
Paul S. Otellini has died - DarkContinent
https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/paul-s-otellini-1950-2017/
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dbcurtis
Wow. Saddens me. I had the opportunity to meet Paul a couple of times when I
worked at Intel. Paul always impressed me as a great executive and a great
person.

I have long believed that Paul is the best post-Grove CEO that Intel has had.
Otellini was as good of a CEO as Grove, better in certain ways (consumer
marketing instincts). His tenure was not as long as Grove's and is under-
appreciated for that reason only.

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heyheyhey
I remember Paul said his biggest regret was not working with Apple on the
iPhone.

I wonder how different Intel would be today if that occurred.

~~~
RachelF
Intel had an ARM chip division for Phone CPUs called XScale from 2002 to 2006
when they sold it to Marvell to focus on the more profitable x86 series.[1] He
may have believed the x86 Atom chips could replace the XScale.

Xscale was widely used in Palm Treo's, Sony Clie's most Compaq Poquet PC's and
the original Amazon Kindle.

His "biggest regret" comment is pure rewriting of history.

He made the wrong decision to get out of phone CPUs.

This is probably one of the biggest blunders in Intel's history.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale)

~~~
selectodude
What's odd is they still have an ARM Architectural license. They could jump
into the fray if they really wanted to.

Probably would be pretty hard to justify, though.

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robk
He was a very nice person who I greatly liked but as an alumni I'm saddened at
the architectural missteps that plagued the company such as the Pentium 4
architecture changes that otherwise cost billions of shareholder value. There
was a vocal part of engineering who were disappointed a finance guy was in
charge for the first time.

~~~
Analemma_
This might be trying to put a post facto positive spin on a disaster, but I
always heard from people involved with NetBurst that they learned a lot of
lessons from that debacle that were applied to make Core as good as it was,
and that without those it wouldn’t have been nearly as good. Again, take that
all with a grain of salt, but maybe the P4 was a necessary step to get all the
pretty-good chips that came afterward.

Besides, if you’re looking for screw-ups that hammered Intel’s shareholder
value, I don’t think the P4 is even in the top 3. Selling XScale and missing
the boat on ARM was much worse.

~~~
simonh
I still dot get that. I can see how they made that move based on the situation
at the time, but if not with the iPhone then by 2010 at least with the iPad
launch they must have seen how much things had changed. It also was far from
too late to pivot back into ARM. Look what Apple managed to do in just a few
years starting from scratch. It’s not as if Intel worked out an alternative
strategy either, if so where is it now? They’ve still effectively got nothing
worthwhile in the mobile space after a decade.

~~~
wmf
Some people have speculated that selling low-margin phone SoCs would be worse
for Intel than doing nothing.

~~~
simonh
I can see that from a margins perspective. Even if it were profitable it would
depress Intel's ASP, but the strategic risk is also an issue. Apple now ships
more processors than Intel. ARM chips have already appeared in Chromebooks and
are feeling for a toehold in data centres. All I'm saying is Intel needs a
counter to this threat.

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gwbas1c
I interned at Intel in 2002. We (all the interns) were invited to hear him
speak. At the time, I didn't know who we was, but he was some exec and, well,
it's always cool to listen to execs.

I don't remember much of his speech, but when I remember most was bumping into
him in the stairwell on my way to the speech. My eyes landed on his badge, and
I said something like, "hey, I'm about to go listen to you talk."

We had one of the most friendly conversations I had.

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noipv4
[https://youtu.be/1CgAKBf4bbU?t=59m3s](https://youtu.be/1CgAKBf4bbU?t=59m3s)

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toephu2
Only 66? What was the cause of death?

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madamelic
This is going to sound really heartless: Imagine working for the same company
your entire adult life, retiring and dying 4 years later.

The thought of that, as a 26-year old, terrifies me.

~~~
ksec
That is if working literally means; working.

Steve Jobs died soon after he retired. And working at (nearly) the same
company / dreams his entire adult life. Or more like he was forced to retire
due to his health.

But Apple Park. As if He wasn't gonna let death get in the way of his Dream.

From reading books and listening to his talks he gave on life, I am sure he
didn't regret it one bit.

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were
the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And
whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to
change something.” - Steve Jobs.

~~~
SmellTheGlove
> “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were
> the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"
> And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I
> need to change something.” - Steve Jobs.

I agree with the sentiment, but it's also very easy for someone as financially
secure as Jobs to make that call.

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keeptrying
He seems to have led a winderful and impactful life but it's a little shocking
when so many people in the news, who seemingly led healthy lives, pass away in
their 60s . :(

Why is this happening?

~~~
sliverstorm
Totally unscientific, but I think it's conspicuous that is right around
retirement. Maybe people who are living on sheer determination lose their
purpose. Maybe people who need to be busy are suddenly bored out of their
minds. Maybe work kept them moving, and without it they tanked quickly.

I have no real proof, but I'll be prodding my father to find a side job or
volunteer work or a really deep hobby as he approaches retirement.

~~~
CryptoPunk
If what you say about deaths rising after retirement is true, it could be the
loss of a routine. I suspect (and I also have no evidence for this) that a
routine, honed over many years, is important to health. Also, loneliness is
highly correlated with increased chance of death. The end of work life could
significantly increase loneliness.

~~~
vasilipupkin
or you know, it could have nothing to do with these handwavy claims and
instead, he may have had a terminal illness, in part triggered by years of
extreme stress and super hard work.

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nkkollaw
66!? Wow... That's sad in 2017. Not old at all.

~~~
rdiddly
Same age as Tom Petty; in fact they were born within 8 days of each other.

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asveikau
This might be a tad off-topic for HN, but the dates seem like an odd
coincidence: I am noticing that, per Wikipedia, Otellini was born 8 days
before Tom Petty, and they died on the same day.

Edit: it may be a silly observation I have made, but hn users are really silly
to downvote this.

~~~
self_awareness
We simply don't know what exactly is your point. Lots of people have died the
same day as Otellini.

~~~
asveikau
And born a week and some change apart? In a first world country where 66 is
certainly no spring chicken but considered just a tad too young to die?

I disagree with your assessment. I think this place is just full of people who
are too easily offended by non tech topics appearing, and think perhaps that
if they were at their own deathbed they'd look back and be glad they moved to
discourage some random dope that casually compared the day's news to another
headline. Very smug and lacking in social perspective.

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_wmd
Second paragraph dives straight into corporate quarterly bonus bullet point
bullshit! What about the human! This is easily the worst in memoriam I think
I've ever seen. Written by some HR droid? What an embarrassment, I think I
just discovered why I'd never, ever work for Intel

~~~
topgunsarg
Getting outraged over a paragraph detailing someone's professional
accomplishments in their professional obituary...It's Intel's article on their
former CEO's death, what's it supposed to do, detail his personal life?

~~~
_wmd
An obituary should detail a man and /his/ life rather than his relationship to
a company, I understand how some people think this is justifiable, but I also
just find it grotesque in every way. I know nothing more about him than I did
prior to reading, or whether he achieved any kind of satisfaction in his
personal life, which I think is kinda the point of these things.

Quarterly OKRs for a millionaire? I really hope they weren't the entirety of
his existence, otherwise we're all doomed

