intel

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation and based in Santa Clara, California, USA, is the world's largest semiconductor company. Intel is best known for its PC microprocessors, where it maintains roughly 80% market share. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network cards and other networking ICs, flash memory, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Intel's core competency is based not only in its chip design capability but in its world class manufacturing operation; the company is at the leading edge of advanced process technology and also has advanced research projects in all aspects of semiconductor manufacturing, including MEMS.

Overview

Intel was founded in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore (a chemist and physicist) and Robert Noyce (a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit) when they left Fairchild Semiconductor. It is noteworthy that Intel competitor AMD was also founded by members of the Traitorous Eight, in 1969. Intel's fourth employee was Andy Grove (a chemical engineer), who ran the company through much of the 1980s and the high-growth 1990s. Grove is now remembered as the company's key business and strategic leader. By the end of the 1990s, Intel was one of the largest and most successful businesses in the world, though fierce competition within the semiconductor industry has since diminished its position.

Intel has grown through several distinct phases. At its founding, Intel was distinguished simply by its ability to make semiconductors, and its primary product were static random access memory (SRAM) chips. Intel's business grew during the 1970s as it expanded and improved its manufacturing processes and produced a wider range of products, still dominated by various memory devices. While Intel created the first microprocessor in 1971, by the early 1980s its business was dominated by Dynamic random access memory chips. However, increased competition from Japanese semiconductor manufacturers had by 1983 dramatically reduced the profitability of this market, and the sudden success of the IBM personal computer convinced then-CEO Grove to shift the company's focus to microprocessors and to change fundamental aspects of that business model. By the end of the 1980s this decision had proven successful, and Intel embarked on a 10-year period of unprecendented growth as the primary (and most profitable) hardware supplier to the PC industry. After 2000, growth in demand for high-end microprocessors slowed and competitors garnered significant market share, initially in low-end and mid-range processors but ultimately across the product range, and Intel's dominant position was reduced. In the early 2000s then-CEO Craig Barrett attempted to diversify the company's business beyond semiconductors, but few of these activities were ultimately successsful. In 2005 and 2006, CEO Paul Otellini reorganized the company to refocus on core processor businesses and announced a series of dramatic cuts in the size of Intel's workforce that will ultimately reduce the company's size by over 10%.

In September 2006, Intel had nearly 100,000 employees and 200 facilities world wide. Its 2005 revenues were $38.8 billion and its Fortune 500 ranking was 49th. Its stock symbol is INTC, listed on the NASDAQ.

Competitors

During the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten worldwide semiconductor sales leaders (10th in 1987), dominated by Japanese chip makers. In 1991, Intel achieved the number one ranking and has held it ever since. Other top semiconductor companies include Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and STMicroelectronics. (For more information, refer to the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year.)

Intel's chief rival in PC microprocessors is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Competitors in PC chipsets include VIA Technologies, SiS, ATI, and NVIDIA. Intel's competitors in networking include Freescale, Broadcom, Marvell, and AMCC, and its competitors in flash memory include Spansion, Samsung, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, and Hynix.

SRAMS and the microprocessor

The company's first products were random-access memory integrated circuits, and Intel grew to be a leader in the fiercely competitive DRAM, SRAM, and ROM markets throughout the 1970s. Concurrently, Intel engineers Marcian Hoff, Federico Faggin, Stanley Mazor and Masatoshi Shima invented the first microprocessor. Originally developed for the Japanese company Busicom to replace a number of ASICs in a calculator already produced by Busicom, the Intel 4004 was introduced to the mass market on November 15, 1971, though the microprocessor did not become the core of Intel's business until the mid-1980s. (Note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor.)

From DRAM to microprocessors

In 1983, at the dawn of the personal computer era, Intel's profits came under increased pressure from Japanese memory-chip manufacturers, and then-President Andy Grove drove the company into a focus on microprocessors. Grove described this transition in the book Only the Paranoid Survive. A key element of his plan was the notion, then considered radical, of becoming the single source for successors to the popular 8086 microprocessor.

