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Intel Developing New Chip Designs in India

An anonymous person noted that "Intel Corporation, the $39-billion largest chip maker in the world, is developing new chip designs and processors at its India development centre to roll out the next generation of notebooks and servers, says a top company official."

15 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Work Visa by zenithcoolest · · Score: 4, Funny

    Guess they dont have to worry about work visa issues in US :)

    1. Re:Work Visa by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful
      a great example of how capitalistic free open market with lots of competition can bite us in the ass.

      You have to understand no one has ever seen free trade before. Assuming it ever existed, that must have been a long time ago. Today there are taxes, tariffs, government-granted monopolies, and government regulation, which are all contrary to Free (as in freedom) trade.

      So the problem isn't the free market, it's two things: First, it's not really a free market; and second, the fact that we had even less free trade for a long, long time means that there will be a period of settling out that, yes, will likely be disastrous for the US. Our economy is based on trade not being Free, because it has been that way for generations. The longer a flawed system is perpetuated, the longer it takes to correct the situation.

      Add to the top of this situation the fact that the US has put a lot of effort into keeping other nations down, and you have a serious problem for this country. If those nations had been allowed to grow, they might not be such a threat today; but because people there have nothing, they will work for little more than nothing...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Work Visa by Z34107 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      lets thank all our elected republicans for helping out the middle class families out there /end sarcasm. .|..

      Traditionally, Republicans have been protectionist. Free-trade Republicans are a new breed. There are also free-trade Democrats.

      a great example of how capitalistic free open market with lots of competition can bite us in the ass. sure its great to have competition, unfortunately one way to be competitive is to reduce your expenses(costs). overseas is cheaper then the u.s., so everything is moved overseas to help reduce costs, increase profits, and potentially be more competitive since you will have more flexibility in your prices.

      This is a good thing.

      goodbye american jobs

      Not true. Granted, if an Indian engineer can design a circuit for $15 an hour and an American won't work for less than $50, the American is going to lose his job to the Indian.

      However, free trade also creates jobs, especially in my home state of Wisconsin. With tariffs and other protections removed that make offsourcing and exporting possible, our dairy industry now sells a great deal overseas. This is especially true for the smaller farmers - they didn't have the infrastructure the corporate farms did to effectively deal with trade barriers; now, they have a market to sell to that they didn't before.

      Trade works both ways. American engineers may lose jobs in the short run, but everyone who uses a computer will benefit from cheaper microprocessor prices. European farmers may lose jobs, but the EU gets cheaper milk. Although it sure sucks to be the Engineer, the offshoring, in effect, made the rest of the world richer - if everything costs less, you can buy more than you could before, even though you don't make any more money.

      Free trade isn't as simple as "goodbye American jobs" - it's a choice between protecting a few industries or seeing a widespread reduction in the price of, well, everything.

      --
      DATABASE WOW WOW
    3. Re:Work Visa by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Good point, first of all. But secondly- if a system has worked for generations, why is it suddenly flawed now? And if it's not really flawed, why "fix" a working system?

      Well, keep in mind that IANAEconomist but it's not that it's suddenly flawed, it's always been flawed. The flaw is that it creates artificial imbalances which cannot be perpetuated indefinitely.

      There are two reasons for this. One is simply that differentials are where the greatest energy exists. You can see this principle of nature at work everywhere you look. Energy has the property that it affects things, which I realize is an understatement but is part of the logical flow of this conversation... But anyway, what I mean by this is that there will constantly be forces working against it, so that it takes a great deal of effort to maintain it. That effort typically takes the form of regulation - but one of the effects of regulation is that it always creates imbalances of its own, which leads to more regulation. It's a self-perpetuating system, which is why trying to change the system from within is typically fruitless. Just in order to enter the system, you become a part of it. The other reason is that if we really did successfully wall ourselves in, then the rest of the world would just find a way to function without us. This is pretty much what's happening now - e.g. China's currency is no longer based on ours.

      So basically, it was a doomed system from the beginning - this doesn't mean it wasn't useful then, it allowed us unparalleled economic growth. But it should have been abandoned when it was no longer useful and started to work against us, and it was not discarded only because certain individuals in power could profit from the status quo.

      The attitude that you can get everything you want without helping others is a ridiculous one. The more you have, and the less others have, the more motivated they are to take away what you have. If you help yourself by helping others, then there is little reason for them to try to deprive you of anything. This has never been proven on a global scale because it has never been tried on a global scale.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Processors by kevin_conaway · · Score: 4, Funny

    So can we look forward to the new Intel Ganges, Hoogly and Yamuna processors?

