Why Are There Only Two CPU Companies? 

"The 1981 IBM Personal computer was the first PC." "It blew it's competitors out of the market."

I liked that red vs blue reference at the end

plot twist: the guy is Linus in disguise but more chill

TL;DR: Everything but AMD and Intel sucked so badly that they died. The end. Hey, it's me two years from the future! Don't take the TL;DR too seriously, it's a SpongeBob reference.

fun fact: AMD used to be team green :-)

A couple of years ago: "why is there only one CPU company?" I'd like to think we've made 100% progress

Imagine if Qualcomm randomly said that they're gonna start making a PC cpu, the earth would shatter

I like the fact that AMD managed to deadlock Intel into an agreement that ensures they can't just pull the rug out from under them. Intel owns the x86 instruction set and licenses it to AMD, but AMD owns the x86-64 architecture (or AMD64) and licenses it to Intel, and their attempts at an alternative 64-bit architecture like Itanium have failed miserably.

A "low-cost, but powerful" Intel CPU. How times have changed.

1:49 for almost my entire life I finally know what AMD stands for

*"Red pill or blue pill"* This shit is relevant everywhere

As a computer science student, I think that part of the reason they have taken out the market is that it is VERY hard to make a CPU better, so if you already have a base and dedicated team and resources it is easier to continue on the market than it is for other companies to enter the market, as they won't have the baseline of equipment and reputation

"Two CPU companies" Correction: *Two x86 CPU companies* .

When he said "Please colonel, I'm married", I felt that

I love how Zilog (maker of the Z80 processor) is technically still around and being used.

Riley: Why are there only two cpu companies? Apple: Who said there were only two?

Meanwhile the Chinese happily make x86 CPU's with the old Cyrix/VIA license.

Nobody: Subtitles: Korean Edit: erm, they roll out their own subtitle, the joke can considered dead.

Seems like Intel and AMD have the same kind of professional relationship Pepsi and Coke have. They're "rivals" but also know without the other there's no fun competition driving each other's prices up

Nvidia saw this video and didn't get AMD, they got MAD.

One economic principle: Economies of Scale.

Yo I love this guy. His voice is like BUTTER

If memory serves, Intel wasn't too keen on licencing x86. It took AMD and Cyrix reverse engineering early Intel chips. And I think IMB x86 CPUs were just rebranded Cyrix ones, because Cyrix desperately needed a fab to make their chips and IBM basically said "Sure we'll make your CPUs, But half of them are going to be IBM CPUs" and they didn't really have a better option.

Hey! Don't forget Zilog's Z80! The one with built in support for dynamic RAM. And Fairchild made one CPU often used in early TV game consoles, the ones with cartridges. I think that one was called F8. Interesting since the memory chips contained the address register and the CPU just issued base address and then incremented or decremented the address.

The IBM was anything but affordable at the time. We have the clones to thank for most of the popularity :)

3:24 After the "now, of course" I expected Riley to say "its time for the quick bits"

Lol at the subtitles dubbing “non-x86” as “NaN x86” at 3:42

When I clicked on this video I was like: why is Linus voicing over this video?

Original title in case it got changed: Why are there only two CPU companies?

Daaaaaamn! Riley coming in with that Linus level segue into the sponsor! Well done, my man.

*Arm joined the chat*

RISC-V is on the horizon, and might change the Intel-AMD duopoly. It's an interesting time we live in

Protip: There isn't only two CPU companies, even for x86. Vortex86 still exists for example. VIA might still be alive too. Elbrus2000 CPUs also can run x86 software through Binary Translation for any OS.

The reason for duo-triopoly is very simple and mathematically understandable: Because we allowed to destroy competition on markets and slow down (or completly stop) any new third party development process/company, due to introduction of patents/licenses.

I was hoping you would actually discuss some of the "actual manufacturers" and Fabs and how they are "rebranded" as another manufacturer.

Wait. Isn't Cyrix pronounced like """"Sairix""""?

