Intel 8080

An Intel C8080A processor.
Produced	mid 1974
Common manufacturer(s)	Intel
Max. CPU clock rate	2 MHz
Min. feature size	6μm
Instruction set	8080
Predecessor	(Intel 8008)
Successor	(Intel 8086)
Package(s)	40-pin DIP

AMD clone AM9080.

NEC 8080AF (second source).

The Intel 8080 was the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and was released in April 1974. It was an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock frequency limit was 2 MHz and with common instructions having execution times of 4, 5, 7, 10 or 11 cycles this meant a few hundred thousand instructions per second. The 8080 has sometimes been labeled "the first truly usable microprocessor", although earlier microprocessors were used for calculators and other applications.

The 8080 was implemented using non-saturated enhancement-load NMOS, demanding an extra +12 volt and a −5 volt supply.

Description[link]

Programming model[link]

i8080 microarchitecture.

The Intel 8080 was the successor to the 8008. It used the same basic instruction set as the 8008 (developed by Computer Terminal Corporation) and was source code compatible with its predecessor, but added some handy 16-bit operations to the instruction set as well. The 8080's large 40-pin DIP packaging permitted it to provide a 16-bit address bus and an 8-bit data bus, allowing easy access to 64 kilobytes of memory.

Registers[link]

The processor had seven 8-bit registers, (A, B, C, D, E, H, and L) where A was the 8-bit accumulator and the other six could be used as either byte-registers or as three 16-bit register pairs (BC, DE, HL) depending on the particular instruction. Some instructions also enabled HL to be used as (a limited) 16-bit accumulator, and a pseudoregister, M, could be used almost anywhere that any other register could be used and referred to the memory address pointed to by HL. It also had a 16-bit stack pointer to memory (replacing the 8008's internal stack), and a 16-bit program counter.

Commands/instructions[link]

As with many other 8-bit processors, all instructions were encoded in a single byte (including register-numbers, but excluding immediate data), for simplicity. Some of them were followed by one or two bytes of data, which could be an immediate operand, a memory address, or a port number. Like larger processors, it had automatic CALL and RET instructions for multi-level procedure calls and returns (which could even be conditionally executed, like jumps) and instructions to save and restore any 16-bit register-pair on the machine stack. There were also eight one-byte call instructions (RST) for subroutines located at the fixed addresses 00h, 08h, 10h,...,38h. These were intended to be supplied by external hardware in order to invoke a corresponding interrupt-service routine, but were also often employed as fast system calls. The most sophisticated command was XTHL, which was used for exchanging the register pair HL with the value stored at the address indicated by the stack pointer.

8-bit instructions[link]

Most 8-bit operations could only be performed on the 8-bit accumulator (the A register). For dyadic 8-bit operations, i.e. 8-bit operations with two operands, the other operand could be either an immediate value, another 8-bit register, or a memory cell addressed by the 16-bit register pair HL. Direct copying was supported between any two 8-bit registers and between any 8-bit register and an HL-addressed memory cell. Due to the regular encoding of the MOV-instruction (using a quarter of available opcode space) there were redundant codes to copy a register into itself (MOV B,B, for instance), which was of little use, except for delays. However, what would have been a copy from the HL-addressed cell into itself (i.e., MOV M,M) was instead used to encode the HLT instruction (halting execution until an external reset or interrupt).

16-bit operations[link]

Although the 8080 was generally an 8-bit processor, it also had limited abilities to perform 16-bit operations: Any of the three 16-bit register pairs (BC, DE, HL) or SP could be loaded with an immediate 16-bit value (using LXI), incremented or decremented (using INX and DCX), or added to HL (using DAD). The XCHG^[1] operation exchanged the values of HL and DE. By adding HL to itself, it was possible to achieve the same result as a 16-bit arithmetical left shift with one instruction. The only 16-bit instructions that affect any flag are DAD H/D/B, which sets the CY (carry) flag in order to allow for programmed 24-bit or 32-bit arithmetics (or larger), needed to implement floating point arithmetics, for instance.

Input/output scheme[link]

Input output port space[link]

The 8080 supported up to 256 input/output (I/O) ports, accessed via dedicated I/O instructions—taking port addresses as operands. This I/O mapping scheme was regarded as an advantage, as it freed up the processor's limited address space. Many CPU architectures instead use so-called memory mapped I/O, in which a common address space is used for both RAM and peripheral chips. This removes the need for dedicated I/O instructions, although a drawback in such designs may be that special hardware must be used to insert wait states as peripherals are often slower than memory. However, in some simple 8080 computers, I/O was indeed addressed as if they were memory cells, "memory mapped", leaving the I/O commands unused. I/O addressing could also sometimes employ the fact that the processor would output the same 8-bit port address to both the lower and the higher address byte (i.e. IN 05h would put the address 0505h on the 16-bit address bus). Similar I/O-port schemes were used in the backward compatible Zilog Z80 and Intel 8085 as well as the closely related x86 families of microprocessors.

Separate stack space[link]

One of the bits in the processor state word (see below) indicates that the processor is accessing data from the stack. Using this signal, it is possible to implement a separate stack memory space. However, this feature was seldom used.

The internal state word[link]

For more advanced systems, during one phase of its working loop, the processor set its "internal state byte" on the data bus. This byte contains flags which determine if the memory or I/O port is accessed, and whether it was necessary to handle an interrupt.

The interrupt system state (enabled or disabled) was also output on a separate pin. For simple systems, where the interrupts were not used, it is possible to find cases where this pin is used as an additional single-bit output port (the popular Radio86RK computer made in the former Soviet Union, for instance).

Pin usage[link]

The address bus had its own 16 pins, and the data bus had eight pins that were possible to use without any multiplexing. Using the two additional pins (read and write signals), it was possible to assemble simple microprocessor devices very easily. Only the separate IO space, interrupts and DMA required additional chips to decode the processor pin signals. However, the processor load capacity was limited, and even simple computers frequently contained bus amplifiers.

The processor required three power sources (−5, +5 and +12 volt(V)) and two non-interlacing high-amplitude synchronization signals. However, at least the late Soviet version КР580ВМ80А was able to work with a single +5 V power source, the +12 V pin being connected to +5 V and the −5 V pin to ground. The processor consumed about 1.3 W of power.

The pinout table, from the chip's accompanying documentation, described the pins as follows:

Support chips[link]

A key factor in the success of the 8080 was the broad range of support chips available, providing serial communications, counter/timing, input/output, direct memory access, and programmable interrupt control amongst other functions.

