Intel announced to its partners and officially confirmed the termination of direct funding for the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) project, which is a series of mini-PCs. This follows the company’s decision to divest its server business and sell it to Taiwan’s MiTAC.
Intel first introduced the NUC project in 2012 with a 10 x 10 x 5 cm mini PC. Over time, larger models have been added to the range, including options with Intel Xeon processors and the option of installing a separate graphics card. However, this led to an unusual market situation where Intel competed with its own OEM partners, similar to its actions in the server business. Despite this, Intel partners quickly adapted, and the company’s products were no longer unique.
In a recent letter to partners, Intel stated:
“Intel has decided to stop direct investment in the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) product line.” Although the NUC project will continue to exist, it will be developed by the company’s partners. ASRock is already making NUC motherboards.
In response to a ServeTheHome resource request, Intel explained:
“We have decided to stop directly funding the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) business and change our approach to helping partners continue to innovate and grow in the NUC space. This decision will not affect the rest of the Intel Client Computing Group (CCG) or Network and Edge Computing (NEX). In addition, we are working with our partners and customers to ensure a smooth transition and meet all ongoing commitments, including continued support for existing NUC products in the market.”
Over the past five years, the American giant has curtailed a number of its side lines opened in the past decade. So, the business for the production of solid state memory and drives under the Optane brand was sold, and the business for the production of modems was also sold from notable projects. The buyer of the latter was Apple, which at the same time abandoned Intel processors in its devices in favor of a processor of its own design. Also this year, the company announced that it is moving to a contract manufacturing model for its products, similar to AMD and other microelectronics manufacturers. The contractor will most likely be TSMC.