Until then, manufacture of complex integrated circuits was not reliable enough for customers to depend on a single supplier, but Grove began producing processors in three geographically distinct factories, and ceased licensing the chip designs to competitors such as Zilog and AMD. When the PC industry exploded in the late 1980s and 1990s, Intel was one of the primary beneficiaries.

Intel and the IBM PC

Despite the ultimate importance of the microprocessor, the 4004 and its successors the 8008 and the 8080 were never major revenue contributors at Intel. As the next processor, the 8086 (and its variant the 8088) was completed in 1978, Intel embarked on a major marketing and sales campaign for that chip nicknamed "Operation Crush", and intended to win as many customers for the processor as possible. One design win was the newly-created IBM PC division, though the importance of the this was not fully realized at the time.

IBM introduced its personal computer in 1981, and it was rapidly successful. In 1982, Intel created the 80286 microprocessor, though IBM chose not to use that, embarking on an effort to produce its own x86 processor under a cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Compaq, the first IBM PC "clone" manufacturer, in 1985 produced a desktop system based on the faster 80286 processor and in 1986 quickly followed with the first 80386-based system, beating IBM and establishing a competitive market for PC-compatible systems and setting up Intel as a key component supplier.

During this period Grove dramatically redirected the company, closing much of its DRAM business and directing resources to the microprocessor business. Of perhaps more importance was his decision to "single-source" the 386 microprocessor. Prior to this, microprocessor manufacturing was in its infancy, and manufacturing problems frequently reduced or stopped production, interrupting supplies to customers. To mitigate this risk, these customers typically insisted that multiple manufacturers produce chips they would use to ensure a consistent supply. The 8080 and 8086-series microprocessor were produced by several companies, notably Zilog and AMD. Grove made the decision not to license the 386 design to other manufacturers, instead producing it in three geographically-distinct factories in Santa Clara (CA), Hillsboro (OR), and Phoenix (AZ), and convincing customers that this would ensure consistent delivery. As the success of Compaq's Deskpro 386 established the 386 as the dominant CPU choice, Intel achieved a position of near-exclusive dominance as its supplier. Profits from this funded rapid development of both higher-performance chip designs and higher-performance manufacturing capabilities, propelling Intel to a position of unquestioned leadership by the early 1990s.

Intel introduced the 486 microprocessor in 1989, and in 1990 formally established a second design team, designing the processors code-named "P5" and "P6" in parallel and committing to a major new processor every two years, versus the four or more years such designs had previously taken. The P5 was introduced in 1993 as the Intel Pentium, substituting a trademarked name for the former part number. The P6 followed in 1995 as the Pentium Pro and improved into the Pentium II in 1997. New architectures were developed alternately in Santa Clara, California, Hillsboro, Oregon, though some development is now also done in Haifa, Israel.

During this period, Intel undertook two major supporting programs that helped guarantee their processor's success. The first is widely-known: the 1990 "Intel Inside" marketing and branding campaign. This campaign established Intel, which had been a component supplier little-known outside the PC industry, as a household name. The second program is little-known: Intel's Systems Group began, in the early 1990s, manufacturing PC "motherboards", the main board component of a personal computer, and the one containing the processor and memory. Shortly after, Intel began manufacturing fully-configured "white box" systems for the dozens of PC clone companies that rapidly sprang up. At its peak in the mid-1990s, Intel manufactured over 15% of all PCs, making it the third-largest supplier at the time. By manufacturing leading-edge PC motherboards systems, Intel placed pressure on other manufacturers to rapidly produce systems with the newest microprocessors and system architecture, including the PCI bus, USB and other innovations. This in turn led to more rapid adoption of each of its new processors in turn, making successful competition more difficult for followers.

During the 1990s, Intel's Architecture Lab (IAL) was responsible for many of the hardware innovations of the personal computer, including the PCI Bus, the PCI Express (PCIe) bus, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), and the now-dominant architecture for multiprocessor servers. IAL's software efforts met with a more mixed fate; its video and graphics software was important in the development of software digital video, but later its efforts were largely overshadowed by competition from Microsoft. The competition between Intel and Microsoft was revealed in testimony at the Microsoft antitrust trial.