• 8251-Communication Controller
• 8253-Programmable Interval Timer
• 8255-Programmable Peripheral Interface
• 8257-DMA Controller
• 8259-Programmable Interrupt Controller

Physical implementation[link]

The 8080 integrated circuit used non-saturated enhancement load nMOS gates, demanding extra voltages (for the load-gate bias). It was manufactured in a silicon gate process using a minimum feature size of 6 µm. A single layer of metal was used to interconnect the approximately 6,000 transistors^[2] in the design, but the higher resistance polysilicon layer, which required higher voltage for some interconnects, was implemented with transistor gates. The die size was approximately 20 mm².

The industrial impact[link]

Applications and successors[link]

The 8080 was used in many early microcomputers, such as the MITS Altair 8800 Computer, Processor Technology SOL-20 Terminal Computer and IMSAI 8080 Microcomputer, forming the basis for machines running the CP/M operating system (the later, almost fully compatible and more capable, Zilog Z80 processor would capitalize on this, with Z80 & CP/M becoming the dominant CPU & OS combination of the period circa 1976 to 1983 much as did the x86 & MS-DOS for the PC a decade later). Even in 1979 after introduction of the Z80 and 8085 processors, five manufacturers of the 8080 were selling an estimated 500,000 units per month at a price around $3 to $4 per unit.^[3] The first single-board microcomputers, such as MYCRO-1 and the dyna-micro were based on the Intel 8080. One of the early uses of the 8080 was made in the late 1970s by Cubic-Western Data of San Diego, CA in its Automated Fare Collection Systems custom designed for mass transit systems such as BART and others around the world. An early industrial use of the 8080 was as the "brain" of the DatagraphiX Auto-COM (Computer Output Microfiche) line of products which took large amounts of user data from reel-to-reel tape and imaged it onto microfiche. The Auto-COM instruments also included an entire automated film cutting, processing, washing, and drying sub-system – quite a feat, both then and in the 21st century, to all be accomplished successfully with only an 8-bit microprocessor running at a clock speed of less than 1 MHz with a 64 KB memory limit. In addition, several early arcade video games were built around the 8080 microprocessor. Space Invaders was perhaps the most popular such title.

Shortly after the launch of the 8080, the Motorola 6800 competing design was introduced, and after that, the MOS Technology 6502 variation of the 6800. Zilog introduced the Z80, which had a compatible machine-language instruction set and initially used the same assembly language as the 8080, but for legal reasons, Zilog developed a syntactically-different (but code compatible) alternative assembly language for the Z80. At Intel, the 8080 was followed by the compatible and electrically more elegant 8085, and later by the assembly language compatible 16-bit 8086 and then the 8/16-bit 8088, which was selected by IBM for its new PC to be launched in 1981. Later NEC made a NEC V20 (a 8088 clone with Intel 80186 instruction set compatibility) which also supported an 8080 emulation mode. This was also supported by NEC's V30 (a similarly enhanced 8086 clone). Thus, the 8080, via its ISA, made a lasting impact on computer history.

In the Soviet Union, manufacturers cloned the 8080 microprocessor's layout geometry and started to produce them under the name KP580ИK80 (later marked as KP580BM80), where even the pins were placed identically. This processor was the base of the Radio86RK (Радио 86РК in Russian), probably the most popular amateur single-board computer in the Soviet Union. Radio86RK's predecessor was the Micro-80 (Микро-80 in Russian), and its successor the Orion-128 (Орион-128 in Russian) which had a graphical display. Both were built on the KP580 processor. According to some sources, the Soviet analog had two undocumented instructions, specific to itself; however, these were not widely known.

Another model compatible with Intel 8080A, named MMN8080, was produced at Microelectronica Bucharest in Romania.^[4] There was also a compatible Polish CPU named MCY7880^[5] and the Czech-made Tesla MHB 8080A.

Industry change[link]

The 8080 also changed how computers were created. When the 8080 was introduced, computer systems were usually created by computer manufacturers such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett Packard, or IBM. A manufacturer would produce the entire computer, including processor, terminals, and system software such as compilers and operating system. The 8080 was actually designed for just about any application except a complete computer system. Hewlett Packard developed the HP 2640 series of smart terminals around the 8080. The HP 2647 was a terminal which ran BASIC on the 8080. Microsoft would market as its founding product the first popular programming language for the 8080, and would later acquire DOS for the IBM-PC.

The 8080 and 8085 gave rise to the 8086 which was designed as a source compatible (not binary compatible) extension of the 8085. PCs based upon the 8086 design and its successors evolved into workstations and servers of 16, 32 and 64 bits, with advanced memory protection, segmentation, and multiprocessing features, blurring the difference between small and large computers (the 80286 and 80386's protected mode were important in doing so). The size of chips has grown so that the size and power of large x86 chips is not much different from high end architecture chips, and a common strategy to produce a very large computer is to network many x86 processors.

The basic architecture of the 8080 and its successors has replaced many proprietary midrange and mainframe computers, and withstood challenges of technologies such as RISC. Most computer manufacturers have abandoned producing their own processors below the highest performance points. Though x86 may not be the most elegant, or theoretically most efficient design, the sheer market force of so many dollars going into refining a design has made the x86 family today, and will remain for some time, the dominant processor architecture, even bypassing Intel's attempts to replace it with incompatible architectures such as the iAPX 432 and Itanium.

History[link]

Federico Faggin, the originator of the 8080 architecture in early 1972, proposed it to Intel's management and pushed for its implementation. He finally got the permission to develop it six months later. Faggin hired Masatoshi Shima from Japan who did the detailed design under his direction, using the design methodology for random logic with silicon gate that Faggin had created for the 4000 family. Stanley Mazor contributed a couple of instructions to the instruction set.

Patent[link]

• US patent 4,010,449, Federico Faggin, Masatoshi Shima, Stanley Mazor, "MOS computer employing a plurality of separate chips", issued 1977-03-01  [1]

Cultural impact[link]

• Asteroid 8080 Intel is named as a pun and praise on the name of Intel 8080.^[6]
• Microsoft's published phone number, 425-882-8080, was chosen because so much early work was on this chip.
• Many of Intel's main phone numbers also take a similar form: xxx-xxx-8080

See also[link]

• CP/M – operating system

References[link]

External links[link]

• Intel and other manufacturers' 8080 CPU images and descriptions at cpu-collection.de
• Scan of the Intel 8080 data book at datasheetarchive.com
• Microcomputer Design, Second Edition, 1976
• 8080 Emulator written in Javascript

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.

