Intel Corp (INTC)

[Unkwn]

Intel did confirm that 3D XPoint manufacturing is compatible with back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing, which opens up the possibility of deploying 3D Xpoint memory on top of a plane of logic and as an embedded non-volatile memory option. But in email correspondence emphasized that the launch discussion is only about the technology as the basis of a discrete stand-alone memory.

Sounds too good to be true. Seriously, if that is possible, all the pricing disadvantage would vanish, or at least could, since you'd only need one die for SoC and NVM (certainly not taking into account the additional process costs). This way it could end up cheaper - with an additional advantage of package size/lower die stacking complexity.

But: What about interference, heat etc? Maybe this can only be done with lower power processors, maybe mobile, maybe only embedded/IoT ones. On the other hand, if it would be possible to have some embedded/IoT chip with integrated NVM, running at much higher frequencies (executing in-place) than typical microcontrollers today, Intel could sell heaps of that. That would be a fab filler (not high margin though, but okay).

But I am sceptical. I guess, at least in theory, you could do the same with 3D NAND. But there will be a lot of technical issues before this can be realized. We'll see how this plays out, but I think Intel has to target the mass market with it, not niches. For the beginning, niches are ok, but they need to hurry up until patents run out.

Further, Google should be accelerating its efforts to move over to x86 to get over its well-documented issues of fragmentation.

That's a thing of the past. Intel already achieved this with its contra revenue in tablets. Since the Android code base is the same for tablets and smartphones, the goal is already achieved. What was this multi-billion contra revenue good for if not for at least that? I think it was an unpopular but bold move from Krzanich, the same as the move to TSMC with Sofia. He's pragmatic, one can't deny that.

This contra revenue stuff could end up as a bad thing with Windows 10 2-in-1 though. Since the majority of those use the cheap Atoms, Intel would actually pay instead of earning money from the Windows 10 success. I will install Windows 10 on my son's 2-in-1 for free (nice value again for 200 bucks). You basically get the latest (and maybe best) productive OS for a device you can use as a laptop as well es a tablet, with the most features you can find for that amount of money. Intel and Microsoft are basically throwing money at you. Best times for being a consumer I guess.

I also own a Lenovo 8 2 Yoga Android tablet. It uses the lower bin BayTrail (1.33 GHz base frequency, turbo 1.8 GHz). Android 4.4 didn't run well on this device (lot of stutters here and there). After the Android 5 update (Lollipop) it runs really smooth. Subjectively as smooth as my Qualcomm 801 based smartphone. Looks like Intel fixed all software and compatibility issues with Android 5. Games and everything else run just smooth - a lot of value for a decent sub 200$ tablet by the way.