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.