10 Interesting Facts About Intel

Intel Logo

Intel is the most popular semiconductor company and is well known for its Intel Pentium processors. Intel is the inventor of the x86 series of processor which is found in most of the personal computer used around the glob. It has a long 40+ years history. And there are various interesting facts about the company. In this post, we are listing 10 interesting facts about Intel.

10 Interesting Facts About Intel

1. The Beginning

Intel was founded in 1968 by physicist Robert Noyce and chemist Gordon Moore. They met at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory where they worked together. Later they joined hands to start a Semiconductor company.

physicist Robert Noyce and chemist Gordon Moore
Image Source: Wikipedia, Intel

 

2. Naming

Intel was initially named “Moore Noyce.” I think you can easily guess why they used this name. But this name sounds like “More Noise,” so they decided to change it to “NM Electronics.” After a year with this new name, it was replaced with the name “Intel.” Intel is the short form of “Integrated Electronics.” But for this name, they have to pay a Intelco hotel chain $15000 for exclusive use of this name.

Intel Logo

3. Intel Museum

Intel has a museum which has different artifacts and interesting facts about Intel. This museum was started in the early 1980s and was opened to public in 1992. You will get to know various interesting facts about the 40+ years old semiconductor company. This museum is visited by more than 8000 people per year.

Intel museum
Image Source: Wikipedia

4. Intel’s Attire, BunnyPeople and Bird Companions

Intel makes its silicon chips in a special area called a cleanroom. Technicians have to wear a special kind of ‘bunny suit’ to enter in the cleanrooms. This bunny suit is to keep possible contaminants such as human hair off from cleanroom. The air in the cleanroom has no particles above the size of 0.5 microns. To make it easy to understand, you should know that human hair is only 100 microns thick. Bunny suit became standard l cleanroom attire in 1973. Interesting fact is that more than three football fields can fit inside a Cleanroom. The cleanroom is around 1000 times cleaner than a clean hospital.

Cleanroom

After leaving the clean room, technicians were accompanied by Intel’s Bird Companion. Job of these birds to make sure that no dust particles get accumulated on the bunny suits.

intel Bird Companions

 

5. Intel Watches

In 1972, Intel entered in digital watch market with acquisition of Microma. But in 1978 when prices of watches went down to $10, Intel sold Microma and stared focusing on its core products. Gordon Moore still wears his Microma watch.

6. 4004 Micro-processors

Intel’s first big success came in 1971 when it launched 4004 micro-processors. It was fingernail sized but offered same computing power as the room-sized ENIAC used in first ever computer invented.  It has 2300 transistors embedded on it. Intel’s current processors contains more than one billion transistors.

7. First Single-Board Computer

In 1976, Intel launched world’s first single board computer called iSBC 80/10.

8. 8088 processors

In July 1979, Intel introduced 8088 micro-processors. The 8088 was designed in Israel, at Haifa laboratory. It has 29000 transistors. In 1981, IBM launched its first personal computer which included this micro-processor. This was the first time when IBM used an outside vendor and this partnership changed the world.

9. Intel Inside

“Intel Inside” brand campaign was launched in 1991 which boosted the brand value of Intel in becoming one of the most popular brands.

Intel Inside

 

10. Finances:

Intel’s first year revenue was $2672. Company went public in 1971 when it launched its 4004 processor and raised around $6.8 million $23.50 per share. Now company is valued around $54 billion. It has a tick-tock method of company’s growth. It employees about 100,000 people around world. Company invest a large amount in research and development. In 2010, it had $6.6 billion budget for RnD. Between 2006-2008, Intel cut around 10,500 jobs which was around 10% of total workforce.

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