Pramit Rashinkar

Read an article today where Intel Corporation has said that they will layoff 15000 employees. But this was not the headline that arrested my attention. What intrigued me more was that the article said that this move was aimed to make Intel "more competitive" wrt rivals like NVIDA and AMD. That is really really interesting!! I began my marketing journey in the Personal Computing (PC) industry and it was said only three companies made money from selling PCs, Microsoft, Dell and Intel. That was how high the failure rates in this industry was. In fact, most of the brands that were market leaders 10 years back, brands like IBM (in PCs), Compaq, NEC, LG either do no exist or are no minor regional players. Amidst these ruins, in an industry which had wafer thin margins, Intel enjoyed a near 90% market share, with almost no competition in sight with AMD filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Apple which refused to given in to the bullying power of Intel and was using Power PC chip from IBM, was forced to move to Intel. Such was the power of the brand. Intel pioneered the concept of #Wifi, although they didn't invent it, by giving it marketing legs with their Centrino processor. Wifi was what #AI is today. All pervasive and Intel was on the forefront of it. Now the market cap of AMD is nearly double that of Intel, Apple uses its own chip, the M series and more said about NVIDIA the better So what went wrong with Intel? How could a company which was on the forefront of innovation, which created the most successful marketing programme of the last century, the #Intel #Inside Programme, and whose former CEO famously wrote that "Only the paranoid survive" be so close to perhaps getting bought over? Could be many reasons. But I can identify two. Firstly they became arrogant. I remember the pressure we used to face from them to not introduce AMD products. And second, they missed the mobile revolution, believing that a mobile phone will never eat into the PC business. Yes they did create the Atom PC for mobile phones, but they marketed it as a use case for entry level low priced notebooks, called Netbooks, much like Nano from Tata Motors. Qualcomm on the other hand, bet on this market with their Snapdragon and now ruling the mobile phone processor market. Atom is no longer in production The moral of the story in all this is that if you are a industry leader and unable to predict the future, you are doomed to become the past.

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Some incredibly niche titles/roles on the Intel corporate career page….oh, and an HR one too! - NM DMO XIU Inventory Analyst - Senior CPU Subsystem Design Engineer - Principal Engineer - System Architect - Simics - Principal Packaging and Platform Hardware Architect - NAND Product Development/Test/Reliability Technologist Niche STEM roles continue to be a challenge for US companies to fill. Interestingly, for the past ten+ years, America issues 85,000 H1B visas for highly specialized roles…mostly super smart humans from India and China. There is a massive labor misalignment happening in America: skills, compensation, and location. The coming years will continue to be a wild roller coaster ride. Hang on!! https://lnkd.in/gw3kJmpY

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"CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 first quarter ended December 30, 2023. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $119.6 billion, up 2 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.18, up 16 percent year over year. “Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments. And as customers begin to experience the incredible Apple Vision Pro tomorrow, we are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation — in line with our values and on behalf of our customers.” “Our December quarter top-line performance combined with margin expansion drove an all-time record EPS of $2.18, up 16 percent from last year,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “During the quarter, we generated nearly $40 billion of operating cash flow, and returned almost $27 billion to our shareholders. We are confident in our future, and continue to make significant investments across our business to support our long-term growth plans.” Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.24 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on February 15, 2024 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 12, 2024. Based on the Company’s fiscal calendar, the Company’s fiscal 2024 first quarter had 13 weeks, while the Company’s fiscal 2023 first quarter had 14 weeks. Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2024 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT on February 1, 2024 at https://lnkd.in/eDrixsJ5. The webcast will be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter" https://lnkd.in/eddKqeiP

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For those curious about why 3-D Packaging? My first dealing with 3D Packaging was when I was at Cadence Design Systems working on an Analog Mixed Signal proposal for a client. Since then it has gone mainstream (at least in the Semiconductor industry). This article is a good quick overview. #3DPackaging #SemiconductorIndustry #Innovation https://lnkd.in/ghzpippS

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To have an Analogue Pocket is to love an Analogue Pocket. My son and I routinely go to all the retro shops in the Bay Area, with the hope of finding rare and exciting Game Boy and Game Boy Advance carts to plug into our Analogue Pockets. These amazing handheld machines offer the form factor of an original Game Boy with a 10X native screen resolution. Classic handheld games have never looked better. It runs all of the classic Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges natively. Even cooler: the Analogue Pocket dock allows you to pop the machine onto your TV, enabling big screen play that looks fantastic. And you can use just about any Bluetooth controller to enjoy the action (I use an old PS4 controller myself). And some of these games age so well. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (my current fav) may be 21 years old, but it stands up with the best games of 2024. As if that’s not enough, you can get adaptors which allow you to play TG-16, Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color carts both on the go and on your TV. Analogue Pocket is the perfect complement to retro cart collecting. Just… don’t spoil the fun with illegal ROMs, ok?