Another factor contributing to rapid adoption of Intel's processors during this period were the successive release of Microsoft Windows operating systems, each requiring significantly greater processor resources. The releases of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 provided impetus for successive generations of hardware.

Two factors combined to end this dominance: the slowing of PC demand growth beginning in 2000 and the rise of the low-cost PC. By the end of the 1990s, microprocessor performance had outstripped software demand for that CPU power. Aside from high-end server systems and software, demand for which dropped with the end of the "dot-com bubble", consumer systems ran effectively on increasingly low-cost systems after 2000. Intel's strategy of producing ever-more-powerful processors and obsoleting their predecessors stumbled, leaving an opportunity for rapid gains by competitors, notably AMD. This in turn lowered the profitability of the processor line and ended an era of unprecedented dominance of the PC hardware by Intel.

Santa Clara, California

• P5 Pentium finished 1993
• P7 64 bit x86 core 64 bit successor to the P6 dropped 1994
• P7 new 64 bit IA-64 Merced/Itanium

Hillsboro, Oregon

• P6 Pentium Pro finished 1995
• P67 (P68) 32 bit x86 core Willamette/P4
• 64 bit x86 core

Partnership with Apple

On June 6, 2005, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be transitioning from its long favored PowerPC architecture to the Intel X86 architecture. Reasons stated for the change were vague but included thermal issues with recent PowerPC G5 chips and an implication that the future PowerPC roadmap was unable to satisfy Apple's needs for computing power. In particular, the large power requirement of the G5 chip and subsequent heat generation was seen as a major stumbling block, preventing the placement of such a chip in one of Apple's laptop computers. The first Apple computers containing Intel CPUs were announced on January 10, 2006. Apple initially planned to put Intel chips in all of their computers by the end of 2007,^[1] but Apple managed to have its entire consumer product line running on Intel processors by early August 2006. While the server model, the Xserve, is updated to Intel Xeon processors, it will not be shipping until October 2006, where it can be ordered in a configuration similar to Apple's Mac Pro. ^[2]

Competition, antitrust and espionage

Intel's dominance in the x86 microprocessor market led to numerous charges of antitrust violations over the years, including FTC investigations in both the late 1980s and in 1999, and civil actions such as the 1997 suit by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and a patent suit by Intergraph. Intel's market dominance (at one time it controlled over 85% of the market for 32-bit PC microprocessors) combined with Intel's own hardball legal tactics (such as its infamous 338 patent[1] suit versus PC manufacturers) made it an attractive target for litigation, but few of the lawsuits ever amounted to anything.

The only major competitor to Intel on the x86 processor market is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with which Intel has had full cross-licensing agreements since 1976: each partner can use the other's patented technological innovations without charge after a certain time.[2] Some smaller competitors such as VIA and Transmeta produce low-power processors for small factor computers and portable equipment.

A case of industrial espionage arose in 1995 that involved both Intel and AMD. Guillermo Gaede, an Argentine national formerly employed both at AMD and at Intel's Arizona plant, was arrested for attempting in 1993 to sell the i486 and Pentium designs to AMD and to certain foreign powers^{[3] [4]}. Gaede videotaped data from his computer screen at Intel and mailed it to AMD, which alerted Intel and authorities, resulting in Gaede's arrest ^[5]. Gaede was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison in June of 1996.

Intel filed its response to an AMD lawsuit^[6] in September 2005, disputing AMD's claims, and stating that its business practices are fair and lawful. In its rebuttal, Intel laid out the skeleton of its legal defense, which included a deconstruction of AMD's offensive strategy and levied the charge that AMD's long-struggling market position is largely a result of bad business decisions and management incompetence, including underinvestment in essential manufacturing capacity and overreliance on outsourcing chip foundries ^[7].