Because nobody else has enough cash and/or the right connections for the hardware to make them

You guys should do a video on the other processors that made personal computers popular. Like the Zilog z80, MOS Technology 6502, Motorola 68000 and even ARM itself. Intel wasn't the only CPU manufacturer in the market back in the 70s and 80s.

I hope there's more CPU companies in the future.

once upon a time, it was Intel and AMD Now it's just AMD and Intel

To this day I was convinced, it's pronounced "Ci-Rix", like the Y in Cyprus is an "I" - Was I wrong my whole life?

apple watching this: :/

Has anyone noticed that the three “teams” in the tech world (nvidia, intel and amd) are RGB?

I feel like I still don't know why there's only two...

RU-vid: this video has 13 comments!! Me: can I see them? RU-vid: No.

You guys should do a video about the differences between using a headphone port on your PC, audio interface, and dedicated DAC (Digital [to] Analog Converter)

Not sure if it'd be in the scope of Techquickie videos, but could we also get on basics of x86 64 and a few other popular instruction sets;maybe also how they relate to IPCs etc.

no one: the set: casually has 3k worth of cpus lying around

Back in the day we pronounced it Ceye - Rix

That giggle at the start makes me WANT TO WORK THERE. It seems so fun.

At least there’s only 2 standards and not 17

Am I Deja vuing like mad or is this a reupload and I've seen this before?

According to RU-vid (and its automatic subtitles system), this video is in Korean.

Good video I always wondered about this.

I swear I've heard a desktop cpu manufacturer called VIA in 2000s but it doesn't seemed to last long and disappear not long after I've heard about it.

So, basically... Intelectual "Propriety" protected by the State. That's why.

Is it just me or does the background look very Team Green lol

I would love to see the two companies fight it out in a game of TF2. You already know why.

Do a video on why we don't see horizontal PCs anymore! I love those!

Ask about VR headsets for next tech quickie

Just a quick side note. The Apple PPC G5 was the first 64bit consumer Desktop. And they ditched PowerPC mostly because IBM failed to deliver on a mobile version. We are seeing more ARM based systems though which should be interesting. When PowerPC was still a thing it actually forced Intel and AMD to innovate so hopefully that will start happening again.

Damn, that Cyrix CPU brings back memories... my first pc had that one ! ...And tbh it DID run quite well for the time. Used that thing till Pentium II got out and later switched to AMD (an overclocked AMD Duron CPU being my first 1ghz one)

Apple: *"there is another"*

I remember AMD struggling for years to compete with Intel. Now AMD processors are so powerful! I remember Cyrix too.. that was a long time ago since I heard or read that name.

TL;DR: It's expensive and hard to become a cpu company like really expensive and hard

You should do a video on how most USB-C cables are actually USB2; especially the charging cables that come with most phones. I mistakenly assumed any USB-C cable was USB3 and wondered why file transfers were still so slow.

Back in the socket 7 era AMD, Intel and Cyrix used to be friends and lived happily together, then came Slot 1/A and the rest is history.

Apple: Am I a joke to you? Most People: Yes.

I love Advanced Micro. The first PC I built used an AMD ATHLON 64 x2. After the PHENOM series, I switched to Intel but just recently switched back with a R5 3600

Lmao there are 100+ CPU companies, it's just that their CPU's are no where as good as the ones from AMD or Intel

Short answer is because anti-monopoly laws aren't remotely effective and most politicians too weak or corrupt to dare break up the monopolies.

3:54 I see a Red vs Blue reference, I get happy.

