Intel is Staging a BIG Comeback! - WAN Show January 22, 2021

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode centered on Intel’s surprising strong Q4 2020 results and the return of veteran CPU architect Glenn Hinton, which the hosts framed as a sign Intel is refocusing on engineering and competition with AMD/ARM. They also covered Australia’s proposed link tax and Google’s threat to leave, NVIDIA’s confusing MaxQ branding changes, Raspberry Pi’s $4 Pico microcontroller, a VRAM mod of an RTX 2070, and Twitter moderation failures, while weaving in sponsor reads and LMG hiring updates.

Main Topics: Intel’s record Q4 and engineering-focused comeback (Priority: 5/5): Intel beat Q4 2020 targets with record revenue, driven by pandemic demand for client CPUs. The bigger story was Pat Gelsinger bringing back Glenn Hinton, a veteran architect from Pentium Pro through Nehalem, which the hosts interpreted as Intel returning to engineering-led innovation after years of financial focus. Competition in CPUs and the value of talent (Priority: 5/5): The hosts argued that CPU competition benefits consumers and their business, and that bringing back experienced engineers can snowball into attracting more talent. They compared Intel’s move to Jim Keller’s impact at AMD and stressed that financial leadership alone should not steer technical strategy. Google vs Australia’s proposed link tax (Priority: 4/5): Australia’s law would require Google and Facebook to pay publishers for links to news content. Google threatened to leave the country, while Australian officials called it blackmail. The discussion focused on whether the law would help news funding or create information siloing and bad precedent globally. NVIDIA MaxQ/MaxP branding confusion (Priority: 4/5): NVIDIA’s messaging around MaxQ for laptop GPUs appeared to be changing, but the company clarified the branding remains. The hosts criticized the shift as muddying laptop GPU differentiation, especially when mobile GPU names no longer clearly convey power and performance differences. Raspberry Pi Pico launches at $4 (Priority: 3/5): The Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Pico, its first in-house microcontroller, built around the RP2040 with dual ARM Cortex-M0+ cores. The hosts praised the low price and highlighted how modest hardware can still power useful embedded projects and revive a min-maxing mindset. GPU VRAM modding and hardware tinkering (Priority: 3/5): A YouTuber modified an RTX 2070 from 8GB to 16GB VRAM using leaked PCB diagrams, replacement memory chips, and resistor changes. It worked but performed worse and was unstable, serving as a showcase of hobbyist hardware experimentation rather than a practical upgrade. Twitter moderation and platform failures (Priority: 3/5): The show also discussed Twitter allegedly profiting from child sexual exploitation content and its poor handling of moderation reports, using James’s own suspended account as an example of opaque and ineffective support processes.

Key Arguments: Engineering leadership matters more than pure finance when a company needs to innovate and defend against competitors. Returning experienced architects like Glenn Hinton can reignite product development and attract other elite talent. Competition between Intel and AMD is good for consumers, for the hosts’ business, and for the health of the CPU market. Google and Facebook have a legitimate grievance that linking drives traffic to publishers and their revenue contribution may be relatively small. Australia’s link-tax approach risks setting a precedent that other regulators, especially the EU, may follow. NVIDIA’s mobile GPU naming has become too ambiguous, making laptop comparison harder for consumers. Small, low-cost microcontrollers can still be highly useful for embedded projects despite modest specs. Social platforms need better moderation and escalation procedures when dealing with harmful content and public-figure accounts.

Data Points: Intel Q4 2020 revenue: record revenue; beat targets - Intel exceeded Q4 2020 expectations despite competition from AMD and ARM-based rivals. Intel stock reaction: down 4% to as much as 9% - The stock fell after leaked numbers forced an early earnings release and a hack was blamed. Yesterday’s stock movement: up 7% - The leak-related drop erased a prior day’s gain. Glenn Hinton career coverage: 8 CPU designs - He owns more than 90% of the patents from eight CPU designs over his career. Nehalem-era significance: triple-channel memory; up to 6 cores - Used as an example of Intel’s major architecture leap in the late Core era. Google revenue from Australian news: 7.7 million out of 3.7 billion - Google cited this as the comparative revenue from Australia news-related traffic. Australian news traffic share: 1/8 of Google searches - Lawmakers cited news as a significant portion of search activity in Australia. Pico price: $4 - Raspberry Pi Pico was introduced as a very low-cost microcontroller board. Pico memory: 264 KB embedded memory - Reported specification of the RP2040-based Pico. Pico CPU: dual ARM Cortex-M0+ at 133 MHz - Core compute specification for the Raspberry Pi Pico. Pico I/O: 30 GPIO pins, 4 analog inputs - Highlighted as especially useful for hobbyist and embedded applications. RTX 2070 mod: 16GB VRAM instead of 8GB - The modded card doubled memory capacity using different modules and resistor settings. 3DMark Time Spy score: 6,100 vs 9,100 average - The modified RTX 2070 underperformed the stock average significantly. Twitter content views: at least 167,000 views - Referenced in the child exploitation lawsuit against Twitter. Twitter suspension context: 30,000-40,000 followers - James’s account suspension was described as non-trivial because of his public following.

Pivotal Quotes: "If it wasn't a fun project, I wouldn't have come back." — Glenn Hinton: Explaining why he left retirement to rejoin Intel on a high-performance CPU project. "You need multiple perspectives. That's something that is so important." — Linus: Arguing that strong engineering and financial viewpoints both need to be present in leadership. "This will only lead to information siloing" — James: His reaction to Australia’s link-tax proposal and the likely response from platforms.

Implications: Intel may be signaling a real engineering turnaround, which could intensify CPU competition. The Australia/Google dispute may influence global tech regulation. NVIDIA’s branding ambiguity and platform moderation failures remain consumer pain points, while cheap microcontrollers and modding culture show hardware innovation remains vibrant.