Coordinates: 37°23′16.54″N 121°57′48.74″W / 37.3879278°N 121.9635389°W / 37.3879278; -121.9635389

Intel Corporation

The current logo, used since 2005.
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: INTC Euronext: INCO SEHK: 4335 Dow Jones Component NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Semiconductors
Founded	Mountain View, California, U.S. (July 18, 1968 (1968-07-18))[1]
Founder(s)	Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce
Headquarters	Santa Clara, California, U.S.[2]
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Andy Bryant (Chairman) Paul Otellini (President and CEO)
Products	Bluetooth chipsets, flash memory, microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, network interface cards
Revenue	US$ 54.0 billion (2011)[3]
Operating income	US$ 17.5 billion (2011)[3]
Net income	US$ 12.9 billion (2011)[3]
Total assets	US$ 71.119 billion (2011)[3]
Total equity	US$ 45.911 billion (2011)[3]
Employees	100,100 (2011)[3]
Website	Intel.com

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue.^[4] It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel Corporation, founded on July 18, 1968, is a portmanteau of Integrated Electronics (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence^{[citation needed]}). Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Though Intel was originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, its "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Intel was an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, and this represented the majority of its business until 1981. Although Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the success of the personal computer (PC) that this became its primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the computer industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes illegal tactics in defense of its market position, particularly against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry.^[5][6] The 2011 rankings of the world's 100 most valuable brands published by Millward Brown Optimor showed the company's brand value at number 58.^[7]

Intel has also begun research in electrical transmission and generation.^[8][9] Intel has recently introduced a 3-D transistor that may improve performance and energy efficiency.^[10] Intel will be mass producing this 3-D transistor, called Tri-Gate transistors, with their upcoming 22 nm process in the near future.^[11] In 2011, SpectraWatt Inc., a solar cell spinoff of Intel, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.^[12]

Corporate history[link]

Origins[link]

Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, USA

Intel was founded in Mountain View, California in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore (of "Moore's Law" fame, a chemist and physicist), Robert Noyce (a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit), and Arthur Rock (investor and venture capitalist). Moore and Noyce came from Fairchild Semiconductor and were Intel's first two employees. Rock was not an employee, but he was an investor and Chairman of the Board.^[13][14] The total initial investment in Intel was $2.5 million convertible debentures and $10,000 from Rock. Just 2 years later, Intel completed their initial public offering (IPO), raising $6.8 million ($23.50 per share).^[13] Intel's third employee was Andy Grove,^[15] a chemical engineer, who later ran the company through much of the 1980s and the high-growth 1990s.

Moore and Noyce initially wanted to name the company "Moore Noyce".^[16] The name, however, was a partial homophone for "more noise" – an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since noise in electronics is usually very undesirable and typically associated with bad interference. Instead they used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company Integrated Electronics or "Intel" for short.^[17] Since "Intel" was already trademarked by the hotel chain Intelco, they had to buy the rights for the name.^[13][18]

Early history[link]

At its founding, Intel was distinguished by its ability to make semiconductors. Its first product, in 1969, was the 3101 Schottky TTL bipolar 64-bit static random-access memory (SRAM), which was nearly twice as fast as earlier Schottky diode implementations by Fairchild and the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan.^[19][20] That same year Intel also produced the 3301 Schottky bipolar 1024-bit read-only memory (ROM)^[21] and the first commercial metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) silicon gate SRAM chip, the 256-bit 1101.^[13][22][23] 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 commercially available microprocessor (Intel 4004) in 1971^[13] and one of the first microcomputers in 1972,^[22][24] 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 Andrew 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. Buoyed by its fortuitous position as microprocessor supplier to IBM and IBM's competitors within the rapidly growing personal computer market, Intel embarked on a 10-year period of unprecedented growth as the primary (and most profitable) hardware supplier to the PC industry. By launching its Intel Inside marketing campaign in 1991, Intel was able to associate brand loyalty with consumer selection, so that by the end of the 1990s, its line of Pentium processors had become a household name.

Slowing demand and challenges to dominance[link]

After 2000, growth in demand for high-end microprocessors slowed. Competitors, notably AMD (Intel's largest competitor in its primary x86 architecture market), garnered significant market share, initially in low-end and mid-range processors but ultimately across the product range, and Intel's dominant position in its core market was greatly reduced.^[25] In the early 2000s then-CEO Craig Barrett attempted to diversify the company's business beyond semiconductors, but few of these activities were ultimately successful.

Intel had also for a number of years been embroiled in litigation. US law did not initially recognize intellectual property rights related to microprocessor topology (circuit layouts), until the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984, a law sought by Intel and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).^[26] During the late 1980s and 1990s (after this law was passed) Intel also sued companies that tried to develop competitor chips to the 80386 CPU.^[27] The lawsuits were noted to significantly burden the competition with legal bills, even if Intel lost the suits.^[27] Antitrust allegations had been simmering since the early 1990s and had been the cause of one lawsuit against Intel in 1991. In 2004, AMD brought further claims against Intel related to unfair competition. In 2005, AMD brought further claims.

In 2005, CEO Paul Otellini reorganized the company to refocus its core processor and chipset business on platforms (enterprise, digital home, digital health, and mobility). This reorganization led to the hiring of over 20,000 employees.^{[citation needed]} In September 2006, due to falling profits, the company announced a restructuring that resulted in layoffs of 10,500 employees (about 10 percent of its workforce) by July 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Regaining of momentum[link]

Faced with the need to regain lost marketplace momentum,^[25][28] Intel unveiled its new product development model to regain its prior technological lead. Known as its "tick-tock model", the program was based upon annual alternation of microarchitecture innovation and process innovation.

In 2006, Intel produced P6 and NetBurst products with reduced die size (65 nm). A year later it unveiled its Core microarchitecture to widespread critical acclaim;^[29] the product range was perceived as an exceptional leap in processor performance that at a stroke regained much of its leadership of the field.^[30][31] In 2008, Intel had another "tick," when it introduced the Penryn microarchitecture, which was 45 nm. Later that year, Intel released a processor with the Nehalem architecture. Nehalem had positive reviews.

Intel was not the first microprocessor corporation to do this. For example, around 1996 graphics chip designers nVidia had addressed its own business and marketplace difficulties by adopting a demanding 6-month internal product cycle whose products repeatedly outperformed market expectation.