Alternative title: The pals that hate each other

As someone who worked for an Intel competitor in the early 1980's I can say from experience that it takes more than a spiffy chip to succeed in the general purpose MPU market. The support that potential customers looked for was staggering -- availability of engineering samples, development systems, a selection of operating systems and application software manufacturer's technical support and so on. But THE most important criteria in selection of an MPU chip was did the customer believe the manufacturer could deliver working chips in the needed quantities at the target price when they went to production. This was the driving motivation of IBM in selecting the 8088. IBM engineers were not thrilled with the 8088 for several reasons but IBM decision makers believed Intel could produce the 8088 in the required numbers as promised and offered an upgrade path to the 8086 which was introduced in 1982 with the AT. Once IBM, at that time the most respected name in computers, blessed the Intel offering and a huge third party effort to produce software and hardware add-ons emerged it was pretty much game over for competitors as no other general purpose market was nearly as big as P.Cs. Some companies did well in the workstation market but the volume was much lower and hence even those were doomed. Even the Motorola 68k family, which was clearly architecturally superior to the x86, fizzled out by the 1990s and was discontinued. Some of the competitors morphed their offerings into special purpose mpus for high-volume but low glamour roles like copiers and faxes but the large volume P.C. market was owned by Intel.

The main problem Is x86 modality no other architecture is so modular But even if we did , we would have no OS or application to run on it , this means that as applications are built they will be built for a single purpose it wouldn't get hold in to very well mesning it would stay inside the dedicated purposes market

I remember having a Cyrix 486-33 back in the day, mostly because it was considerably cheaper than the Intel version, that said when I jumped to Pentium I went with Intel (obviously) and not the 586 chip that other companies put out.

I feel bad for linus, he has to keep reading these bot comments

The "How did this happen?" in the beginning remembered me of bill wurtz's "history of the entire world, i guess".

I'm curious why there are only 3 (really 2) major instruction sets and why risc-v isn't more popular

I also thought about that , maybe there is more but the other ones arent as good

There is still Elbrus. Yes, it is shitty, always a few years behind, and you cannot even cool it with a liquid vodka cooler, but hey, technically it is a cpu company.

I see Techquickie getting all "Between Two Ferns" back there...

ur forgetting3rd and only CPU company Arm which is used by apple for iphones mac mini ,mac pro,samsung .mediateck,qualcolm etc.Its also the first in japanese supercomputer Fujitsu with 52 cores and 152 nodes.also snapdragon x elite with 12 cores is powering this chip which has defeated m2 pro in benchmarks and some intel i7-12 and amd ryzen 7 5th gen cpus

Better question would be why are gpus very expensive? like come on $500 would get you the best 6years ago

Technically, VIA also still exists in the x86 space.

I had an EMachines with a Cyrix. It was terrible. Moving to an AMD K6-2 blew me away.

My first PC was an Epson with a 50MHz Cyrix CPU that I upgraded to 75MHz and 64MB SIMMs RAM.

integers: whole numbers with no decimal, floating points: numbers with decimal point. is simple, should have just said that :P

Because we want to play computer games with other people.

wow, integer and floating point, trems i havent heard in decades

I got a Pulseway ads with Linus in it before this video, i thought that was the video

I like how apple doesn't have to sell its cpus to make a profit even though they are so good .

But I didn't really understand why there are only 2 CPU Companies.

If you're industrial or military, you can get yourself a very expensive and very secure CPU from a smaller company. Some of them can emulate x86 and be used in workstations, it's just a matter of cost.

There was a video calked, "can this old $10 chip teally edit video" it was reguarding a chio made by neither AMD or Intel, but was made spacificalky for editing video, back in the day, used by Hollywood, and $1000 when new. The video was made to disapear real fast. Does anyone know what chip it was?

you forgot to mention that Intel created their non-backward compatible 64bit processors and launched it 1 year earlier than AMD but tanked and never got widespread support.

3:54 "Hey." "Yeah?" "You ever wonder why we're here?"

There have been lots of other chip developers in the past, apart from just Cyrix. Another one that comes to mind is IDT (Makers of RISC chips) / Centaur Technology's WinChip. WinChip was meant to be budget competitor to the Intel Pentium & AMD K5/K6... but it failed horribly.

No mention of the third current licence-holder, VIA?

"Why there is only two." "Because they bought other companies and/or underpriced their products. And sometimes did a better product." That's the right answer. The same answer for "why Oracle is so big and famous in Database market, as MS SQL Server?"