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Something we're seeing on the market today: Engineers who want to work in unsexy industries. For some of the most talented engineers out there, another bleeding edge tech company isn't what they want in their next journey. They're content to let the applied AI cos, the foundational model cos, and AI infrastructure cos sort their way through the next few years of hype. What do they want? Delivering real business value to parts of America that have been underserved by advanced technology solutions. Logistics. Trade finance. Education. The trades industry. There's a desire from these candidates to have tangible impact in massive industries that have largely seen few modern solutions. Where the incumbents are 20+ year old players with software platforms that barely work well. Where people still manage their businesses via clipboards, text messages, and notebooks. And the impact of great software is instant, real, and pronounced. So how do we put stellar engineers into these comapanies? A potential client asked me that today. Our take: it all comes down to the anti-sell. We're honest with them -- this is an underserved industry. The company isn't being in some ingenious Applied AI play. Many of the big wins are from simply building good surface area with well-designed product, and taking it from there. And there's no hype or wins to be derived from selling to other startups and celebrating this on LinkedIn. That multi-million dollar enterprise contract? It likely won't get announced in more than a niche industry publication, if at all. And here's the secret -- some of these companies have amazing venture backers too. From a16z's American Dynamism team to other investors seeing opportunity here, there's a growing recognition towards the promise of these companies. Interested in learning more? Hit me up: [email protected]

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Check out Bernard Murphy's article on our recent book! It was a pleasure working with Nick Heaton, Colin Osborne, and many others in the Cadence Design Systems and Arm teams to pull it together--I hope readers enjoy it even more!!!

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I had posted about Intel's recent layoffs and share price decimation. I say that this is important to America because Intel is the leading US company in the foundry race with Samsung, TSMC. Slip up, and US's horse in the race, is now in the same league as China's SMIC without a local monopoly and govt support. That is the most important thing in my opinion. Intel fell because it could not solve how to integrate its foundry operations with all the other assets it has got. And these are world class assets in isolation (that depreciate fantastically quickly). And there have been calls to split them up, but Intel decided not to - and try integration to make themselves a one-stop shop. They have not succeeded - because they are fighting Nvidia, AMD on one side and TSMC, Samsung on the other. And they are No 3 in a world where No 3 means first loser. There have been calls that the CEO and senior management need to resign because of the pain they inflict on their staff that they laid off who will bear the brunt of their bad decisions. Those who think that way are ignorant (there I said it), the people at Intel (and Nokia when iPhone came up) are facing an existential challenge - they are not sipping champagne and living it up. In this field, everyone works as hard as Foxconn, if not harder; it is the hardest, the least forgiving industry in the world. Was the strategy bad? It failed but that does not mean it was bad, I think it was a plausible if complicated one to pull off. Nvidia, TSMC etc has shown that breaking down the value chain and competing where they are strongest works - for now. Intel tried to swing for the fences with their own strategy that is based on their strengths, (eroding strengths, sure) but it is not one based on vaporware. Is Intel facing a Kodak, Nokia moment? Maybe. And that is why it is important - whether US, Intel or Warren Buffet can solve it is a different matter. Anyway, this is the company that the CEOs (they had 2 co-CEOs) FAMOUSLY fired and hired themselves in a single day. And if you did not know that story .... you should not comment on Intel's leadership 'incompetence'. (because you fail to understand their company's DNA)

