It seems that anything they do outside of the processor segment doesn’t quite work for them. Intel graphics cards seem to arrive late and with a very limited amount of stock. Now, Intel seems to definitively close the SSD segment as of today, October 3, 2022.
We have to go back about 50 years, to 1968, when Intel released its first storage solution. We are talking about Intel 3101 memory, a static random access memory SRAM. It was the first solution, one of the different solutions presented, the culmination being the Intel X25, SSD drives for the industry. The company completely abandons this segment.
Hard farewell from Intel to SSDs
One of Intel’s recent big bets for this segment was the 3D XPoint memories. These memories were considered as an alternative or a kind of hybrid with RAM memory. An interesting high-performance solution but one that never really took off.
The 3D Xpoint memories wanted to replace the RAM memory , providing a solution that stored the information even losing tension. This is the problem of the current RAM, that when it loses tension, the data is erased. For the home user there is not much problem, but on servers it can be a huge problem.
Said memories were a development between Intel and Micron , who founded the company IM Flash Technologies , each contributing US$1.5 billion. The first commercial solutions arrived in 2017 under the name Intel Optane. Unfortunately, it never took off and in 2019, Micron acquired the rights to this technology and part of the company from Intel for $1.5 billion.
Subsequently, in 2020 an agreement was reached between SK Hynix and Intel to acquire the NAND Flash memory division. The deal includes Intel’s NAND Flash memory components and foundry, located in Dalian, China. The deal closed at $9 billion, although Intel reserved the right to continue marketing these products.
After SK Hynix acquired this division from Intel, the company announced a new company called Solidgm. This company bundled several SSDs for the business and consumer segment.
Note that, in August, Intel finally closed its Optane division instead of selling it. That generated an approximate loss of 559 million dollars . Solidgm will be in charge, from now on, of the support and technical service of the Optane units.
Things don’t work out for them
Intel is an expert company in making processors, they are very good at it, but when they bet on other segments, things don’t work out. Optane and 3D XPoint are just two samples from a vast catalog of products that have not worked. Above all, it is striking Intel’s attempts to enter the graphics card market, which does not end well.
Larrabee, Intel’s first big attempt to break into the graphics card market was a disaster. That solution ended up being a computing acceleration solution, but for price and performance it did not generate much appeal. The current Intel Arc, unfortunately, seems to arrive at a bad time and with many problems. Two years ago they would have sold like hotcakes, but NVIDIA has smashed the door open.
We see how the Intel Arc are going unnoticed and cracks are seen. Despite having a quite interesting performance, there is a great lack of stock of these graphics. What’s more, we have many doubts that these graphics will reach Spain and if they arrive, we will see the stock and the demand.