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by jeffbee 2173 days ago
That's pretty silly. What makes you say this? There are large groups at Google responsible for buying every computer there is and evaluating the TCO thereof. With operating expenses exceeding two billion dollars per week, they have a larger incentive to optimize their first-party power efficiency than anyone else in the business. I'm fairly certain their first-party workloads (search etc) are the largest workloads in the world.
3 comments
FireBeyond 2172 days ago
> With operating expenses exceeding two billion dollars per week

"Alphabet operating expenses for the twelve months ending March 31, 2020 were $131.077B, a 13.47% increase year-over-year."

Operating expenses is everything, including salaries, etc. Google isn't dealing with $2B/wk in power/server purchases, though they're still huge, no doubt.

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scarface74 2173 days ago
Neither Amazon nor Apple are buying off the shelf ARM chips. They are both designing processors to meet their needs. Amazon bought Annapurna labs and Apple bought a slew of companies specializing in processor design.
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baybal2 2173 days ago
I don't think they would switch even if they could in the near future.

The poster above says that Amazons "leapfrogs." They question is "leapfrogs where?" The fact that ARM cores cost 100+ times less than Intel, and are n times more power efficient was well known for the whole eternity.

What people don't get is that you get the whole platform on x86, and ARM is a very, very DIY thing, even if you are a multinational with lots of money on RnD.

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jeffbee 2173 days ago
> I don't think they would switch even if they could in the near future.

They've already brandished their ability to port their whole product from x86 to POWER[1], and deploy POWER at scale if they need to[2]. My personal interpretation of these announcements is they are made with the purpose of keeping their Intel sales representatives in order, but the fact that you don't also see them or anyone else brandishing their AArch64 port should tell you something.

1: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-acquires-a-taste-for-ibms-p...

2: https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2018/03/19/head...

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