Legal experts predict the lawsuit will most likely drag out for a number of years, since Intel's response indicates they are not likely to try and settle with AMD.^{citation needed]}

Leadership

Robert Noyce was Intel's CEO at its founding in 1968, followed by co-founder Gordon Moore in 1975. Andy Grove became the company's President in 1979 and added the CEO title in 1987 when Moore became Chairman. In 1997 Grove succeeded Moore as Chairman, and Craig Barrett, already company president, took over. On May 18, 2005, Barrett handed the reins of the company over to Paul Otellini, who previously was the company president and was responsible for Intel's design win in the original IBM PC. The board of directors elected Otellini, and Barrett replaced Grove as Chairman of the Board. Grove stepped down as Chairman, but will be retained as a special advisor.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Intel are: Craig Barrett, Charlene Barshefsky, John Browne, James Guzy, Reed Hundt, James Plummer, David Pottruck, Jane Shaw, John Thornton, and David Yoffie.

Origin of the name

At its founding, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their new company "Moore Noyce". This name, however, sounded remarkably similar to "more noise" — an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since noise is typically associated with bad interference. They then used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company INTegrated ELectronics or "Intel" for short. However, Intel was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to buy the rights for that name at the beginning.

By coincidence, the BBC television science-fiction serials A for Andromeda (1961) and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962) had earlier featured a sinister multi-national electronics corporation named Intel, which had been involved in a plot to take control of a powerful computer constructed on Earth from alien radio instructions.

There are some people who believe that the name "Intel" is originated from "INTELligence" (one of the ideas behind the microprocessor) or INTErnaLs, but actually the name is originated from "Integrated Electronics" and nothing other than that.

Finances

Intel's market capitalization is $119 billion (March 29, 2006). It publicly trades on NASDAQ with the symbol INTC, and is a member of the following indexes: Dow Industrials, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, SOX (PHLX Semiconductor Sector), and GSTI Software Index.

Diversity

Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee diversity groups as well as supplier diversity programs ^[8]. Like many companies with employee diversity groups, they include groups based on race and nationality as well as sexual identity and religion. In 1994, Intel sanctioned one of the earliest corporate Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender employee groups ^[9], and supports a Muslim employees group ^[10], a Jewish employees group ^[11], and a Bible-based Christian group^[12][13].

Intel received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. It has maintained this rating in 2003 and 2004. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2005 by Working Mother magazine. However, Intel's working practices still face criticism, most notably from Ken Hamidi ^[14], a former employee who has been subject to multiple unsuccessful lawsuits from Intel.

Advertising

Intel has become one of the world's most recognizable computer brands following its long-running "Intel Inside" campaign. The campaign, which started in 1990, was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter ^[15]. The five-note jingle was introduced the following year and by its tenth anniversary was being heard in 130 countries around the world.

The Intel Inside program was very lucrative for advertisers. Intel paid half the advertising costs for any ad that used the "Intel Inside" logo. However, in print media, Intel stipulated that the page the ad was on must not contain any references to competitors, such as AMD. If the ads didn't meet these requirements, Intel did not pay half the cost, and the advertiser was prohibited from using the "Intel Inside" logo. Intel employed staff whose primary function was looking for advertisements which violate the agreement. Advertisers found doing so—many of which were "mom and pop" shops ignorant of the reimbursement agreement—were requested to stop violating the use of the logo and were then told how to legally use the logo and get part of their advertising costs reimbursed.

The Centrino advertising campaign has been hugely successful, leading to the ability to access wireless internet from a laptop becoming linked in consumers minds to Intel chips. In the UK this has caused some controversy, as the ASA upheld complaints that this was a misleading advert.

In 2006, Intel has expanded its promotion of open specification platforms beyond Centrino, to include the Viiv media centre PC and the business desktop Intel vPro.

PC companies advertising products containing Intel chips are required to include the jingle in their film and television advertisements in order to receive the reimbursement.

In December 2005, Intel phased out the "Intel Inside" campaign in favor of a new logo and the slogan, "Leap ahead". The new logo is clearly inspired by the "Intel Inside" logo. In fact, sometimes "Intel Inside" is used, only this time with the processor name between the two words. Like so: "Intel Core Duo Inside".

