Intel celebrates 40th birthday

Chipmaker reflects on four decades

By Shaun Nichols in San Francisco 21 Jul 2008

Intel is celebrating its 40th birthday with a major project highlighting its impact on the industry.

The chipmaker was founded in 1968 by physicists Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, who created the name Intel as a shortened version of 'Integrated Electronics'.

"When we introduced the microprocessor no one could have predicted that the market for PCs would be greater than 350 million units a year," said chief executive and president Paul Otellini.

"Over the next 40 years Intel technology will be at the heart of breakthroughs that solve the big problems of health and environment. For Intel this is just the beginning of its journey."

The company plans to celebrate the occasion with a huge online mural project soliciting art and writing contributions from children in more than 70 of its 'clubhouse' centres around the world.

The 500-plus submissions offer thoughts on what children expect computers to bring to the world in the next 40 years.

Intel hopes that the project will outline its philanthropic efforts as well as its impact on the industry.

"As an industry, we have a responsibility to fulfil these expectations," said Bruce Sewell, Intel's senior vice president for corporate social responsibility.

"By providing opportunities for young people in underserved communities to learn technology literacy and problem-solving skills, we hope to secure the next generation of innovators, thought leaders and role models."

Meanwhile, Intel senior vice president and enterprise group general manager Pat Gelsinger issued a blog posting on what he sees as Intel's biggest achievements over the past 40 years.

These include the introduction of the 32-bit processor, the advocacy of the CISC platform and efforts to maintain software compatibility with each new generation of chip.

Gelsinger also highlighted Intel's adoption of multi-core processors, noting that the company had to scramble after initially hedging its bets on achieving higher clock speeds.

"In 2001 we predicted a power wall with a famous picture of die thermal densities equal to that of a nuclear reactor or the surface of the sun. Clearly we needed to change and our answer was the 'Right Hand Turn'," he said.

"While we saw this fundamental shift, we were one generation too late and attempted to extend the Pentium IV. But luckily we recovered quickly with our focus on energy efficient performance with Centrino and our great Tick-Tock execution."

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