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I was listening to a sermon Sunday (https://lnkd.in/gu-FV78X) where they talked about the dangers of misuse of AI, specifically overreliance on it to where we no longer know how to make decisions and become things for the AI to act upon. One of the key points that was made was the importance of work, specifically people working so that we grow. I don't see this as a new phenomenon. I've said similar things about high-end simulation software, where the software will do what you tell it and give you the results with complete confidence... which are often wrong. Without putting the work in to understand things, you can't tell if the answer is right or wrong. This is even worse for business leaders who can't know how to do everything that needs to be done. They have to rely on others. I experienced this some this year where I was asked to lead a team which had few hard requirements. Because of the lack of knowledge I felt I often had little ability to make decisions other than what the staff supporting the team provided. As we work to leverage AI, how do we stay knowledgeable enough to retain our ability to act beyond the directions of the AI? How do you know if the AI is giving you good advice and information? These are all questions to think about as we implement AI in our lives. I haven't learned to read their body language yet. Newel Cobb, can you tell me how to read AI-body language? #AI #ActingforOurselves #StayingInControl

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How breathtaking it is, we are now standing at the turning point of the industrial revolution: “If you run a factory, your throughput directly correlates to your revenue, the quality of service, the number of people who can use your service. We are now in a world where datacenter throughput utilization is vitally important. It was important in the past, but people don’t measure it. Today, every parameter is measured. When something is a factory, its operations directly correlate to the financial performance of the company,” Jensen Huang (COMPUTEX 2024) Watch the insightful keynote by Jensen Huang at COMPUTEX 2024: [Link to the video](https://lnkd.in/dB9aj2qr) #computex2024

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So, I have some news to share. I am now a Headstarter Software Engineering fellow. I will be doing building 5 AI projects in 5 weeks. I look forward to sharing my progress and technical growth over the next few weeks. #Headstarter #SoftwareEngineering #ComputerScience

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WHAT DOGE MIGHT HAVE IN COMMOM WITH SHACKLETON’S ENDURANCE VENTURE. ‘People wanted for job. No pay, no benefits. 60-80 hours per week with no work-life balance possible. Relocation possibly needed but at your own dime. Minimum 2 year commitment. Will be highly unpopular with many friends. Success unsure. Future prospects unknown. No credit or recognition if successful’. Although the proposition is interesting, not sure how many ‘high IQ’ people will respond to the ad above. But, that’s basically what Elon & Vivek are selling. It’s great if you are a multi-billionaire and have all the time in the world. But, most people have to work to earn a living. Only job ad I’ve seen more interesting is the following one from Ernest Shackleton many, many years ago. He was successful in recruiting a team though with this ad though but they almost perished. What’s the name of the first mate on his ship the Endurance? No one remembers. Did he get richly rewarded later on in life for his heroic deeds? No! ‘Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success’. Now wouldn’t that be the all time counter intuitive job add? :) Who knows if it’ll work. Would it work for you? #recruitment #jobads #doge #elonmusk

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This is awesome. I like the idea that LLM can help with coding, I think the best part about Engineering is not the task but the creativity. LLM can write the codes, what we need to focus on is creativity, collaborative and clean coding. This is why I think schools should focus on that instead of teaching a programming language. What would we achieve if integration is cheaper or we can collaboratively build something with different ideas while having it work really well together?

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Look, no marketing! For those of you with an interest in accelerating new product adoption, I am posting this article on how Amazon's Just Walk Out technology (JWO) is being rolled out in small-format retail environments at stadiums and college campuses. I love this as an adoption acceleration story, especially in stadium settings.  JWO allows fans to get their merchandise or refreshments quickly, minimizing the time they are away from their seats and while increasing throughput.    Seeing is believing for prospects of new tech solutions, so having stores in stadiums allows thousands of new people to see them in action every week. In addition, there is likely to be a healthy mix of younger and older segments. Often, they will go together. The younger segments are typically more open to new technology solutions. They will be more open to trying JWO out and be able to educate and even convert the older segments right there on site. This is a great example of stimulating consideration and trial with minimal marketing investment! #marketing #justwalkout #amazon #retail #JWO #marketingtech https://lnkd.in/dThKSDfy

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Pixel 9 series is 🔥! 😍 Advanced cameras, lightning-fast performance, & AI that's actually helpful. 🙏 Big thanks to the team for making this happen! George Hwang Jon Prowse Stephanie Scott Patrick Hennessey Soniya Jobanputra Kim Jin #GooglePixel9 #GooglePixelPro #GooglePixel9ProXL #GooglePixel9ProFold #TeamPixel #MadeByGoogle #GoogleTensor

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