  3. Project Code Name by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Funny

    Vindaloo

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  4. I bet the Blue Guys are happy about this... by Veetox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder how much of this projected inovation is the result of a renewed effort, spurred by AMD's earlier challenges. I really hope that AMD keeps competing at the same level, otherwise, we'll see prices go right back up again, and definitely more of Intel's cheesy marketing.

  5. The TFA is more accurate by Gopal.V · · Score: 4, Informative

    TFA clearly says

    "is working on new chipsets for the small form-factor notebook ...Validation work on server processors 5300 and 7100"

    As much as I'd love India to lose the cheap indian labour tag and actually find its place in the R&D world - this could be summed up as premature ejaculation. Validation work (aka quality assurance) is not really what I'd consider worthy of mention, but chipsets are indeed a step forward - if indeed they are being designed here, not merely run through QA.

    People here are comparitively cheap, but that does not automatically mean that "You get what you pay for", unless you do shop around for a bargain.

    1. Re:The TFA is more accurate by MarkKnopfler · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I would like to point out that your ideas about validation are pretty wrong. Hardware verification is not quality assurance. It is a complete and difficult part of hardware development apart from the fact that it also is a rather difficult subject in engineering. Think of traversing all simple paths in of a really really huge graph and making sure all paths work perfectly. That is just a trivial description of the problem. It also requires a deep understanding of the functionality that the RTL is out to deliver. This is not testing/validation as is thought of by us in the software world.

  6. Re:Is it really for cost savings? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those came from the Israel development center, not India.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  7. A problem that won't be fixed overnight... by ErichTheRed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One thing about the whole Indian outsourcing thing that people don't mention is that companies are increasingly going overseas not for the cheap labor, but for the talent. Remember, wage pressure in India and other outsourcing destinations is increasing, and pretty soon it won't be too much cheaper to do the work overseas.

    The problem we have now is that fewer people are going into technical fields. We're a nation of CEOs, project managers, liaisons, coordinators, and other non-technical people. I've noticed a lot of people in the tech field encouraging their kids not to pursue any sort of science or engineering education. That's not a shocker. First of all, going to law school or getting an MBA guarantees you a lifetime of high income. Scientists/engineers are begging for jobs, and IT types are not finding as many entry-level positions that would get them entry into the field. Second, if you do decide to pursue something technical, the jobs are not guaranteed to be there. Why beat yourself up going for an engineering degree if someone on the other side of the world will work cheaper and do a better job than you could?

    Also, the work ethic and education standard in other countries is much higher. I've worked with Indian outsourcing firms, and they make up for their lack of understanding of the problem with 14 hour work days and no complaints about how low their pay is. Compare that to workers in the US, who waste their whole day grumbling about their pay and are completely lazy.

    Honestly, I don't know how to fix this. If we could somehow ensure that there would still be work available for those of us who like doing technical stuff, that would help.

  8. Re:Quality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, people are not happy when foreigners get H1 visas and come to work here.

    People are not happy when companies set up shop there so they (damn foreigners) don't have to come here. Obviously, if its not America or American, it has to be inferior. And obviously, why would any talented Indian chose to live and work in India?

    All Indians in India are just F class engineers and the good ones are already here. Mind you, we still hate them, but still, we have the best ones.

  9. Re:Is it really for cost savings? by speculatrix · · Score: 5, Insightful
    the cost of the engineers, designers and testers are largely irrelevant compared to the cost of the actual silicon foundries these days.

    I would thus speculate that Intel are seeking to gain some sort of political foothold in the huge developing market in India and the region.

    haven't Intel also done some deals to set up design centres in China to also gain political leverage and fast-track approvals for their products there?

  10. Re:This is only going to continue... by El+Torico · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, you really do want to go to GITMO, don't you? Proposing that "the People" reassume control of the US is a very risky position to take. Right now, most of "the People" are doing well enough to not think there is a problem.

    Actually, I agree with you. What you propose (Fair Trade vs. Free Trade) is what the European Union has done. There are very specific criteria for membership; items such as worker and environmental protections are included. Here's the wikipedia entry on the criteria - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_criteria.

    Unfortunately, the US has embraced the "Race to the Bottom" approach and we now can see the results. Globalization is a mixed blessing; on the one hand it does raise GDP for participating nations, but on the other hand, it can have serious repercussions. Of course, I'm expecting to be flamed and modded down now for attempting to be truly "fair and balanced".

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
  11. Re:A question many Intel USA Engs will soon be ask by jejones · · Score: 4, Informative

    Consider this: If you lose 7.5% of these jobs a year in ten years, 75% of them are gone.

    Ummm...actually, you lose (1 - .925**n) * 100 percent after n years, so with n = 10, that's a hair over 54 percent.