Advertisment

Intel: "If I could change the world"

author-image
CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: Intel, the company that powers 80% of the computers in the world, is celebrating 35 years of helping shape the technological destiny of the world. So far, the pervasiveness of its chips has remained indisputable — the easiest way to spot a reliable PC is the "Intel inside" logo.



Founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove, Intel has grown to 78,000 employees operating in more than 40 countries worldwide. Intel opened its first manufacturing facility outside the US, in 1972, in an assembly plant in Malaysia and subsequently expanded into the Phillipines in 1974.



"We have literally changed the world and we will continue to change the world. That’s what we are celebrating", said Craig Barret, CEO of Intel.



Over the years, Intel has sworn by Moore's law, which states that the number of transistors on a given chip can be doubled every two years. The first x86 processor started off as a general-purpose chip, without knowing the grand role it would play in today's PC industry. The turn of events came in 1982, when Intel "won the IBM PC". IBM incorporated a less-expensive version of the x86, called the 8088, into its first IBM PC.

How did Intel maintain its hold on the PC industry? Intel took the route of toppling industry standards and establishing its own. From ushering in the silicon chip to creating the plug-and-play standard, Intel retained enormous amount of market influence.



In the last decade, Intel tightened its control over PC architecture by supplying the circuitry around its processors - motherboards. Intel’s foray into manufacture of chipset and motherboard, weakened the grip of rivals such as Micronics and VLSI.

In fact, the company had a stereotypic start in the ‘70s, manufacturing magnetic cores and trying to stave off competition from the emerging Asian giants. However, in its formative years, Intel zoomed past competition by launching the DRAM and EPROM and helped silicon technology topple magnetic core memory. The ‘80s saw the technology triumvarate of Intel, Xerox and DEC come up with the Ethernet standard and also witnessed the PC industry taking off.

The ‘90s was the decade of the Pentium chips. The Pentium MMX promised to deliver fun and games to home computers, and the Xeon catered to high-end computing. The millennium saw Intel ‘breaking out in spots’ and betting high on wireless and its new Centrino technology for mobile computing.



Intel owes much of its success, in the ‘90s, to Andy Grove who once famously said "only the paranoid survive". Grove set the computing and consumer electronics worlds on fire when he said he wanted to see a PC in every living room. Over the last 35 years, Intel’s paranoia about being a technological leader has manifested itself in continuously adhering to the Moore’s law and forcing the market to ask "what’s next"?



It’s bear grip took legendary proportions when people called it a duopoly along with Microsoft. The term "Wintel" came into existence as a revered platform to start with and was much hated during Microsoft’s fight against the US government in its now infamous anti-trust case. Intel was fast enough to detach itself from this tag.



The present decade may prove decisive for Intel. The numerous standards and protocols which have not necessarily emerged out of its stable may see other players moving into its traditional playing fields. Questions are also being raised over whether Moore’s law can hold up. Intel not only has to ensure ways to perpetuating the Moore’s predictions but also, find new grounds to camp in. And start a new civilization.

tech-news