On July 18, 1968, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded Intel under the name Moore-Noyce Electronics. Andy Grove is also joining the tech start-up quickly. The original plan is to make a name for itself in the memory market. After initial successes, Intel later shifted more and more to microprocessors. The Santa Clara-based company’s big break came with the x86 architecture, which would theoretically make it the dominant force, since it’s the architecture that’s thriving in the personal computer market. This sometimes caused legal trouble. So you are willing to distribute licenses and later benefit yourself from innovations from other companies, such as AMD’s x64 technology. Since 1976, the company has had a reciprocal patent agreement with its fiercest competitor, and the start of which was once initiated by the company itself.

Intel’s first chip is the 4-bit 4004 processor, introduced in 1971. The improved 8008 processor, Intel’s first 8-bit chip with 3,500 transistors, followed a year later. In 1974, the 8008 successor, the 8080, came onto the market with 2 MHz; it is considered the first full-fledged microprocessor, but its computing power is still so limited that the processor is rarely found in computers. The knot bursts in 1978 with the 8086/8088, which IBM builds into its PCs on a large scale, which finds many imitators. “IBM PC and compatibles” becomes the quasi-standard for years. In addition to the technical innovations, Intel has always acted economically. An example is the 8051 microcontroller, which is licensed to Siemens and Philips, among others. This also makes the model the quasi-standard that dominates the market.

In addition to the processors, Intel has numerous other business areas in which it is usually successful. For example, one of these interesting stories is that Intel is also the largest graphics card manufacturer on the market, but the chips are not very good in terms of 3D graphics so far. Intel should actually have enough resources to develop usable 3D accelerators, but it hasn’t succeeded – whether intentionally or not – to this day. Not everything Intel touches turns to gold. For example, the smartphone market has been overslept and the field left to the competition from ARM & Co. almost without resistance. Only now are you trying to really gain a foothold here. In addition, not every CPU architecture succeeds. Netburst, Itanium or Larrabee should be mentioned at this point.

But that shouldn’t matter much to Intel, because hardly any other direct competitor apart from Apple is in such a good financial position. You can allow yourself one or the other flop, as it once was with the Pentium 4. During this time, the field was left to AMD with the better processor, walked through this valley of tears and focused on a new architecture called Core, which catapulted the blue ones back to the top – until AMD tackled the desktop market again with Ryzen. You can find more about the history of the most important Intel CPUs in a separate article at PC Games Hardware.

In the gallery you will find “From sand to silicon – this is how a CPU is made” as well as a selection of legendary Intel processors from the history of the chip giant.

Intel: 1960s

• 1965 – Gordon Moore, a physicist and chemist at Fairchild Semiconductor, makes a discovery later known as Moore’s Law that transformed computer hardware.
• 1968 – Gordon Moore and physicist Robert Noyce found Intel, short for INTegrated ELectronics.
• 1969 – Intel’s first product, the 3101 Schottky Bipolar RAM memory, and the famous “dropped e” logo are born.

Intel: 1970s

• 1970 – Intel establishes corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California.
• 1971 – Intel releases its first microprocessor, the 4004.
• 1971 – Intel goes public with a capitalization of $6.8 million.
• 1972 – The Intel 8008 is the first 8-bit microprocessor.
• 1972 – Intel builds its first international manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia.
• 1974 – Intel 8080 processor is introduced and used in traffic lights and cash registers. It is considered to be the first microprocessor for general purposes.
• 1976 – The industry’s first microcontrollers (8748 and 8048) appear.
• 1977 – Intel 2910 processor sets a new telecommunications standard as the world’s first single-chip codec.
• 1978 – Intel introduces the Intel 8086 processor, which becomes the industry standard.
• 1979 – Intel included in Fortune 500 list of world’s largest companies by revenue.

Intel: 80s

• 1980 – Intel, Digital Equipment and Xerox jointly develop Ethernet to simplify communication between computers.
• 1981 – IBM installs the Intel 8088 processor in its first personal computer.
• 1983 – Intel co-founder Robert Noyce is inducted into the Inventors’ Hall of Fame.
• 1985 – Intel introduces the 32-bit Intel 386 microprocessor, capable of running multiple software programs simultaneously.
• 1989 – Intel i860 processor is the first commercial microprocessor with more than one million transistors.

Intel: 90s

• 1991 – Intel Inside campaign launched
• 1993 – Intel Pentium processor comes onto the market and becomes part of the multimedia generation, even if it is first noticed by the legendary FLIV bug.
• 1995 – Intel Pentium Pro processor drives the 32-bit workstation and server market.
• 1998 – Intel Pentium II Xeon powers mid-range and high-end workstations and servers.
• 1999 – Intel is included in the Dow Jones stock index.
• 1999 – Intel Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon introduced.

Intel: 2000 to date (selection)

• 2000 – Intel Pentium 4 with Netburst architecture proves to be a flop.
• 2001 – Intel Itanium and Xeon processors are released. The Itanium with IA64 remains in the niche.
• 2003 – Intel Centrino mobile technology brings higher performance, longer battery life and integrated WLAN capability.
• 2004 – Intel uses AMD’s x64 architecture after its competitor has already established it on the market.
• 2005 – Intel introduces the first dual-core x86 processors.
• 2006 – Quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors herald the era of quad-core processors.
• 2007 – Intel introduces 45 nanometer manufacturing process and Hi-K metal gate technology, eliminating the use of lead and halogen in the production of 45 nm processors.
• 2008 – Debut of the Intel Atom processor for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks and nettops.
• 2009 – Intel introduces the Core i7 and discontinues the Larrabee GPU project for the consumer market, which was announced two years earlier.
• 2011 – Intel introduces tri-gate transistors.
• 2012 – With Ivy Bridge at the latest, rudimentary GPUs are increasingly being supplied directly in the CPU package.
• 2013 – Intel starts in June with the power-saving Haswell processors
• 2014 – A Haswell refresh provides a little more performance
• 2015 – Intel launches 5th and 6th generation Core i CPUs: Broadwell and Skylake
• 2018 – Due to AMD’s Ryzen competition, Intel is increasing core counts quickly and steadily
• 2021 – With Alder Lake or Intel Core i-12000, Intel introduces the concept of performance cores (P-Cores) and efficiency cores (E-Cores) in the expensive CPUs
• 2021 – Intel celebrates 50 years 4004 – the first microprocessor is considered the first mass-produced single-chip processor, which enables the construction of inexpensive home computers.
• 2022 – With Arc, Intel dares to make a new entry in the graphics card sector

You can find out more about Intel in 60 Years of Transistors: Who Invented It? and How a CPU is Made: From Sand to Silicon Chip. Wallpers for Intel can be found in the article Wallpaper: Intel CPU Die-Shots and Wafers and in the Intel CPU Wallpaper Pack for the Core i7.