Sale of XScale processor business[link]

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 was intended to permit Intel to focus its resources on its core x86 and server businesses, and the acquisition completed on November 9, 2006.^[32]

Acquisitions[link]

On August 19, 2010, Intel announced that it planned to purchase McAfee, a manufacturer of computer security technology. The purchase price was $7.68 billion, and the companies said that if the deal were approved, new products would be released early in 2011.^[33] On January 26, 2011, the European Union approved the acquisition, after Intel agreed to provide rival security firms with all necessary information that would allow their products to use Intel's chips and personal computers.^[34] After the acquisition, Intel had about 90,000 employees, including about 12,000 software engineers.^[35]

On August 30, 2010, Intel and Infineon Technologies announced that Intel would acquire Infineon's Wireless Solutions business.^[36] Intel planned to use Infineon’s technology in laptops, smart phones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers in consumer products, eventually integrating its wireless modem into Intel’s silicon chips.^[37]

In March 2011, Intel bought most of the assets of Cairo-based SySDSoft.^[38]

In July 2011, Intel announced that it had agreed to acquire Fulcrum Microsystems Inc., a company specializing in network switches.^[39] The company was previously included on the EE Times list of 60 Emerging Startups.^[39]

On October 1, 2011, Intel reached a deal to acquire Telmap, an Israeli-based navigation software company. The purchase price was not disclosed, but Israeli media reported values around $300 million to $350 million.^[40]

Expansions[link]

In 2008, Intel spun off key assets of a solar startup business effort to form an independent company, SpectraWatt Inc. However, as of 2011, SpectraWatt has filed for bankruptcy.^[12]

February 2011: Intel will build a new microprocessor factory at Chandler, Arizona, which is expected to be completed in 2013, at a cost of $5 billion. It will accommodate 4,000 employees. The company produces three-quarters of their products in the United States, although three-quarters of their revenue comes from overseas.^[41][42]

April 2011: Intel began a pilot project with ZTE Corporation to produce smartphones using the Intel Atom processor for China's domestic market. This project is intended to challenge the domination of ARM processors in mobile phones.^[43]

December 2011: Intel announced that it reorganized several of its business units to form a new mobile and communications group.^[44] This group will be responsible for the company's smartphone, tablet and wireless efforts, and will be headed by Hermann Eul.

Product and market history[link]

SRAMS and the microprocessor[link]

Intel's first products were shift register memory and 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 Intel's 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[link]

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 focused the company 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, the 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 boomed in the late 1980s and 1990s, Intel was one of the primary beneficiaries.

Intel, x86 processors, and the IBM PC[link]

The die from an Intel 8742, an 8-bit microcontroller that includes a CPU running at 12 MHz, 128 bytes of RAM, 2048 bytes of EPROM, and I/O in the same chip.

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 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, which, two years later, was used in the IBM PC/AT. Compaq, the first IBM PC "clone" manufacturer, produced a desktop system based on the faster 80286 processor in 1985 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.

In 1975 the company had started a project to develop a highly advanced 32-bit microprocessor, finally released in 1981 as the Intel iAPX 432. The project was too ambitious and the processor was never able to meet its performance objectives, and it failed in the marketplace. Intel extended the x86 architecture to 32 bits instead.^[45][46]

386 microprocessor[link]

During this period Andrew Grove dramatically redirected the company, closing much of its DRAM business and directing resources to the microprocessor business. Of perhaps greater 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 could use to ensure a consistent supply. The 8080 and 8086-series microprocessors were produced by several companies, notably AMD. Grove made the decision not to license the 386 design to other manufacturers, instead producing it in three geographically distinct factories: Santa Clara, California; Hillsboro, Oregon; and Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. He convinced 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.

486, Pentium, and Itanium[link]

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 earlier known as "Operation Bicycle," referring to the cycles of the processor. The P5 was introduced in 1993 as the Intel Pentium, substituting a registered trademark name for the former part number (numbers, such as 486, are hard to register as a trademark). 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 and Hillsboro, Oregon.

The Santa Clara design team embarked in 1993 on a successor to the x86 architecture, codenamed "P7". The first attempt was dropped a year later, but quickly revived in a cooperative program with Hewlett-Packard engineers, though Intel soon took over primary design responsibility. The resulting implementation of the IA-64 64-bit architecture was the Itanium, finally introduced in June 2001. The Itanium's performance running legacy x86 code did not meet expectations, and it failed to compete effectively with x86-64, which was AMD's 64-bit extensions to the original x86 architecture (Intel uses the name Intel 64, previously EM64T). As of 2012, Intel continues to develop and deploy the Itanium; known planning continues into 2014.

The Hillsboro team designed the Willamette processors (code-named P67 and P68), which were marketed as the Pentium 4.^{[citation needed]}

Pentium flaw[link]

In June 1994, Intel engineers discovered a flaw in the floating-point math subsection of the P5 Pentium microprocessor. Under certain data-dependent conditions, the low-order bits of the result of a floating-point division would be incorrect. The error could compound in subsequent calculations. Intel corrected the error in a future chip revision, but nonetheless declined to disclose it.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1994, Dr. Thomas Nicely, Professor of Mathematics at Lynchburg College, independently discovered the bug. He contacted Intel, but received no response. On October 30, he posted a message on the Internet.^[47] Word of the bug spread quickly and reached the industry press. The bug was easy to replicate; a user could enter specific numbers into the calculator on the operating system. Consequently, many users did not accept Intel's statements that the error was minor and "not even an erratum." During Thanksgiving 1994, The New York Times ran a piece by journalist John Markoff spotlighting the error. Intel changed its position and offered to replace every chip, quickly putting in place a large end-user support organization. This resulted in a $500 million charge against Intel's 1994 revenue.

Ironically, the "Pentium flaw" incident, Intel's response to it, and the surrounding media coverage propelled Intel from being a technology supplier generally unknown to most computer users to a household name. Dovetailing with an uptick in the "Intel Inside" campaign, the episode is considered to have been a positive event for Intel, changing some of its business practices to be more end-user focused and generating substantial public awareness, while avoiding a lasting negative impression.^[48]

"Intel Inside" and other 1990s programs[link]

During this period, Intel undertook two major supporting programs. The first is widely known: the 1991 "Intel Inside" marketing and branding campaign. The idea of ingredient branding was new at the time with only Nutrasweet and a few others making attempts at that.^[49] 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 into which the processor (CPU) and memory (RAM) chips are plugged.^[50] Shortly after, Intel began manufacturing fully configured "white box" systems for the dozens of PC clone companies that rapidly sprang up.^{[citation needed]} At its peak in the mid-1990s, Intel manufactured over 15% of all PCs, making it the third-largest supplier at the time.^{[citation needed]}

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), Bluetooth wireless interconnect, and the now-dominant^{[citation needed]} architecture for multiprocessor servers.^{[clarification needed]} IAL's software efforts met with a more mixed fate; its video and graphics software was important in the development of software digital video,^{[citation needed]} but later its efforts were largely overshadowed by competition from Microsoft. The competition between Intel and Microsoft was revealed in testimony by IAL Vice-President Steven McGeady at the Microsoft antitrust trial.

Solid-state drives (SSD)[link]

On September 8, 2008, Intel began shipping its first mainstream solid-state drives, the X18-M and X25-M with 80GB and 160GB storage capacities.^[51] These MLC-based drives received wide critical acclaim for their superior performance.^{[52][53][54][55]} Intel released their SLC-based Enterprise X25-E Extreme SSDs on October 15 that same year in capacities of 32GB and 64GB.^[56]

In July 2009, Intel refreshed their X25-M and X18-M lines by moving from a 50-nanometer to a 34-nanometer process. These new drives, dubbed by the press as the X25-M and X18-M G2^[57][58] (or generation 2), reduced prices by up to 60 percent while offering lower latency and improved performance.^[59]

On February 1, 2010, Intel and Micron announced that they were gearing up for production of NAND flash memory using a new 25-nanometer process.^[60] In March of that same year, Intel entered the budget SSD segment with their X25-V drives with an initial capacity of 40GB.^[61] The SSD 310, Intel's first mSATA drive was released on December 2010, providing X25-M G2 performance in a much smaller package.^[62][63]

March 2011 saw the introduction of two new SSD lines from Intel. The first, the SSD 510, uses a SATA 6 Gigabit per second interface in order to reach speeds of up to 500 MegaBytes per second.^[64] The drive, which uses a controller from Marvell,^[65] was released using 34 nm NAND Flash and came in capacities of 120GB and 250GB. The second product announcement, the SSD 320, is the successor to Intel's earlier X25-M. It uses the new 25 nm process that Intel and Micron announced in 2010, and was released in capacities of 40 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB, 160 GB, 300 GB and 600 GB.^[66] Sequential read performance maxes out at 270 MB/s due to the older SATA 3 Gbit/s interface, and sequential write performance varies greatly based on the size of the drive with sequential write performance of the 40 GB model peaking at 45 MB/s and the 600 GB at 220 MB/s.^[67]

Micron and Intel announced that they were producing their first 20 nm MLC NAND flash on April 14, 2011.^[68]

In February 2012, Intel launched the SSD 520 series solid state drives using the SandForce SF-2200 controller with sequential read and write speeds of 550 and 520 MB/s respectively with random read and write IOPS as high as 80,000. These drives will replace the 510 series.^[69] Just two month later Intel is likely to announce a budget 330 series solid state drive in 60, 120, and 180GB capacities using 25 nm flash memory and a SandForce controller which will probably replace the 320 series.^[70][71]

Supercomputers[link]

The Intel Scientific Computers division was founded in 1984 by Justin Rattner, in order to design and produce parallel computers based on Intel microprocessors connected in hypercube topologies.^[87] In 1992 the name was changed to the Intel Supercomputing Systems Division, and development of the iWarp architecture was also subsumed.^[88] The division designed several supercomputer systems, including the Intel iPSC/1, iPSC/2, iPSC/860, Paragon and ASCI Red.

Competition, antitrust and espionage[link]

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, whose demand 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,^{[citation needed]} leaving an opportunity for rapid gains by competitors, notably AMD. This in turn lowered the profitability^{[citation needed]} of the processor line and ended an era of unprecedented dominance of the PC hardware by Intel.^{[citation needed]}

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^[when?] it controlled over 85% of the market for 32-bit x86 microprocessors) combined with Intel's own hardball legal tactics (such as its infamous 338 patent suit versus PC manufacturers)^[89] made it an attractive target for litigation, but few of the lawsuits ever amounted to anything.^{[clarification needed]}

A case of industrial espionage arose in 1995 that involved both Intel and AMD. Bill Gaede, an Argentine formerly employed both at AMD and at Intel's Arizona plant, was arrested for attempting in 1993 to sell the i486 and P5 Pentium designs to AMD and to certain foreign powers.^[90] Gaede videotaped data from his computer screen at Intel and mailed it to AMD, which immediately alerted Intel and authorities, resulting in Gaede's arrest. Gaede was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison in June 1996.^[91][92]

Partnership with Apple[link]

On June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, announced that Apple would be transitioning from its long favored PowerPC architecture to the Intel x86 architecture, because the future PowerPC road map was unable to satisfy Apple's needs. The first Macintosh computers containing Intel CPUs were announced on January 10, 2006, and Apple had its entire line of consumer Macs running on Intel processors by early August 2006. The Apple Xserve server was updated to Intel Xeon processors from November 2006, and was offered in a configuration similar to Apple's Mac Pro.^[93]

Core 2 Duo advertisement controversy[link]

In 2007, the company released a print advertisement for its Core 2 Duo processor featuring six African American runners appearing to bow down to a Caucasian male inside of an office setting (due to the posture taken by runners on starting blocks). According to Nancy Bhagat, Vice President of Intel Corporate Marketing, the general public found the ad to be "insensitive and insulting."^[94] The campaign was quickly pulled and several Intel executives made public apologies on the corporate website.^[95]

Classmate PC[link]

Intel's Classmate PC is the company's first low-cost netbook computer.^[96] One of the models, designed by TEAMS Design[4] in their Shanghai office, won many design awards, such as the Appliance Design EID Award,^[97] the 2008 Spark Award,^[98] and the iF 2008 China Award.^[99]

Mobile processor[link]

In June 2011, Intel introduced the first Pentium mobile processor based on the Sandy Bridge core. The B940, clocked at 2 GHz, is faster than existing or upcoming mobile Celerons, although it is almost identical to dual-core Celeron CPUs in all other aspects.^[100] According to IHS iSuppli's report on September 28, 2011, Sandy Bridge chips have helped Intel increase its market share in global processor market to 81.8%, while AMD's market share dropped to 10.4%.^[101]

Intel planned to introduce Medfield – a processor for tablets and smartphones – to the market in 2012, as an effort to compete with ARM.^[102] As a 32-nanometer processor, Medfield is designed to be energy-efficient, which is one of the core features in ARM’s chips.^[103]

At the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) 2011 in San Francisco, Intel's partnership with Google was announced. By January 2012, Google's Android 2.3 will use Intel's Atom microprocessor.^{[104][105][106]}

Server chips[link]

In July 2011, Intel announced that its server chips will use new sensors that can improve data center cooling efficiency.^[107]

22nm processors[link]

In 2011, Intel announced the Ivy Bridge processor family at the Intel Developer Forum.^[108] Ivy Bridge supports both DDR3 memory and DDR3L chips.

Personal Office Energy Monitor (POEM)[link]

As part of its efforts in the Positive Energy Buildings Consortium, Intel has been developing an application, called Personal Office Energy Monitor (POEM), to help office buildings to be more energy-efficient. With this application, employees can get the power consumption info for their office machines, so that they can figure out a better way to save energy in their working environment.^[109]

IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces[link]

IT Manager III: Unseen Forces is a web-based IT simulation game from Intel. In it you manage a company's IT department. The goal is to apply technology and skill to enable the company to grow from a small business into a global enterprise.^{[citation needed]}

Car Security System[link]

In 2011, Intel announced that it is working on a car security system that connects to smartphones via an application. The application works by streaming video to a cloud service if your car is broken into.^[110]

High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection[link]

Intel also developed High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections.

Corporate affairs[link]

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. As of February 2009 the biggest customers of Intel are Hewlett-Packard and Dell.^[111]

Leadership and corporate structure[link]

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 1998 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 CEO, and Barrett replaced Grove as Chairman of the Board. Grove stepped down as Chairman, but is retained as a special adviser. In May 2009, Barrett stepped down as chairman and Jane Shaw was elected as the new Chairman of the Board.

Current members of the board of directors of Intel are Craig Barrett, Charlene Barshefsky, Susan Decker, James Guzy, Reed Hundt, Paul Otellini, James Plummer, David Pottruck, Jane Shaw, John Thornton, and David Yoffie.^[112]

Employment[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

Intel microprocessor facility in Costa Rica was responsible in 2006 for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 4.9% of the country's GDP.^[113]

The firm promotes very heavily from within, most notably in its executive suite. The company has resisted the trend toward outsider CEOs. Paul Otellini was a 30-year veteran of the company when he assumed the role of CEO. All of his top lieutenants have risen through the ranks after many years with the firm. In many cases, Intel's top executives have spent their entire working careers with Intel, a very rare occurrence in volatile Silicon Valley^{[citation needed]}.

Intel has a mandatory retirement policy for its CEOs when they reach age 65, Andy Grove retired at 62, while both Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore retired at 58. Grove retired as Chairman and as a member of the board of directors in 2005 at age 68.

No one has an office; everyone, even Otellini, sits in a cubicle. This is designed to promote egalitarianism among employees, but some new hires have difficulty adjusting to this change^{[citation needed]}. Intel is not alone in this policy. Dell Computers, Hewlett-Packard and NVIDIA have similar no-office policies.

The company is headquartered in California's Silicon Valley and has operations around the world. Outside of California, the company has facilities in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Israel, Ireland, India, Russia and Vietnam, 63 countries and regions internationally. In the U.S. Intel employs significant numbers of people in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Utah. In Oregon, Intel is the state's largest private employer with over 15,000 employees, primarily in Hillsboro.^[114] The company is the largest industrial employer in New Mexico while in Arizona the company has over 10,000 employees.^{[citation needed]}

Intel invests heavily in research in China and about 100 researchers – or 10% of the total number of researchers from Intel – are located in Beijing.^[115]

In 2011, the Israeli government offered Intel $290 million to expand in the country. As a condition, Intel will have to employ 1,500 more workers in Kiryat Gat and between 600–1000 workers in the north.^[116]

Diversity[link]

Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee diversity groups as well as supplier diversity programs.^[117] 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,^[118] and supports a Muslim employees group,^[119] a Jewish employees group,^[120] and a Bible-based Christian group.^[121][122]

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.

Funding of a school[link]

In Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Intel is the leading employer.^[123] In 1997, a community partnership between Sandoval County and Intel Corporation funded and built Rio Rancho High School.^[124][125]

Ultrabook Fund[link]

In 2011, Intel Capital announced a new fund to support startups working on technologies in line with the company's concept for next generation notebooks.^[126] The company is setting aside a $300 million fund to be spent over the next three to four years in areas related to ultrabooks.^[126] Intel announced the ultrabook concept at Computex in 2011. The ultrabook will be a thin (less than 0.8 inches thick^[127]) notebook that utilizes Intel processors^[127] and also incorporates tablet features such as a touch screen and long battery life.^[126][127]

At the Intel Developers Forum in 2011, four Taiwain ODMs showed prototype ultrabooks that used Intel's Ivy Bridge chips.^[128] Intel plans to improve power consumption of its chips for ultrabooks, like Ivy Bridge processors, which will only have 77W default thermal design power.^[129]

Intel's goal for Ultrabook's price is below $1000;^[127] however, according to two presidents from Acer and Compaq, this goal will not be achieved if Intel does not lower the price of its chips.^[130]

Finances[link]

Intel stock price, Nov 1986 – Nov 2006

Intel's market capitalization is $140.84 billion (Mar. 26, 2012). It publicly trades on NASDAQ with the symbol INTC. A widely held stock, the following indices include Intel shares: Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Russell 1000 Index, Russell 1000 Growth Index and SOX (PHLX Semiconductor Sector).

On July 15, 2008, Intel announced that it had achieved the highest earnings in the history of the company during Q2 2008.^[131]

Advertising and brand management[link]

Intel Inside[link]

Intel has become one of the world's most recognizable computer brands following its long-running Intel Inside campaign. The campaign, which started in 1991, was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter.^[132] The five-note jingle was introduced the following year and by its tenth anniversary was being heard in 130 countries around the world. The initial branding agency for the Intel Inside campaign was DahlinSmithWhite Advertising of Salt Lake City. The Intel swirl logo was the work of DahlinSmithWhite art director Steve Grigg under the direction of Intel president and CEO Andy Grove.

The Intel Inside advertising campaign sought public brand loyalty and awareness of Intel processors in consumer computers.^[133] Intel paid some of the advertiser's costs for an ad that used the Intel Inside logo and jingle.^[134]

In 2008, Intel planned to shift the emphasis of its Intel Inside campaign from traditional media such as television and print to newer media such as the Internet.^[135] Intel required that a minimum of 35% of the money it provided to the companies in its co-op program be used for online marketing.^[135] The Intel 2010 annual financial report indicated that $1.8 billion (6% of the gross margin and nearly 16% of the total net income) was allocated to all advertising with Intel Inside being part of that.^[136]

Logos[link]

Intel Brand Logos

Corporate Logo	Date	Intel Inside Logo	Date	Remarks
	1968–2005	Original Intel Inside brand logo Intel Pentium with MMX logo	1991–2003	The original "Intel Inside" logo. It was used both stand alone and with the associated processor brand name.
		Modified Intel Inside logo with drop "e" Modified Intel Inside logo with included product name	2003–2005	Highly similar Intel Inside logo, but changed to resemble the original Intel logo with lowering of the Intel "e" and changing the typeface.
100px	2005–present	Intel Core Duo brand logo Intel Core 2 Quad brand logo	2006–2009	Intel phased out the original corporate Intel and Intel Inside logos in favor of a new base Intel logo clearly inspired by the older Intel Inside logo, but omitted the word inside. The typeface was changed to Neo Sans Intel[137]. In some instances the slogan Leap ahead was added to the corporate logo.
		Generic Intel Inside with exposed silicon Intel Inside Core i7 variation	2009–2011	In 2009, the Intel Inside logos were updated to a horizontal shape with a visual exposure of silicon below the label to help portray the idea that Intel is in the chips inside the computer. The various brand names were used on this basic shape including Core, i3, i5, i7, Atom, Pentium, and Xeon. Other logos included the names Chipset, Server Board, and Workstation Board.
		Intel Inside Core i7 with horizontal exposed silicon Intel Inside Core i7 Extreme Edition with horizontal variation	2011–present	The Intel Inside logos are slightly modified to move the exposed silicon image to the middle of the logo. This also moved the inside word up next to the Intel logo more closely associating them. The product brand name is displayed at the bottom of the logo.

Sonic logo[link]

The famous D♭  D♭  G♭  D♭  A♭ jingle, sonic logo, tag, audio mnemonic (MP3 file of sonic logo) was produced by Musikvergnuegen and written by Walter Werzowa from the Austrian 1980s sampling band Edelweiss.^[138] The sonic Intel logo has undergone substantial changes in tone since the introduction of the Pentium III, Pentium 4, and Core processors, yet keeps the same jingle.

Naming strategy[link]

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

In mid January 2006, Intel announced that they were dropping the long running Pentium name from their processors. 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 IBM and AMD). 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. By 2009 Intel was using a good-better-best strategy with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best the company has to offer.^[139]

According to spokesman Bill Calder, since 2009, Intel has maintained only the Celeron brand, the Atom brand for netbooks and the vPro lineup for businesses. Since late 2009, Intel's mainstream processors have been called Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7, in order of performance from lowest to highest. The first generation core products carry a 3 digit name, such as i5 750, and the second generation products carry a 4 digit name, such as the i5 2500. In both cases, a K at the end of it shows that it is an unlocked processor, enabling additional overclocking abilities (for instance, 2500K). vPro products will carry the Intel Core i7 vPro processor or the Intel Core i5 vPro processor name.^[140] In October 2011, Intel started to sell its Core i7-2700K "Sandy Bridge" chip to customers worldwide.^[141]

Beginning in 2010 "Centrino" will only be applied to Intel's WiMAX and Wi-Fi technologies; it won't be a PC brand anymore. This will be an evolutionary process taking place over time, Intel acknowledges that multiple brands will be in the market including older ones throughout the transition.^[140]

Open source support[link]

Intel has a significant participation in the open source communities. For example, in 2006 Intel released MIT-licensed X.org drivers for their integrated graphic cards of the i965 family of chipsets. Intel released FreeBSD drivers for some networking cards,^[142] available under a BSD-compatible license, which were also ported to OpenBSD. Intel ran the Moblin project until April 23, 2009, when they handed the project over to the Linux Foundation. Intel also runs the LessWatts.org campaigns.^[143]

However, after the release of the wireless products called Intel Pro/Wireless 2100, 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG and 3945ABG in 2005, Intel was criticized for not granting free redistribution rights for the firmware that must be included in the operating system for the wireless devices to operate.^[144] As a result of this, Intel became a target of campaigns to allow free operating systems to include binary firmware on terms acceptable to the open source community. Linspire-Linux creator Michael Robertson outlined the difficult position that Intel was in releasing to open source, as Intel did not want to upset their large customer Microsoft.^[145] Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD also claimed that Intel is being "an Open Source fraud" after an Intel employee presented a distorted view of the situation on an open-source conference.^[146] In spite of the significant negative attention Intel received as a result of the wireless dealings, the binary firmware still has not gained a license compatible with free software principles.

Environmental record[link]

In 2003, there were 1.4 tons of carbon tetrachloride measured from one of Intel's many acid scrubbers. However, Intel reported no release of carbon tetrachloride for all of 2003.^[147] Intel's facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico overlooks a nearby village, and the hilly contours of its location create a setting for chemical gases heavier than air to move along arroyos and irrigation ditches in that village. Release of chemicals in such an environment reportedly caused adverse effects in both animals and humans. Deceased dogs in the area were found to have high levels of toluene, hexane, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers in lungs.^[148] More than 1,580 pounds (720 kg) of VOC were released in June and July 2006, the company stated.^[149] Intel’s environmental performance is published annually in their corporate responsibility report.^[150]

Religious controversy[link]

Orthodox Jews have protested against Intel operating in Israel on Saturday, Shabbat. Intel ringed its office with barbed wire before the protest, but there was no violence.^[151] As of December 2009, the situation has been stable for Intel Israel while some employees reported working overtime on Shabbat.

Age discrimination[link]

Intel has faced complaints of age discrimination in firing and layoffs. Intel was sued by nine former employees, over allegations that they were laid off because they were over the age of 40.^[152]

A group called FACE Intel (Former and Current Employees of Intel) claims that Intel weeds out older employees. FACE Intel claims that more than 90 percent of people who have been terminated by Intel are over the age of 40. Upside magazine requested data from Intel breaking out its hiring and terminations by age, but the company declined to provide any.^[153] Intel has denied that age plays any role in Intel's employment practices.^[154] FACE Intel was founded by Ken Hamidi, who was terminated by Intel in 1995 at the age of 47.^[153] Hamidi was blocked in a 1999 court decision from using Intel's email system to distribute criticism of the company to employees.^[155]

Competition[link]

In the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten sellers of semiconductors (10th in 1987) in the world. In 1991, Intel became the biggest chip maker by revenue and has held the position ever since. Other top semiconductor companies include TSMC, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and STMicroelectronics.

Competitors in PC chip sets include AMD, VIA Technologies, SiS, and Nvidia. Intel's competitors in networking include Freescale, Infineon, Broadcom, Marvell Technology Group and AMCC, and competitors in flash memory include Spansion, Samsung, Qimonda, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, and Hynix.

The only major competitor in 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.^[156] However, the cross-licensing agreement is canceled in the event of an AMD bankruptcy or takeover.^[157] Some smaller competitors such as VIA and Transmeta produce low-power x86 processors for small factor computers and portable equipment.

Lawsuits[link]

Intel has often been accused by competitors of using legal claims to thwart competition. Intel claims that it is defending its intellectual property. Intel has been plaintiff and defendant in numerous legal actions.

In September 2005, Intel filed a response to an AMD lawsuit,^[158] disputing AMD's claims, and claiming that Intel's business practices are fair and lawful. In a rebuttal, Intel deconstructed AMD's offensive strategy and argued that AMD struggled largely as a result of its own bad business decisions, including underinvestment in essential manufacturing capacity and excessive reliance on contracting out chip foundries.^[159] Legal analysts predicted the lawsuit would drag on for a number of years, since Intel's initial response indicated its unwillingness to settle with AMD.^[160][161] In 2008 a court date was finally set,^[162] but in 2009 Intel settled with a $1.25 billion payout to AMD (see below).^[163]

In October 2006, a Transmeta lawsuit was filed against Intel for patent infringement on computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.^[164] The lawsuit was settled in October 2007, with Intel agreeing to pay US$150 million initially and US$20 million per year for the next five years. Both companies agreed to drop lawsuits against each other, while Intel was granted a perpetual non-exclusive license to use current and future patented Transmeta technologies in its chips for 10 years.^[165]

On November 4, 2009, New York's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp, claiming the company used "illegal threats and collusion" to dominate the market for computer microprocessors.

On November 12, 2009, AMD agreed to drop the antitrust lawsuit against Intel in exchange for $1.25 billion.^[163] A joint press release published by the two chip makers stated "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development."^[166][167]

Anti-competitive allegations[link]

Japan[link]

In 2005, the local Fair Trade Commission found that Intel violated the Japanese Antimonopoly Act. The commission ordered Intel to eliminate discounts that had discriminated against AMD. To avoid a trial, Intel agreed to comply with the order.^{[168][169][170][171]}

European Union[link]

In July 2007, the European Commission accused Intel of anti-competitive practices, mostly against AMD.^[172] The allegations, going back to 2003, include giving preferential prices to computer makers buying most or all of their chips from Intel, paying computer makers to delay or cancel the launch of products using AMD chips, and providing chips at below standard cost to governments and educational institutions.^[173] Intel responded that the allegations were unfounded and instead qualified its market behavior as consumer-friendly.^[173] General counsel Bruce Sewell responded that the Commission had misunderstood some factual assumptions as to pricing and manufacturing costs.^[174]

In February 2008, Intel stated that its office in Munich had been raided by European Union regulators. Intel reported that it was cooperating with investigators.^[175] Intel faced a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue, if found guilty of stifling competition.^[176] AMD subsequently launched a website promoting these allegations.^[177][178] In June 2008, the EU filed new charges against Intel.^[179] In May 2009, the EU found that Intel had engaged in anti-competitive practices and subsequently fined Intel €1.06 billion (US$1.44 billion), a record amount. Intel was found to have paid companies, including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC,^[180] to exclusively use Intel chips in their products, and therefore harmed other companies including AMD.^{[180][181][182]} The European Commission said that Intel had deliberately acted to keep competitors out of the computer chip market and in doing so had made a "serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules".^[180] In addition to the fine, Intel was ordered by the Commission to immediately cease all illegal practices.^[180] Intel has stated that they will appeal against the Commission's verdict.^[180]

South Korea[link]

In September 2007, South Korean regulators accused Intel of breaking antitrust law. The investigation began in February 2006, when officials raided Intel's South Korean offices. The company risked a penalty of up to 3% of its annual sales, if found guilty.^[183] In June 2008, the Fair Trade Commission ordered Intel to pay a fine of US$25.5 million for taking advantage of its dominant position to offer incentives to major Korean PC manufacturers on the condition of not buying products from AMD.^[184]

United States[link]

New York started an investigation of Intel in January 2008 on whether the company violated antitrust laws in pricing and sales of its microprocessors.^[185] In June 2008, the Federal Trade Commission also began an antitrust investigation of the case.^[186] In December 2009 the FTC announced it would initiate an administrative proceeding against Intel in September 2010.^{[187][188][189][190]}

In November 2009, following a two year investigation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Intel, accusing them of bribery and coercion, claiming that Intel bribed computer makers to buy more of their chips than those of their rivals, and threatened to withdraw these payments if the computer makers were perceived as working too closely with its competitors. Intel has denied these claims.^[191]

On July 22, 2010, Dell agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay $100M in penalties resulting from charges that Dell did not accurately disclose accounting information to investors. In particular, the SEC charged that from 2002 to 2006, Dell had an agreement with Intel to receive rebates in exchange for not using chips manufactured by AMD. These substantial rebates were not disclosed to investors, but were used to help meet investor expectations regarding the company's financial performance; the SEC said that in the first quarter of 2007 they amounted to 70% of Dell's operating income. Dell eventually did adopt AMD as a secondary supplier in 2006, and Intel subsequently stopped their rebates, causing Dell's financial performance to fall.^{[192][193][194]}

Market share[link]

According to IDC, while Intel still enjoys the most market share in both the overall worldwide PC microprocessor market (79.3%) and the mobile PC microprocessor (84.4%) in the second quarter of 2011, the numbers decreased by 1.5% and 1.9% compared to the first quarter.^[195][196]

Per Passmark's CPU benchmark, which takes into account individual benchmarking of their software and each system results are reported with, Intel has retained 70% and more of the active market versus AMD since Q1 2008.^[197]

See also[link]

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal

References[link]