 Jun 2018 at 17:35

smilingcrow said:
As unlikely as it seemed at one point that AMD would even survive let alone come back with a vengeance it would have cost Intel relatively little to have had a backup plan, but what exactly would that plan be?

They still have 100% of the mobile market (notebooks) and 98% of the server market.
For consumers, they still have the 14nm+++ process, they can get rid of the graphics part, double the cores count, and solder the chips.

smilingcrow · 23 Jun 2018 at 17:40

4K8KW10 said:
For consumers, they still have the 14nm+++ process, they can get rid of the graphics part, double the cores count, and solder the chips.

They already have chips with double the core count of CL without an iGPU, that's the HEDT chips.
If Intel were to create mainstream CPUs with large core counts and no iGP then that takes time I imagine.

Rroff · 23 Jun 2018 at 17:43

drunkenmaster said:
The thing is in this situation you'd expect the board to use a affair as grounds for firing him OR leverage to force him to resign and they'll keep it quiet. Outing it publicly while getting him to resign is.... odd. In this case if feels more like, this is the story we want for you to resign and we'll give you a huge golden parachute if you go with this story to help protect our stock prices rather than fire you for poor performance and drastic failures to enable 10nm to go forwards.

If they really wanted him they could have found a way around publicly getting rid of him in this way - slap on the wrist maybe a bit of a "demotion" and loss of bonuses, etc.. So he obviously isn't considered a significant asset to the company.

LoadsaMoney · 23 Jun 2018 at 20:10

Thats what you call Intel Inside.

Hotwired · 23 Jun 2018 at 22:30

drunkenmaster said:
The thing is in this situation you'd expect the board to use a affair as grounds for firing him OR leverage to force him to resign and they'll keep it quiet. Outing it publicly while getting him to resign is.... odd. In this case if feels more like, this is the story we want for you to resign and we'll give you a huge golden parachute if you go with this story to help protect our stock prices rather than fire you for poor performance and drastic failures to enable 10nm to go forwards.

Unless something different is going on invisibly he appears to be losing millions by resigning.

drunkenmaster · 24 Jun 2018 at 00:37

Hotwired said:
Unless something different is going on invisibly he appears to be losing millions by resigning.

Precisely, why resign when they out your indiscretion? The way big business works has pretty much always been keep scandal silent where possible. You resign you lose out on a big payment so why resign when they outed your affair (assuming it's true)? Why not stay and point out they had no problem with you being married to a previous co-worker and probably dozens of other relationships. Why not fight and force them to fire you.

It's usually an either or case, someone refuses to leave so you use an affair to fire someone for cause and avoid paying out or you use an affair to get them to leave quickly and quietly to keep their problem secret to save a marriage and make getting a job in the future easier. This is the worst of both worlds and only makes sense if they asked him to leave, wanted a story and gave him a huge pay off to leave in this way.

Hotwired · 24 Jun 2018 at 02:20

If the claimed numbers are true then that's a heck of a payoff under the table to cover the advertised losses from "retiring".

Suspect politics behind sudden senior retirements certainly.

Only seen one personally. Senior NMGD director retired and to anyone else it was illness related but no, a minister screwed him over to enforce party policies and he chose to retire quietly after a career in the department rather than fight. Ironically the policies were so badly received by the public that they were rapidly dropped. Which is what the minister didn't want to hear from the director in the first place...

There might only be a handful of people who know the real reasons for Intel kicking out the CEO. An elaborate smokescreen isn't that unlikely.