Intel

The following article is about the multinational corporation; intel is also an abbreviation for intelligence, used in reference to military intelligence and espionage.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/SummaryQuote.asp?symbol=INTC&selected=INTC)) is a US-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. Intel also makes networking cards, motherboard chipsets, components, and other devices. Intel 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). Its employee number four was Andy Grove (a chemical engineer), who ran the company more or less from his arrival in the 1960s through his retirement in the 1990s, and built it into one of the largest and most successful businesses in the world.

Moore and Noyce wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce'. But the name didn't sound good in electronics--noise being associated with bad interference. So they decided 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.

The company started as a memory manufacturer before making the switch to microprocessors. Andrew Grove described this transition in the book Only the Paranoid Survive.

During the 1990s, Intel's Intel Architecture Labs (IAL) was responsible for many of the hardware innovations of the personal computer, including the PCI Bus, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), and the now-dominant architecture for multi-processor 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 anti-trust trial.

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 suit versus PC manufacturers) made it an attractive target for litigation, but few of the lawsuits ever amounted to anything.

Currently, the only major competitor to Intel on the x86 processor market is Advanced Micro Devices, with which Intel has had full cross-licensing agreements since 1976: each partner can use the other's patented technological innovations without charge. Some smaller competitors such as Transmeta produce low-power processors for portable equipment.

Leadership

Grove acted as the company's CEO from the 1960s until 1997 when Craig Barrett, already company president, took over. Barrett, in turn, will retire in 2005 and hand the reigns of the company over to Paul Otellini, who is also already the company president. The changes will become effective May 18 2005. The board of directors elected Otellini, and Barrett will replace Grove as chairman of the board when he is replaced as CEO. Grove will step down as Chairman, but will be retained as a special advisor.

Financial information

Intel is publicly traded at NASDAQ with the symbol INTC. Its market capitalisation as of November 2004 is about $147 billion.

Intel corporation is a component of the GSTI Software Index.

Diversity

Intel received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. They have maintained this rating in 2003 and 2004.

External links

Intel website (http://www.intel.com/)
Intel Museum (http://www.intel.com/intel/intelis/museum/)
Intel vs. AMD saga (http://www.amdboard.com/pintospecial.html)

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