Posted on 07/24/2006 7:15:33 PM PDT by rmlew
If you’re not living underneath a rock you probably know about the escalating war in Israel and Lebanon. I am very sympathetic to the innocent people who are affected by this war. I prefer not to turn this into a war discussion, I am just talking about the potential effects that it has on our industry.
Over the years Israel has been on the cutting edge of research and development in various advanced technologies. Israel boasts many thousands of high technology companies in a wide range of fields such as telecommunications, software, semiconductors, biotech, and medical electronics. Many of the companies are start ups with the most successful becoming world leaders in their respective fields.
Leading global companies like Intel, Motorola, and Microsoft all have R&D facilities in Israel – Haifa being the place of choice for the most part. Yes, Intel and Motorola also manufacture advanced products in Israel, and many other large companies have purchased local companies, buying their patents and acquiring their human talent.
This war plays a serious role in our business in an indirect way – and could have cataclysmic effects if it escalates into an all out war. Middle East tensions usually equate to increased oil prices, but in the case of our industry there is much more than meets the eye.
More than just a "port city", Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo and entire new line of products were all engineered and designed in Haifa, Israel. I believe they employ around 2000 people there, including some of the most talented semi engineers in the world. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, Intel Israel is carrying the entire Intel Corporation on their backs at the moment – and they effectively saved the company with the launch of their latest products.
Intel knows they need to come up with a new architecture in order to compete against the Opteron in large scale environments – AMD on the other hand has some breathing room with their architecture and they need only improve their platform performance for the most part.
Although I believe that the people are going about their daily lives as they usually do in that area of the world (doubtful they are camping out in bomb shelters yet), I think the latest events are escalating to a point where people in the industry need to take note. I can’t imagine it’s easy to do much in the way of innovation when you’re sitting in a bomb shelter.
Yes, this is a very serious situation, and Intel isn’t alone. It's unfortunate that these companies are allocating valuable resources to consider contingency plans incase things escalate further. Clearly the effects of war far outshadow any business of any size -- and as I said I am very sympathetic to everyone involved.
Obviously this war is a tragedy for people on all sides of the borders, and I pray that there is a fair and reasonable resolution in short order.
posted by Rahul Sood @ Monday, July 17, 2006
At least it will not harm the output of Microsoft Research.
Anything times zero is zero.
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