IBM Gets Allies to Chip Away at Intel
Google, Others Join Effort to Break Big Blue's Power Designs Out of a Niche — International Business Machines Corp. has enlisted Google Inc. and some other high-tech allies for a collective effort to catapult an IBM chip technology out of a shrinking niche.
Context & Ripple Effects
IBM had already pursued outside partnerships through its chip-research alliance with Hitachi in 2008. Google’s participation shifts that collaborative approach toward building adoption for Power, rather than leaving the architecture confined to a specialist market.
The alliance makes processor choice a strategic issue for the participating technology companies: IBM is seeking a broader ecosystem around Power while Intel faces a coordinated effort to establish a viable alternative.
First-order effects
- IBM gains Google and other technology allies to help expand Power adoption beyond its existing niche.
- Intel faces a direct competitive challenge in accounts where the alliance can make Power a credible processor option.
Second-order effects
- The participating allies have an incentive to align their systems and purchasing decisions around Power, giving IBM a route to turn partner demand into ecosystem support.
- Intel must defend its position not only on chip performance but on the breadth of the hardware and software ecosystem available to large technology customers.
Third-order effects
- If major buyers organize around alternative architectures, processor competition can shift from standalone chip sales toward ecosystems assembled by suppliers and influential users.
- The move points toward compute architecture becoming strategic leverage for large technology companies, with adoption depending on partner coordination as much as IBM’s own product roadmap.
The trend: Large technology companies are treating processor architecture as strategic leverage, using alliances to reduce dependence on a single incumbent platform.