1970, this chip was the "first merchant market LSI (large-scale integrated)
DRAM," and received broad acceptance because it was superior to magnetic
core memories. So, by the end of 1971, the 1103 became "the world's largest-
selling semiconductor device" and provided the capital for Intel's early
growth.)
Until today, semiconductors have "adhered to Moore's Law," which has been
framed by the "cofounder of Fairchild and Intel" when the first commercial
DRAMs appeared in the early 1970s. This law predicts that the price per bit
(the smallest unit of memory) drops by 30 percent every year. It implies
that you will receive 30 percent more power (speed/capacity) at the same
price, or that the "price of a certain power is 30 percent less.")
Moore's Law applies to both memory chips and microprocessors, and shows the
unprecedented rapid progress in microelectronics. This "astonishing ratio"
has never occurred in "the history of manufacturing" before. Applied to
automobiles, it means that "a Cadillac would have a top speed of 500 miles
per hour, get two hundred miles to a gallon of gas and cost less than a
dollar" - almost incredible.)
1971 was a crucial year at Intel. The company's revenues surpassed
operating expenses for the first time, and the company went public, raising
$6.8 million.
Moreover, the company introduced a new memory chip - the first erasable,
programmable read only memory (EPROM). Invented by Intel's Dov Frohman, the
new memory could store data permanently like already existing ROMs, but
besides could be erased simply by a beam of ultraviolet light and be used
again. The EPROM was initially viewed as a "prototyping device" for R&D.
The invention of the microprocessor in the same year, however, showed the
real significance of the EPROM, which could be used by original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) customers (they build the end-products) to store
microprocessor programs in a "flexible and low-cost way." The "unexpected
synergy" between the EPROM and the microprocessor resulted in a growing
market for both chips and contributed a great deal to Intel's early
success.)
"Ted" Hoff's first microprocessor
The invention of the microprocessor marked a turning point in Intel's
history. This development "changed not only the future of the company, but
much of the industrial world.")
The story to this technological breakthrough began in 1969, when a Japanese
calculator manufacturer called Busicomp asked Intel to design a set of
chips for a family of programmable calculators. Marcian "Ted" Hoff, a young
and "very bright ex-Stanford research associate") who had joined Intel as
employee number 12, was charged with this project. However, he did not like
the Japanese design calling for 12 custom chips - each of them was assigned
a distinct task. Hoff thought designing so many different chip s would make
the calculators as expensive as minicomputers such as DEC's PDP-8, although
they could merely be used for calculation. His idea was to develop a four-
chip set with a general-purpose logic device as its center, which could be
programmed by inst ructions stored on a semiconductor memory chip. This was
the theory behind the first microprocessor.
With the help of new employee Stan Mazor, Hoff perfected the design of what
would be the 4004 arithmetic chip. After Busicomp had accepted Hoff's chip
set, Frederico Faggin, one of the best chip design experts, who had been
hired recently, began transforming the design into silicon. The 4004
microprocessor, a 4-bit chip (processes 4 bits - a string of four ones or
zeroes - of information at a time), contained 2300 MOS transistors, and was
as powerful as the legendary first electronic computer, ENIAC.
Soon after the first 4004s had been delivered to Busicomp, Intel realized
the market potential of the chip, and successfully renegotiated with the
Japanese to regain the exclusive rights, which had been sold to Busicomp.
In November 1971, Intel introduced the 4004 to the public in an Electronic
News ad. It announced not just a new product, but "a new era of integrated
electronics [...], a micro programmable computer on a chip.") The
microprocessor is - as Gordon Moore call s it - "one of the most
revolutionary products in the history of mankind,") and ranks as one of 12
milestones of American technology in a survey of U.S. News and World Report
in 1982. This chip is the actual computer itself: It is the central
processing u nit (CPU) - the computer's brains. The microprocessor made
possible the microcomputer, which is "as big as it is only to accommodate
us." For "we'd have a hard time getting information into or out of a
microprocessor without a keyboard, a printer and a terminal," as Th.Mahon
puts it.)
However significant Hoff's invention, nevertheless, it was hardly noticed
in the public until early 1973. The microprocessor had its own instruction
set and was to be programmed in order to execute specific tasks. So Ted
Hoff had to inform the public and t he engineers about the capabilities of
the new device and how to program it.
Cooperation with IBM in the 1980s
Intel's measures in the late 1970s as a reaction to increasing competition
from other chip manufacturers paid off greatly and resulted in a remarkable
technological lead against its competitors. The most significant
consequence, which was a landmark in the company's development, was IBM's
decision to rely on the Intel 8088 microprocessor for its PCs in 1980.
IBM (short for International Business Machines) has been the world's
leading company in the big mainframe computers since the 1950s. Due to its
dominance, it was often compared with a giant and referred to as "Big
Blue." Surprisingly, it was not before 198 1 (the PC revolution had already
been on for a few years) that IBM introduced its own Personal Computer.
Because of IBM's dominance and worldwide reputation, its PCs soon became
industry standard and penetrated the office market: other established
computer companies followed and introduced their own PCs - the so-called
"clones" - which were compatible to IBM' s models. To maintain
compatibility, all these manufacturers were forced to rely on Intel's
microprocessors, which thus were bootstrapped to industry standard, too.
As well as for Intel, the CPU manufacturer, IBM's decision has been crucial
for a company in the software field: Microsoft's (Redmond, Washington) MS-
DOS was chosen as the IBM PC's operating system and became industry
standard. It is essential to every IBM compatible PC. Microsoft, a small
company in 1980, grew explosively, and is today's superior software giant.
At the beginning of the 1980s, IBM was concerned about Intel's ability to
keep investing in R&D and therefore decided to support Intel by buying $250
million (=12%) of the company's stock. This endorsed Intel's position, and,
in 1987, IBM sold the last of its shares in a strong Intel.
Intel today
Annual report 2000
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Today, Intel supplies the computing and communications industries with
chips, boards and systems building blocks that are the "ingredients" of
computers, servers, and networking and communications products. Industry
members to create advanced computing and communications systems use these
products. Intel's mission is to be the preeminent building block supplier
to the worldwide Internet economy.
[pic]
Intel® Architecture platform products[pic] Microprocessors, also called
central processing units (CPUs) or chips, are frequently described as the
"brains" of a computer, because they control the central processing of data
in personal computers (PCs), servers, workstations and other computers.
Intel offers microprocessors optimized for each segment of the computing
market:
Intel® Pentium® III Xeon™ processors for mid-range to high-end servers and
workstations
Intel® Pentium® 4 and Pentium® III processors for entry-level servers and
workstations and performance desktop PCs
Intel® Celeron™ processors for value PC systems
Mobile Pentium® III processors for performance in mobile PC systems
Chipsets perform essential logic functions surrounding the CPU in
computers, and support and extend the graphics, video and other
capabilities of many Intel processor-based systems.
Motherboards combine Intel microprocessors and chipsets to form the basic
subsystem of a PC or server.
e-Business solutions enable services and channel programs to accelerate
integration and deployment of Intel Architecture-based systems and
products.
[pic]Wireless communications and computing products[pic] These products are
component-level hardware and software focusing on digital cellular
communications and other applications needing both low-power processing and
high performance. These products are used in mobile phones, handheld
devices, two-way pagers and many other products. For these markets, Intel
offers Intel® Flash memory, application processors based on the Intel®
StrongARM processor core, and base band chipsets for cellular phones and
other wireless devices.
Networking and communications products[pic] Communications building blocks
for next-generation networks and Internet data centers are offered at
various levels of integration. These products are used in communications
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