As you probably heard, Intel has a new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and with Apple very much in his sights, he has firmly set his stall, to begin with.
As mentioned by Apple Insider, Gelsinger told Intel employees: “We have to provide the PC ecosystem with better products than any possible thing that a Cupertino lifestyle company makes. In the future, we have to be that strong. “
The reference to Apple as a ‘lifestyle company’ is a significant one, and it is certainly necessary to view the comment as an indication that Gelsinger is serious about shaking things up at Intel.
With its M1 chip, which has been very well-received and is quite a spectacular piece of engineering, Apple has made big waves recently. Over a two-year transitional period, which has already begun, the M1 will replace all Intel chips in MacBooks, so it’s no doubt a doubly sore point for Intel in that regard.
Perhaps above all, the M1 has been hailed as being seriously revolutionary, and Intel needs to shine again in that department.
However, in case of a major shift in the shape of Alder Lake, The company does have something up its sleeve. These 12th-generation CPUs, which will appear later in 2021, or that’s the aim, to adopt next-gen Rocket Lake desktop chips, do things much differently, using a model with two distinct core styles (full power ones, followed by ‘small’ low-power cores to operate the display far more efficiently in less demanding situations).
If that looks similar, it’s because it’s the manner the big.LITTLE architecture of ARM is constructed. And the M1, of course, is a chip (of Apple’s own design) based on ARM. Indeed, the CEO of ARM recently argued that ARM silicon is about to challenge the dominant PC force (namely Intel and AMD).
Intel has indeed pledged that Alder Lake would be a ‘major’ advancement, at any pace. Although if the company is aiming towards Cupertino, Apple will not stand still either, and the successor of the M1 is already predicted to have major things going through the rumour mill.
Gelsinger was the chief executive of VMware and will succeed Bob Swan, the CEO of Intel when he resigns in mid-February.