In a certain way, this move is horizontally integrated. Intel vertically integrated its chip design and fab. This moves design and fab apart. One of the reasons that Intel is falling so far behind is that they can't keep up with TSMC (and maybe others as well) on the fab side.
Intel's vertical integration worked well for them for so many years. However, the crack has been around long enough for others to start muscling in. AWS can push Graviton because Intel has been stuck at 14nm for so long (yes, they have some 10nm parts now, but it's been limited). Apple can push a move to ARM desktop/laptops because Intel has stagnated on the fab side.
I wouldn't say this is a reversal of that revolution as much as a demonstration of the power and fragility of vertical integration. Intel's vertical integration of design and fab gave them a lot of power. Money from chip sales drove fab improvements for a long time and kept them well ahead of competitors. However, enough stumbling left them in a fragile place.
I think part of it is that ARM also has reference implementations that people can use as starting blocks. I don't know a lot about chip design myself, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to start off with a working processor and improve it than starting from scratch.
I think we're just seeing a dominant player that no one really likes stumble for long enough combined with people willing to target ARM. Whether I run my Python or C# or Java on ARM or Intel doesn't matter too much to me and if AWS can offer me ARM servers at a discount, I might as well take advantage of that. Intel pressed its fab advantage and the importance of the x86 instruction set against everyone. Now Intel has a worse fab and their instruction set isn't as important anymore. They've basically lost their two competitive advantages. I'm not arguing that Intel is dying, but they're certainly in a weaker position than they used to be.
Intel's vertical integration worked well for them for so many years. However, the crack has been around long enough for others to start muscling in. AWS can push Graviton because Intel has been stuck at 14nm for so long (yes, they have some 10nm parts now, but it's been limited). Apple can push a move to ARM desktop/laptops because Intel has stagnated on the fab side.
I wouldn't say this is a reversal of that revolution as much as a demonstration of the power and fragility of vertical integration. Intel's vertical integration of design and fab gave them a lot of power. Money from chip sales drove fab improvements for a long time and kept them well ahead of competitors. However, enough stumbling left them in a fragile place.
I think part of it is that ARM also has reference implementations that people can use as starting blocks. I don't know a lot about chip design myself, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to start off with a working processor and improve it than starting from scratch.
I think we're just seeing a dominant player that no one really likes stumble for long enough combined with people willing to target ARM. Whether I run my Python or C# or Java on ARM or Intel doesn't matter too much to me and if AWS can offer me ARM servers at a discount, I might as well take advantage of that. Intel pressed its fab advantage and the importance of the x86 instruction set against everyone. Now Intel has a worse fab and their instruction set isn't as important anymore. They've basically lost their two competitive advantages. I'm not arguing that Intel is dying, but they're certainly in a weaker position than they used to be.