Microsoft Hobbles Intel Once Again

Opinion: Plausible deniability and sleazy tricks come back

Sep 20, 2024 by

Intel LogoMicrosoft’s screwing over Intel in May was just the beginning, things are going downhill fast. SemiAccurate is hearing that Microsoft is screwing Intel again over the Lunar Lake launch.

Back in May, SemiAccurate said that Microsoft unilaterally pulled the ‘CoPilot PC’ branding out from under AMD and Intel mere weeks before the launch. This both promoted Qualcomm’s PC efforts and cost the x86 crew millions in MDF slush funds. No one believed us, especially since the knifing was done so quickly many of the Computex product launch pre-brief decks didn’t have time to change. That said it was real and still is, take for example this slide from Hot Chips, and note the wording near the top.

AMD Presentation from Hot Chips 2024

Note the wording on line 2

So Microsoft once again made any pretense of partnership a fool’s errand, who could have foreseen this eventuality? But dirty deed done, things have calmed down, right? Nope, not a chance, it is just getting worse. So what are we talking about? Lunar Lake has a review/numbers embargo that lifts on September 24th, four days from this writing. Nothing unusual there, nor is the fact that many reviewers still use Cinebench as one of their main tools. It not only has easy numbers but it also makes for good visuals. If you are dumb enough to still use Windows, Cinebench is a wonderful tool for you.

So on September 10th, Microsoft released a security patch named KB5043080 to patch (yet another) critical security flaw in the OS. For some reason this patch hobbles the main benchmarking program the ignorati use to test with, and for some odd reason it only seems to affect Lunar Lake systems. (Authors Note: We don’t have a system and can’t find reports of anything else affected but there could be other victims) Weird, eh? Microsoft and Intel are supposedly working on this issue but both seem to indicate any fix won’t happen before the review numbers go up. How ‘unfortunate’.

If any other company had done this, it may have been coincidence but with Microsoft… And since it seems to affect the one product that is a threat to Microsoft’s plans, and will trounce the ARM based solution that Microsoft is desperate to see gain traction, there is no chance this is coincidence. (Authors Note : We know the numbers, X Elite is market death) Plausible deniability, sure, but if you even countenance that this is chance you don’t know the history. Or looking back to May, the present.

So Microsoft is actively going after x86, something SemiAccurate has heard for over a year. Microsoft has their own branded ARM laptop SoC coming and is massively funding the effort to see x86 alternatives gain traction. Since the Qualcomm effort flopped so badly, out come the old tools and Intel is ‘unintentionally’ hobbled at just the right time. The more things change…S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate