Motherboard companies

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC; SEHK: 4335; Euronext: INCO) is a technology company, and the world's largest 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 was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence) and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA. 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. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's "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. While Intel created the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the success of the personal computer (PC) that this became their primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the PC industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes controversial tactics in defense of its market position, particularly against AMD, as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry.^[5][6] The 2010 rankings of the world's 100 most powerful brands published by Millward Brown Optimor showed the company's brand value at number

Corporate history

Origins and early years

Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, USA

Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, USA

Intel was founded in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore (of "Moore's Law" fame, a chemist and physicist) and Robert Noyce (a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit) when they left Fairchild Semiconductor. A number of other Fairchild employees also went on to participate in other Silicon Valley companies. Intel's third employee was Andy Grove,^[10] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Origin of the name

At its founding, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their new company Moore Noyce.^[11] The name, however, was a homophone (words that sound similar) 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. They used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company Integrated Electronics or Intel for short.^[12] However, Intel was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to first buy the rights for the name.^[13]

Early history

Intel has grown through several distinct phases. At its founding, Intel was distinguished simply by its ability to make semiconductors, and its primary products 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 commercially available microprocessor (Intel 4004) in 1971 and one of the first microcomputers in 1972,^[14][15] 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. Buoyed by its fortuitous position as microprocessor supplier to IBM and its 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 the end of the 1990s, its line of Pentium processors had become a household name.

Slowing demand and challenges to dominance

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.^[16] 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).^[17] 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.^[18] The lawsuits were noted to significantly burden the competition with legal bills, even if Intel lost the suits.^[18] Antitrust allegations that had been simmering since the early 1990s and already been the cause of one lawsuit against Intel in 1991, broke out again as AMD brought further claims against Intel related to unfair competition in 2004, and again in 2005.

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) which led to the hiring of over 20,000 new employees. In September 2006 due to falling profits, the company announced a restructuring that resulted in layoffs of 10,500 employees or about 10 percent of its workforce by July 2006.

Regaining of momentum

Faced with the need to regain lost marketplace momentum,^[16][19] 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;^[20] the product range was perceived as an exceptional leap in processor performance that at a stroke regained much of its leadership of the field.^[21][22]. In 2008, we saw another "tick", Intel introduced the Penryn microarchitechure,undergoing a shrink form 65nm to 45nm , and the year after saw the release of its positively reviewed successor processor, Nehalem, followed by another silicon shrink to the 32nm process.

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

Sale of 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 was intended to permit Intel to focus its resources on its core x86 and server businesses, and the acquisition completed on November 9, 2006.^[23]

Acquisition of McAfee

On 19 August 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.^[24]

Product and market history

SRAMS and the microprocessor

The company'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

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

Intel, x86 processors, and the IBM PC

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.

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.^[25][26]

386 microprocessor

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 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, California; Hillsboro, Oregon; and the Phoenix, Arizona suburb of Chandler; 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.

486, Pentium, and Itanium

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 achieve expectations, and it failed to compete effectively with 64-bit extensions to the original x86 architecture, introduced by AMD, named x86-64 (although Intel uses the name Intel 64, previously EM64T). As of 2009, Intel continues to develop and deploy the Itanium.

The Hillsboro team designed the Willamette processors (code-named P67 and P68) which

Pentium flaw

In June 1994, Intel engineers discovered a flaw in the floating-point math subsection of the P5 Pentium microprocessor. Under certain data dependent conditions, low order bits of the result of floating-point division operations would be incorrect, an error that can quickly compound in floating-point operations to much larger errors 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, and upon receiving no response from his inquiry to Intel, on October 30 posted a message on the Internet.^[27] Word of the bug spread quickly on the Internet and then to the industry press. Because the bug was easy to replicate by an average user (there was a sequence of numbers one could enter into the OS calculator to show the error), Intel's statements that it was minor and "not even an erratum" were not accepted by many computer users. 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

Intel Inside, Intel Systems Division, and Intel Architecture Labs

During this period, Intel undertook two major supporting programs that helped guarantee their processor's success. 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.^[29] 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.^[30] 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, 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.

Competition, antitrust and espionage

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,^{[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)^[31] 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.^[32] 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.^[33][34]

Partnership with Apple

For more details on this topic, see Apple–Intel transition.

On June 6, 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs 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 is offered in a configuration similar to Apple's Mac Pro.^[35]

Core 2 Duo advertisement controversy

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."^[36] The campaign was quickly pulled and several Intel executives made public apologies on the corporate website.^[37]

Classmate PC

Intel's Classmate PC is the company's first low-cost netbook computer.

Corporate affairs

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.

Leadership and corporate structure

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.^[39]

Employment

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.

Intel microprocessor facility in Costa Rica was responsible in 2006 for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 4.9% of the country's GDP.^[40]

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 policy.

The company is headquartered in California's Silicon Valley and has operations around the world. Outside of California, the company has facilities in Argentina (Córdoba and Buenos Aires), China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico, Israel, Ireland, India, Philippines, Poland, Russia, and Vietnam internationally. In the U.S. Intel employs significant numbers of people in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Utah.^[41] In Oregon, Intel is the state's largest private employer with over 15,000 employees, primarily in Hillsboro.^[42] The company is the largest industrial employer in New Mexico while in Arizona the company has over 10,000 employees, Intel is also Ireland's largest employer with over 5,000 employees in Ireland.

Diversity Initiative

Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee diversity groups as well as supplier diversity programs.^[43] 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,^[44] and supports a Muslim employees group,^[45] a Jewish employees group,^[46] and a Bible-based Christian group.

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.

Easter Eggs

At Intel's Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, employees have randomly placed QR Codes with secret messages around the campus.

Funding of a school

In Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Intel is the leading employer.^[49] In 1997, a community partnership between Sandoval County and Intel Corporation funded and built Rio Rancho High School.^[50][51]

Finances

Intel stock price, Nov 1986 – Nov 2006

Intel's market capitalization is $85.67 billion (May 11, 2009). 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, SOX (PHLX Semiconductor Sector), and GSTI Software Index.

On July 15, 2008, Intel announced that it had achieved the highest earnings in the history of the company during Q2 2008.^[52]

Advertising and brand management

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,^[53] was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter.^[54] 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.^[55] Intel paid some of the advertiser's costs for an ad that used the Intel Inside logo and jingle.^[56]

Main Logo	Date	Subset logo	Date	Remarks
	1968–2005		1990–2003	The original "Intel Inside" logo, introduced in 1990.
			2003–2005	Still as Intel Inside logo, but changed to resemble the original Intel logo with lowering of the Intel "e" and changing the typeface.
	2005–present		2006–2009	Intel phased out the intel inside logo in favor of a new logo intel and the slogan, Leap ahead. The new logo is clearly inspired by the Intel Inside logo by splitting out the inside. The typeface Neo Sans Intel is used.
			2009–present	The current intel logo with inside trademark.

In 2006, Intel expanded its promotion of open specification platforms beyond Centrino, to include the Viiv media centre 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 both 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.

According to an Intel spokesman as of 2009 one may think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best the company has to offer.^[57]

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.^[58] 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.^[58]

Some artists have incorporated Intel brand culture into their works. For example, evil inside stickers,^[59] Intel inside, idiot outside and a tombstone with R.I.P Intel Inside^[60]

Sonic logo

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.^[61] The Sonic logo has undergone heavy changes in tone since the introduction of the Pentium III, Pentium 4, and Core processors, yet keeps the same jingle.

] Naming strategy

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.^[62] Upcoming processors will carry the Intel Core brand, but will be known as the Intel Core i7, or Core i3 depending on their segment of the market.^[62] vPro products will carry the Intel Core i7 vPro processor or the Intel Core i5 vPro processor name.^[62]

Beginning in 2010 "Centrino" will only be applied to Intel's WiMAX and Wi-Fi technologies; it won't be a PC brand anymore.^[62] 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.^[62]

[edit] IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces

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.

Open source support

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,^[63] 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.^[64]

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 firmwares that are necessary to be included in the operating systems for the wireless devices to operate.^[65] 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.^[66] 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.^[67] 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

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.^[68] 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.^[69] More than 1580 pounds of VOC were released in June and July 2006, the company stated.^[70] Intel’s environmental performance is published annually in their corporate responsibility report. ^[71]

Religious controversy

Ultra-orthodox Jews have protested Intel operating in Israel on Saturday, the Sabbath. Intel was forced to ring its office in barbed wire for protection against possible violent religious extremists.^[72] As of December 2009, the situation has been stable for Intel Israel while some employees reported working over-time on the Sabbath.

Age discrimination

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.^[73]

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.^[74] Intel has denied that age plays any role in Intel's employment practices.^[75] FACE Intel was founded by Ken Hamidi, who was terminated by Intel in 1995 at the age of 47.^[74] Hamidi was blocked in a 1999 court decision from using Intel's email system to distribute criticism of the company to employees.^[76]

Competition

Further information: Semiconductor sales leaders by year

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 AMD, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and STMicroelectronics.

Competitors in PC chip sets include 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.^[77] However, the cross-licensing agreement is canceled in the event of an AMD bankruptcy or takeover.^[78] Some smaller competitors such as VIA and Transmeta produce low-power x86 processors for small factor computers and portable equipment.

Lawsuits

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,^[79] 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.^[80] Legal analysts predict the lawsuit will most drag for a number of years, since Intel's response indicates that Intel is not likely to settle the dispute with AMD.^[81][82] A court date has been granted in 2010.^[83]

In October 2006, a Transmeta lawsuit was filed against Intel for patent infringement on computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.^[84] The lawsuit was settled in October 2007, with Intel agreeing to pay USD 150 million initially and USD 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.^[85]

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, Intel and AMD announced a truce for 5 years by Intel paying AMD $1.25 billion in exchange for it to drop the antitrust suit AMD brought against Intel five years ago.^[86] In a joint statement, the two chip makers said this, "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." ^[87][88]

Anti-competitive allegations by regulatory bodies

Japan

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.

European Union

In July 2007, the European Commission accused Intel of anti-competitive practices, mostly against AMD.^[93] 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.^[94] Intel responded that the allegations were unfounded and instead qualified its market behavior as consumer-friendly.^[95] General counsel Bruce Sewell responded that the Commission had misunderstood some factual assumptions as to pricing and manufacturing costs.^[96]

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.^[97] Intel faced a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue, if found guilty of stifling competition.^[95] AMD subsequently launched a website promoting these allegations.^[98][99] In June 2008, the EU filed new charges against Intel.^[100] In May 2009, the EU found that Intel had engaged in anti-competitive practices and subsequently fined Intel €1.06 billion ($1.44 billion), a record amount. Intel was found to have paid companies, including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC,^[101] to exclusively use Intel chips in their products, and therefore harmed other companies including AMD.^{[101][102][103]} 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".^[101] In addition to the fine, Intel was ordered by the Commission to immediately cease all illegal practices.^[101] Intel has stated that they will appeal against the Commission's verdict.^[101]

South Korea

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.^[104] In June 2008, the Fair Trade Commission ordered Intel to pay a fine of $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.^[105]

United States

New York started an investigation of Intel in January 2008 on whether the company violated antitrust laws in pricing and sales of its microprocessors.^[106] In June 2008, the Federal Trade Commission also began an antitrust investigation of the case.^[107] In December 2009 the FTC announced it would initiate an administrative proceeding against Intel in September 2010.

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.^[

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 Advanced Micro Devices. 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.

Acer Laboratories Incorporated

Acer Laboratories Incorporated (also known as Acer Labs Inc, and commonly known as ALi) is a major designer and manufacturer of integrated circuits for the personal computer and embedded systems markets. It is a subsidiary of the Acer group.

The company was founded in 1987, its president is Teddy Lu. Part of ALi was separated as ULi Electronics Inc. in June 2003. ULi was acquired by NVIDIA in 2006 for $52 million.

Chipsets

• M1217 - chipset for Intel 80386SX
• M1429/M1431 - VESA chipset for Intel 80486 and compatible CPUs
• M1439/M1445 - PCI chipset for Socket 3
• M1489 - PCI chipset for Socket 3
• M1531/M1543 «ALADDiN IV» chipset for Socket 7 up to 83 MHz. FPM, EDO, SDRAM no AGP
• M1531B «ALADDiN IV+» chipset for Socket 7
• M1541, M1542 «ALADDiN V» chipset for Socket 7, up to 100 MHz, AGP 1x, 2x
• M1561/M1535D «ALADDiN 7» chipset for Socket 7
• M1621/M1543 «ALADDiN-Pro II» chipset for Slot 1 / Socket 370
• M1631 «ALADDiN TNT2» chipset for Slot 1 / Socket 370 with integrated NVIDIA TNT 2
• M1632M «CyberBLADE ALADDiN i1» chipset for Slot 1 / Socket 370 with integrated Trident CyberBlade3D (AGP 2x)
• M1641B/M1535D «ALADDiN-Pro 4» chipset for Slot 1 / Socket 370, AGP 1x, 2x, 4x
• M1644 «CyberALADDiN» chipset for Slot 1 / Socket 370 with integrated Trident CyberBlade XP
• M1644T «CyberALADDiN-T» (Tualatin)
• M1651T «ALADDiN-Pro 5» DDR PC2100
• M1651T/M1535D+ «Aladdin Pro 5T» MaGiK 1 chipset for Pentium III
• M1671 «ALADDiN-P4» chipset for Socket 478, FSB 100x4
• M1672 «CyberALADDiN-P4» chipset for Socket 478
• M1681 chipset for Socket 478
• M1683 chipset for Socket 478
• M1646 «CyberMAGiK» chipset for Socket A, Slot A with integrated Trident CyberBlade XP
• M1647 «MobileMAGiK 1» chipset for Socket A, Slot A
• M1647/M1535D+ «MAGiK 1» chipset for Socket A, Slot A
• M1667 «MAGiK 2» chipset for Socket A, Slot A
• M1668 «MAGiK K8» chipset for Socket 940, 754
• M1687/M1565 «Hammer» chipset for Socket 940, 754; HyperTransport
• M1688/M1563 «MAGiK K8G» chipset for Socket 940, 754 with integrated Trident Blade XP4; AGP 8x
• M1689/M1565 is a chipset for the AMD Athlon 64, HyperTransport
• M1691/M1673
• M1695 PCI Express, AGP, HyperTransport for the AMD Athlon 64
• M1697 PCI Express, HyperTransport for the AMD Athlon 64

A M1541 Motherboard with AMD K6-2 300MHz processor.

VGA

• M3141
• M3143
• M3145A AliCat - PCI SVGA card, 2 MB DRAM, external RAMDAC, no DDC support
• M3147V AliCat - PCI SVGA card, 2 MB (S3 Trio 64V+ compatible ?)
• M3149 GUI Accelerator, 4MB
• M3151 GUI Accelerator, 8 MB

A M3147V VGA card

Video

• M3307 MPEG-I Video Controller
• M3309 MPEG-II Video w/ Software Audio Decoder
• M3321 MPEG-II Audio/Video Decoder
• M3325 Video/Audio Decoder
• M3327 CPU
• M3328 CPU
• M3329 CPU (MIPS architecture)
• A1 (216 pin)
• B1 (216 pin)
• C E1 (128 pin)
• PF (parallel)
• SF (serial)
• M3330 CPU

PC peripheral

• M5253, M5271, M5273, M5622, M5633 USB/Firewire PCI chipsets
• M5281, M5283, M5619, M5621, M5636, M5637, M5642 PCI IDE
• M5455 PCI AC'97 Sound
• M5623 (USB 2.0), M5617 (USB 1.1) USB Scanner controller
• M5632 USB Host-to-host
• M5635 USB Cardreader

For embedded systems

ISA card with ALi M6117.

M6117 is a highly integrated, low voltage, single-chip implementation of the Intel 386SX compatible microprocessor plus ALi M1217 chipset. The M6117 provides a static 386SX core, DRAM controller, ISA bus logic, real time clock, keyboard controller, and power management unit.

M6032 is an 8051-based Microcontroller with Dual Data Pointers, UART, 32 I/O lines, 3 Timers/Counters, 6 Interrupts/2 priority levels, 256 Bytes IDATA RAM, 256 Bytes on-chip XRAM.

M6759 is an 8051-based Microcontroller with Dual Data Pointers, UART, 32 I/O lines, 3 Timers/Counters, 6 Interrupts/2 priority levels, 64 KB Flash ROM, 256 Bytes IDATA RAM, 256 Bytes on-chip XRAM

Asus

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (traditional Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuò Diànnaǒ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) is a multinational computer product manufacturer centered in Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, laptops, servers and mobile phones. The company also produces components for other manufacturers, including Apple Inc., Dell, Falcon Northwest and Hewlett-Packard.

Sometimes identified by its brand name Asus (usually pronounced /ɑːˈsuːs/, or /ˈeɪsəs/ in English-speaking countries), the company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ASKD) and the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2357). As of 26 November 2009, 29.2% of PCs sold in the previous 12 months worldwide came with an Asus motherboard.^[3] The company's 2009 revenues reached US$21.2 billion.^[2] (2009 -11-26)^[update]

Asus appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies" rankings. Wall Street Journal Asia ranks it number one in quality and service, and it leads the IT

Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of US$1.324 billio

History

TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao founded Asus on 2 April 1990^[1] in Taipei, Taiwan — all four founders worked as computer engineers for Acer. The company explains the name Asus as originating from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.^[6][7] The new organization used only the last four letters of the word in order to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings.^[8]

In 2008, shipments from Asus, ECS, Gigabyte, and MSI totaled 104.86 million units. Asus led with 52 million units, followed by ECS with 20 million, MSI with 18 million, and Gigabyte with 16.6 million.^{[citation needed]}

Relationship with Intel

In the early 2000s, Taiwan-based motherboard manufacturers had not yet established their leading positions in the computer-hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and the Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes.^[9] As of 2009 Asus receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.^[9][update]

Asus has become one of the main supporters of Intel's Common Building Block initiatives.

Corporate restructuring, 2007-

In January 2007, Asus started restructuring its operations.^[10] The company split into three distinct operational units: Asus, Pegatron and Unihan.^{[citation needed]} The Asus brand was applied solely to first-party branded computers. Pegatron handled OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components, and Unihan focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding.

In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.^[11]

Open Handset Alliance

On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that ASUSTek Computer Inc. had become one of 14 new members of the organization. These "new members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."^[12]

Timeline

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2009)

• 2002: Forms subsidiary ASRock.
• September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model.^[13]
• September 2005: releases the first PhysX accelerator card.^[14]
• December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available in the Taiwan market.^[15]
• January 2006: Asus announces that it will cooperate with Lamborghini to develop its VX series.^{[16][dead link]}
• 9 March 2006: Asus announced as one of the producers of the first Microsoft OrigamiSamsung and Founder Technology.^[17] models, together with
• 8 August 2006: Asus announces a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.^[18](subscription required)
• 5 June 2007: Asus announces the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei 2007
• 9 September 2007: Asus indicates support for Blu-Ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.^[19] The release of several Blu-Ray based notebooks follows.
• 31 October 2007: Asus launches a PDA/smartphone range in the UK market
• 3 January 2008: Asus formally splits into three companies: ASUSTeK, Pegatron and Unihan.^{[20][unreliable source?]}
• May 2008: Incompatibility of Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Windows XP SP3 first discovered
• 12 August 2008: Asus produces a new motherboard (ZT23) capable of clocking a processing speed of 120 GHz, a record.
• 22 August 2008: Details of the N10 leaked online.^[21]
• December 2008: Asus releases a beta BIOS update that potentially fixes the Windows XP SP3 incompatibility with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.
• 1 June 2010: Asus spins off Pegatron Corp.^[22]

[edit] Manufacturing facilities and service centers

As of 2009 Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Lujhu, Nangan, Guishan), Mainland ChinaSuzhou), Mexico (Ciudad Juárez) and the Czech Republic (Ostrava). The Asus Hi-Tech Park, located in Suzhou, China, covers 540,000 square meters, roughly the size of 82 soccer fields.^[update] (

Asus claims a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.^{[23][verification needed]}

Asus operates 50 service sites in 32 countries and has over 400 service partners worldwide. It provides support in 37 languages.

Products

Asus produces motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards, optical disc drives, PDAs, computer monitors, laptops, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems.

An Asus AMD motherboardAMD Phenom IIprocessor mounted, along with the stock heatsink and fan. with an

Eee

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year,^[24] Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,^[25] NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget, Computer Shopper's Best Netbook of 2008, PC Pro's Hardware of the Year, PC World's Best Netbook, and DIME magazine’s 2008 Trend Award Winner. Asus's Essentio desktop - marketed as a home entertainment PC with an HDMI port, remote control and high gloss black finish - has been discontinued.

Asus subsequently added several products to its Eee lineup, including:

• Eee Box, a compact nettop
• Eee Top, an all-in-one touchscreen computer housed in an LCD monitor enclosure,
• Eee Stick, a plug-and-play wireless controller for the PC platform that translates users’ physical hand-motions into corresponding movements onscreen

On 6 March 2009, Asus debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the ASUS EeePC".^[26]

With its price range between US$269 and US$299, this desktop competed directly with the Mac Mini.^[27]

GPS Devices

The Asus R700t GPS device includes TMC (Traffic Message Channel). ^[28]

Corporate responsibility

Green Asus

In 2000, Asus officially launched Green Asus,^[29] a company-wide sustainable computing initiative overseen by a steering committee led by Jonney Shih, the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc. Green Asus pursues what the company calls the "Four Green Home Runs", namely: "Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing".^[30