Supply vs demand, price vs demand, capability vs supply, and company vs company (competition, also known as market share). Unicorns vs wishful thinking.
Right now demand is outstripping supply, so if you make it you can sell it. And with this being the case it is better to concentrate on the larger profit items if possible, yet may be restricted for a number of reasons, such as prior contracts, competing manufacturing processes with the higher margin process already being maxed out so you can't just change from one process to another. And demand for what? Is it demand for item A that cost $$$$$, item B that sells for $$$, or item C that sets you back only $?
There are some people/companies that are willing to pay a higher price for the best (fastest, most instructions per watt consumed, most cores per cpu, most magic stars per box, etc), based on what they consider to be best. Cheap still sells, just walk into Wal-mart and buy a computer - not that I personally would, yet a lot of people do, and I have even suggested it to one person myself because they did not need the latest and greatest, nor do they know what they are missing out on (64 PCIe gen 4 lanes vs 28 gen 3 lanes, 1 TB SSD vs 512 GB HDD, etc). Unless you are the steering committee for the communist party of your country you are not able to dictate who is to have what, and ignore their desires or needs.
Before I go much farther let me just make one thing clear, just because something is 19% faster in Micro$oft Word does not mean you are a 19% faster typist because of it. Marketing hog wash (also known as bull sh!t) can cloud up the real issues for those not in the know, they just know they have been told it is time to upgrade their computer, not knowing that Linux is just plan better and they can still use their current computer - it still works, correct?
Market share? Really? How do we define a market, and then segment it? I found it interesting that when Mr. Walsh was the CEO of General Electric (GE) he liked seeing the different products they manufactured being in the top 5 for their market, yet would tell the people to expand the definition of the market so the products where no longer in the top five, and strive to get back into the top ranks. So GE's medical group may be ranked #1 for hot pink MRIs they need to do way with the color part of the market so they are no longer in the top position, yet make improvements to be better, maybe offering a sunburst yellow color as well. Are we talking about x86 instruction CPUs only, desktops that might now include ARM based, Apple modified, M1? Go to a small community, and look at a high school graduating class of 9 people - guess what, all of them are the top ten in their class, while only 1.1 will be in the top 10%. Market shares can be anything you want it to be.
This year the market might be for 100 units, with company A selling 86 of those units and company B selling 14. Next year the demand might rise by 10%, and company A is maxed out at only being able to produce 86 units, same as last year, while company B can meet the increase in demand and produces and sells 24 units this year. So both the market and company B's share of the market expanded this year. Next year the market drops 20%, and company B looses capacity (maybe a fire or earthquake), so while company A has not changed anything their market share changes based on something outside of their control (unless they are the ones that set the fire). So that is the market for units, what about the market of WhatMaCallIts, do-dads, or even those ThingMaJigs?
Unicorns vs wishful thinking. Really, this is an issue? Just eat a box of Lucky Charms and try pooping out a pot-of-gold, and let me know how it turns out. We do all need dreams, desires, and something to work towards. What goals have you set, and how are you getting there? Can we apply the same to the three or five largest chip manufactures, chip designers, or even chip consumers?
I have seen people fry an egg on a sidewalk on a hot summer day. I might try frying said egg on an Until CPU - it should work, shouldn't it, as the CPU will be steaming hot. We talk about how hot Until's CPUs are getting, yet will AMD be relaxing power restrictions on the next socket they introduce (I am guessing AM5, yet that is based on prior naming, not knowing what the actual name will be), and that in turn letting their chips consume more power and run hotter?
I am looking forward to a Zen 4+/5 CPU on a 5nm die, in an AM5 socket , supporting the latest generation of this or that standard. While most of us consumers are not able to take full advantage of PCIe gen 4 right now I hope that changes in the near future. The games I play (2nd most taxing thing I do with my computer) are cpu/thread bound by the OS, in this case windoze 10 and it's directX 9/11/12. The most taxing thing on my system is editing a video on occasion, and that is restricted more by my ignorance at the time I purchased the software (it does not take full advantage of all of the CPU cores and threads nor the GPU to speed things up). I am looking forward to the day Until become Intel again, and is producing consumer CPUs on a 7nm die, or smaller.
May the CPU wars begin (again).
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