Intel selling off 51% of Altera - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: hamster_nz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 14, 2025, 07:07:58 pm
content: Press release:https://newsroom.intel.com/corporate/intel-partner-deal-news-april2025

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 14, 2025, 07:47:35 pm
content: We weren't seeing that coming. They are just going to focus on "AI".

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 14, 2025, 07:56:53 pm
content: Anything sold to a private equity firm usually ends up getting stripped of everything of value until all that's left is a husk.Goodbye Altera, we hardly knew ye.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 14, 2025, 09:01:21 pm
content: Well either it's done or it will be sold again one year from now at a much lower price to, I dunno.... maybe Google?

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 12:11:39 am
content: Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on April 14, 2025, 07:56:53 pmMit Romney & company?

author: AK6DN
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 12:00:20 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on April 14, 2025, 09:01:21 pmOr even worse, Altera will be broken up and different parts sold off to different companies.

author: glenenglish
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 07:47:47 am
content: hopefully no big deal, I'm likely to use Agilex 5 for new designs. Fantastic product.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 09:26:00 am
content: At least perhaps some of whoever's left holding Altera will actually care about the FPGA market.Intel bought them to gain access to the big, fast, power hungry devices at the top of the range, to put on servers in data centres. The small devices that I use (well... used) every day were ignored. The fantastic little Enpirion power devices, simply discontinued with no replacement, as they were deemed not interesting.And then, when the component supply crisis happened a few years ago, the supply of Altera devices just completely dried up. No notice, no wait list, no communication whatsoever. Have a design that relies on an FPGA? Tough. Go bust. We don't care.I moved to Efinix, whose portfolio and (especially) tools are immature, but getting there.

author: glenenglish
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 10:12:59 pm
content: Hi AndyEfinix is good eh ? I've only used the non SoC Titanium parts . Simple devices, tool chain and documentation OK. Nothing too complex. Great parts.Tools are alot better than a year ago.The tools'colour scheme shows their Altera heritage LOL (same colour scheme as Quartus) .I think their SoC parts are priced too high though, Why buy a Ti85 or Ti135 SoC when I can buy an Agilex 5 for far less...... I have no idea what their crazy pricing thinking is on their SoC, but their fabric parts per LUT are priced very well .YEP we all remember what Intel does with products less shiny.Remember what Intel did to Edison ?That was a fantastic product , lots of products got designed around it, then Intel in one night, dropped it into the ocean. I never bought a single Intel CPU since 2016 after that.And I only considered Altera AFTER the Altera -Intel split , I told the local rep who'd been knocking on my door for years that hell would have to freeze over before I would consider ALtera under Intel ownership.....

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 01:36:17 pm
content: Intel has repeatedly shown that they are unable (for whatever reason) to be profitable with anything other than x86-64 CPUs.They have tried again and again. Other CPU architectures, embedded markets, then FPGAs... nope. It never works.Now they are focusing on "AI" (like everyone else), but beyond AI being possibly in a bubble that's going to burst, I'm not sure Intel will be successful with that. I am oddly smelling the day coming when they will also sell their "AI" business unit(s) and focus back on just CPUs.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 03:12:55 pm
content: Yup. Everything Intel touches goes to sh!t. I've made it a habit to design components out of a circuit if their manufacturer gets bought by Intel.And for sure the AI bubble will burst. Just like any other bubble. Remember block chain?

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2025, 06:06:15 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on April 18, 2025, 01:36:17 pmIntel is too big (n. of employees) to be flexible enough. They have to downsize by, say, 70% (as we discussed earlier).

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2025, 07:54:15 pm
content: Quote from: iMo on April 23, 2025, 06:06:15 pmThey sure suffer from the innovator's dilemma - a book that I recommend reading.