Replies to post #126153 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Is it REALLY so far-fetched to imagine Google creating a highly customized and cost-reduced server board, where they control the design and manufacture of every component that isn't already cut-throat-commoditized?

The desire to do so isn't at all far fetched. The capability of doing so is where people here are skeptical. From a pure business decision, Google or Facebook would not be so dogmatic to use their own processors, if their servers ran slower than on a Xeon system. The ONLY reason to use a non-x86 part is if it really can run the workloads faster - and that is easier said (or easier to blog about) than done.

[Sarmad]

>> Is it REALLY so far-fetched to imagine Google creating a highly customized and cost-reduced server board, where they control the design and manufacture of every component that isn't already cut-throat-commoditized?
<<

Perhaps not far fetched. But unprecedented in Intel's history, that a customer of its CPU's would be able to shake off the shackles and dispense with Intel's expertise and roll their own.

It is not surprising that a competitor will try to take away market share from Intel, or any other CPU maker. But that a mere lowly peon supplicant user of Intel technology would dare to dream of a rise to this high priesthood would be shocking. Like I said, unprecedented, and earth moving. Is there any example in the past 30 or 40 years ?

That would be like me raising chickens and growing vegetables in the back yard, and depriving the grocery store of my food dollars.

[Tenchu]

FPG,

Is it REALLY so far-fetched to imagine Google creating a highly customized and cost-reduced server board

While they're at it, they should make their own custom-built network routers, and custom-built Ethernet controllers, and custom-built hard drives for their storage networks, and …

See how silly this gets? No one custom-builds parts just for the sake of it. There has to be a benefit, and I for one don't see any benefits from ARM in servers.

Tenchu