HISTORY OF INTEL

HISTORY OF INTEL

Intel began in 1968. It was founded by Gordon E. Moore who is also a physicist and chemist. He was accompanied by Robert Noyce, also a fellow physicist and co-creator of integrated circuitry, after they both had left Fairchild Semiconductor. During the 1980’s Intel was run by a chemical engineer by the name of Andy Grove, who was the third member of the original Intel family. Many other Fairchild employees participated in other Silicon Valley companies. Andy Grove today is considered to be one of the company’s essential business and strategic leaders. As the 1990’s concluded, Intel had become one of the largest and by far the most successful businesses in the entire world. Intel has gone through many faces and phases. In the beginning Intel was set apart by its ability primarily to create memory chips or SRAM. 

When the firm was founded, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce had the idea to name their company Moore Noyce. However when the name is spoken it is heard as “More Noise” This idea was quickly abandoned and the pursuit of a more suitable name – one which was not associated with a bad interface. The name NM Electronics was shortly thereafter chosen and used for nearly a year, when the company experienced a name change to Integrated Electronics, or INTEL for short. The rights to the name however had to be purchased as it was already in use by a fairly well known hotel chain.

Though Intel had mastered the first microprocessor called the Intel 4004 in 1971 and also one of the worlds very first microcomputers in 1972, in the early 80’s the focus was primarily on Random Access Memory chips. A new client in the early 70’s from Japan wanted to enlist the services of Intel to design twelve chips for their calculators. Knowing that they did not have the manpower or the resources to complete this job effectively, Ted Hoff agreed to the job just the same. His idea was: What if we can design one computer chip which could function the same as twelve microchips?. Hoof’s idea was completely embraced by Moore and Noyce. If this project were successful the chip would have the ability to receive command functions. This is where the 4004 model came from. After a painstaking 9 months. It measured 1/8th inch by 1/6th inch long and contained 2,300 transistors. History was made and changed that day.

The Pentium Pro processor had 5.5 million transistors, making the chip so affordable that it could be imbedded in common household appliances. After this success Intel decided to completely embrace this and to pursue its production. Some notable dates in the history of Intel are: 

1968  Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore incorporate NM Electronics 
1970  The development of DRAM and dynamic RAM
1971  The world’s first microcomputer is introduced 
1974  The first general purpose microprocessor is introduced to the world
1980  The Intel microprocessor is chosen by IBM for the first ever personal computer.  

1992  Intel’s net income tops the one billion dollar point 
1993  The Pentium is introduced, a fifth generation chip 
1996  Intel’s revenue exceeds twenty billion dollars and the net income surpasses five billion                         dollars 
1997  The Pentium 11 microprocessor is introduced to the world 
1999  Intel is added to Dow Jones Averages. 
2000  The world’s very first Intel 1 gigahertz processor  hits the shelves. 

To this day Intel continues to make strides in the computing and micro computing world.

Intel has announced a host of new processors for 2010, based on the Core i3, i5 and i7 lines. The company says it has switched over to 32nm manufacturing, which allows for more efficient chips in terms of both speed and power consumption. Many processors also integrate HD Graphics components, which are capable of limited 3D rendering, as well as Dolby TrueHD and DTS Premium Suite audio. Notebook-level processors can switch between HD Graphics and a dedicated video card on the fly.

New mobile processors range from the 1.06GHz Core i5-520UM through to the 2.66GHz Core i7-620M, which can operate at turbo speeds of up to 3.33GHz. Graphics acceleration varies between 166-500MHz and 500-766MHz, depending on the associated CPU. The two Core i3 chips, the 330M and 350M, notably lack any form of turbo capacity.

Desktop processors include the i3-530 and i3-540, and the i5-650, i5-660, i5-661 and i5-670. The i3 chips are rated at 2.93 and 3.06GHz, and lack turbo functions. The i5-650 is clocked at 3.2GHz, while the 670 is rated at 3.46GHz with a 3.73GHz turbo ceiling. Both the 660 and 661 are by default rated at 3.33GHz, but the 661 has the advantage of 900MHz graphics, where all of the other desktop chips are limited to 733MHz.

Intel is also rolling out the 5 Series chipset, which merges several tasks onto a single chip, and four Centrino wireless adapters. The Wireless-N 1000 is limited to 300Mbps throughput on a single band, but the Advanced-N 6200 and Ultimate-N 6300 are both dual-band, the latter permitting speeds up to 450Mbps. The Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 is dual-band over both Wi-Fi and WiMAX.