Intel

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ INTC) is the largest semiconductor company in the world.  Intel developed x86 microprocessors for personal computers, the leading PC microprocessors.  These include 8086, 386, 486, Pentium, and the newest Quad Core and i7 processors.  Intel processors are faster than their chief competitor's (AMD) like processors, but cost more.

In 1968 a chemist, Gorden E. Moore, and a physicist, Robert Noyce, who co-invented the integrated circuit, left a company named Fairfield Semiconductor, and founded what became Intel.  Declining sales and executive posturing led to a lot of employee departures from Fairfield Semiconductor.  Noyce left because Fairfield's board passed him over for a permanent CEO position.   Andy Grove, a chemical engineer, joined them as the third employee, then ran Intel through the 1980's and 1990's.  He became Intel's guiding strategic planner.  By 1999, Intel had become one of the biggest and best known businesses in the world.

Moore and Noyce originally wanted to use their own names as the company name, but Moore Noyce sounded too much like “more noise.  Since noise means interference in the electronics industry, they scrapped that name in favor of NM Electronics, and then, a year later, Integrated Electronics, abbreviated as Intel.  Before they used Intel, they purchased the name from a hotel chain.

Intel's growth happened in a number of clear phases.  It began with excellence in semiconductor manufacturing, with SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) chips its main product.  Intel improved its manufacturing processes and expanded its product line throughout the 1970'a, growing its business to new levels.

Intel had created the worlds' first microprocessor (Intel 4004) in 1971, and an early microcomputer in 1972, but DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chips, successors to the SRAM chips, were its strength through the early 1980's  But companies in Japan pushed their own DRAM chips, reducing profits in the DRAM market by 1983.  Intel's CEO, Andy Grove, saw IBM's personal computer success as a new opportunity.  Intel shifted its focus to microprocessors, and intended major changes to the whole microprocessor business model.  His strategy paid off well, so that by 1989 Intel dominated PC hardware and enjoyed huge profits and  growth throughout the next decade.

The PC industry changed in the early 2000's.  Demand for the higher end processors slowed, and competitors offered low and mid end processors, first, then even higher end processors that challenged Intel's dominance.  Intel's new CEO, Craig Barrett, tried diversification in many fields, but met with little success.

Intel, with a new CEO in 2005, shifted gears to platforms such as digital home, mobility and enterprise.  They hired 20,000 new employees, but laid off half that number, about 10% of Intel's total work force, the following year, after profits fell.  It closed its Cambridge University research facility in 2006.

Today, Intel continues its work and dominance in microprocessors, recently introducing its new i7 64-bit microprocessor line.  The i7 has four processors, with 8 processing threads.  Intel has also branched into electrical generation and transmission research, but so far with no clear plan for its discoveries.

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