In mid January 2006, Intel announced that they were dropping the long running Pentium name from its processors. They phased out the Pentium names from mobile processors first, when the new Yonah chips, branded Core Solo and Core Duo, were released. The desktop processors changed when the Core 2 line of processors were released. The Pentium name was first used to refer to the P5 core Intel processors (Pent refers to the 5 in P5,) and was done to circumvent court rulings that prevent the trademarking of a string of numbers, so competitors could not just call their processor the same name, as had been done with the prior 386 and 486 processors. (Both of which had copies manufactured by both IBM and AMD.)

Though some in the Macintosh community were concerned that Intel's branding, including the decals and jingle, would be used with the new Intel-based Macintoshes (see Apple Intel transition), this has not occurred.

Intel's "Intel Inside" campaign has generally been considered to be world class marketing. However, over the years there have been several plays on the Intel branding scheme which have appeared on the web. While such jabs at Intel are obviously beyond the company's ability to control, they do tend to show that not everyone believes that Intel's programs and policies are always world class. For example, there is the popular "evil inside" logo[3], the ubiquitous picture of a tombstone with "R.I.P Intel Inside" [4], and the descriptive "Idiot Outside" logo: [5].

Intel is a major sponsor of the BMW Sauber Formula 1 racing team.

Intel outsources much of their 1st and 2nd line technical support in EMEA to UK volume agency MM Teleperformance.

Jingle

The famous "D♭  D♭  G♭  D♭  A♭" jingle was written by Walter Werzowa from the Austrian 1980s sampling band Edelweiss ^[16].

Sale of Intel's XScale processor business

On June 27, 2006, the sale of Intel's XScale assets was announced. Intel agreed to sell the XScale processor business to Marvell Technology Group for an estimated $600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities. The move is intended to permit Intel to focus its recources on its core x86 and server businesses. Both parties advised they expect to close the transaction within five months, at which time Intel will continue manufacturing Xscale processors until Marvell secures other manufacturing facilities.

• Marvell buys Intel's handheld processor unit for $600 million

See also

• List of Intel Pentium 4 microprocessors
• List of Intel Pentium D microprocessors
• List of Intel Celeron microprocessors
• List of Intel Pentium M microprocessors
• List of Intel Xeon microprocessors
• List of Intel Core microprocessors
• List of Intel Core 2 microprocessors
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
• Comparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units
• Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units
• Intel Science Talent Search
• List of Intel microprocessors
• List of Intel chipsets
• ASCI Red supercomputer
• Justin Rattner

References

1. ^ Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006 www.apple.com
2. ^ Jobs: New Intel Macs are 'screamers' news.com
3. ^ Worker Pleads Not Guilty in Intel Spy Case nytimes.com
4. ^ Ex-Intel Engineer Sentenced to Prison Term nytimes.com
5. ^ Guillermo Gaede pleads guilty findarticles.com
6. ^ Intel Files Response To AMD Complaint www.intel.com
7. ^ Intel's Legal Strategy Takes Shape www.forbes.com
8. ^ Intel — commitment to diversity www.intel.com
9. ^ Intel Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender Employees Home Page
10. ^ The Intel Muslim Employee Group (IMEG)
11. ^ Intel Jewish Community (IJC)
12. ^ Intel Bible-Based Christian Network (IBCN)
13. ^ IBCN website
14. ^ Former And Current Employees of Intel www.faceintel.com
15. ^ Anatomy of a Brand Campaign www.intel.com
16. ^ Paul Morley on the Intel Pentium ad jingle Guardian Online

• David Mercer, IBM: How the World's Most Successful Company is Managed

External links

• Intel website
• Intel Investor Relations site
• Intel Museum
• Intel Technology
• Intel Science Talent Search
• Intel News
• Intel 2005 Financial Information
• Intel Software Tools
• Intel's Cuts Not Enough for Investors

Data

• Yahoo! — Intel Corporation Company Profile
• Intel Corp Company Profile and News Archive
• Intel Asus notebooks
• Intel's most recent conference call transcripts