Innovation from the start. We’ve been asking “what’snext?” since the very beginning. Looking for a better way. Developing a new approach. Because at Intel,our pursuit of innovation never ends. While Intel’s first products were built on 2-inch wafers, today the company uses 300mm (12-inch) wafers to manufacture chips that contain millions of transistors. Starting a silicon revolution $ Rock is named chairman, Bob $ Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore Noyce becomes chief executive leave Fairchild Semiconductor and officer (CEO), and Gordon Moore incorporate a new venture as NM becomes executive vice president. Electronics on July 18. $ The company starts operations $ Noyce and Moore each con- in a leased building at 365 tribute $245,000 to the new Middlefield Road in Mountain company. Venture capitalist Arthur View, California. Rock contributes $10,000 and $ Intel purchases the rights to raises an additional $2.5 million use the Intel name from a com- by selling convertible debentures. pany called Intelco for $15,000. Intel founders Bob Noyce (left) and Gordon Moore (standing) witness the signing of Intel’s first customer order, from Hamilton Electric. 1968 1969 The first products $ The company opens its first $ Intel announces its first product, non-U.S. sales office, in Geneva, the 3101 Schottky bipolar random Switzerland, and establishes sales access memory (RAM). and marketing functions in Japan. $ The company launches the $ The “dropped-e” Intel logo world’s first metal oxide semicon- is adopted. ductor (MOS) static RAM, the 1101. $ Intel receives its first customer order, from Hamilton Electric. Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore leave Fairchild Semiconductor to found Intel, a company that Noyce described as a “community of common interests.” A new era in electronics $ Intel goes public at $23.50 per $ With an ad in the November 15 share, raising $6.8 million. issue of Electronic News announc- $ The company celebrates its first ing “A New Era in Integrated $1 million month. Electronics,”Intel launches its first microprocessor, the 4004. $ Employees move into Intel’s first owned facility, on the corner of $ Intel launches the world’s first Bowers Avenue and the Central erasable programmable read-only Expressway in Santa Clara. memory (EPROM). Gordon Moore (second from the right) and other employees celebrate the launch of Intel’s 1103 DRAM. 1970 1971 Silicon topples core memory $ Intel petitions the Santa Clara $ Intel announces the 1103 DRAM, City Council to change the name which will usurp core memory as of Coffin Road to Bowers Avenue. the industry-standard technology $ Recognizing that not all cus- for computer memory. tomers want to purchase at the $ To accommodate rapid growth, component level, Intel launches a Intel purchases its first piece of memory systems business with the property—a 26-acre pear orchard 1103-based MU-10 board product. on the corner of Coffin Road and $ Intel’s annual revenue totals the Central Expressway in Santa over $4 million, up from $565,874 Clara, California. the previous year. Dov Frohman, inventor of the EPROM, poses with the system he rigged up to demonstrate the new memory technology. Factories go global $ The company announces the $ Intel opens its first international first 8-bit microprocessor, the 8008. manufacturing facility, an assembly $ Intel enters the then-new digital plant in Penang, Malaysia—a watch market with the purchase country that now hosts multiple of Microma, a small firm with a Intel operations. prototype liquid crystal display $ To help customers learn how (LCD) watch. to use microprocessors, Intel $ The company moves from 2- to introduces the primitive SIM 4 3-inch silicon wafers for manufac- and SIM 8 design aids. turing computer chips. In Intel’s factories, bunny suits replace smocks, to keep hairs, skin flakes, and other particles from falling on intricate circuitry. 1972 1973 Anewfactory chic $ Intel introduces the Intellec 4-40 $ Bunny suits are introduced as software development tool, the standard Intel clean room attire. first in a line of Intellec systems that become key to Intel’s micro- $ Intel opens its first wafer fabri- processor sales. cation facility (fab) outside Silicon Valley, in Livermore, California. $ The company develops PL/M, the first high-level language for $ Employees receive custom- microprocessors. labeled champagne to celebrate Intel’s first $3 million month. Intel buys Microma and enters the digital watch business. Computers get personal $ Intel continues to innovate its $ The Intel 8080 processor is used in line of microprocessor develop- one of the first personal computers, ment tools, launching ICE-80, the the Altair 8800, a $439 hobbyists’ kit. world’s first in-circuit emulator, and the Intellec Model 800, a $ Bob Noyce is named Intel chair- disk-based system. man, Gordon Moore becomes pres- ident, and Andy Grove becomes $ The company introduces executive vice president. MULTIBUS, an interconnection mechanism that allows systems $ Intel’s Penang, Malaysia, assem- builders to link a number of micro- bly facility is up and running in a processor boards. rented plant two weeks after a non- The 8080 microprocessor features 4,500 transistors and about ten times the performance of its predecessors. injury fire destroys the original plant. 1974 1975 Launching a classic $ Early Intel microprocessors $ The company introduces the begin to find applications in many Intel® 8080 microprocessor, consid- areas, including traffic lights and ered by many to be the first true an eye refraction system that cal- general-purpose microprocessor. culates and prints out eyeglass prescriptions. $ Intel opens its first international design center, in Haifa, Israel. $ The density of dynamic RAMs reaches 4K bits with the introduc- $ The company expands interna- tion of the 2107. tional manufacturing operations to the Philippines with the opening of an assembly facility in Manila. Despite its primitive aspects, the Intel 8080 processor-based Altair computer attracts thousands of purchasers after its introduction in Popular Electronics. A chip that takes control $ Intel begins producing chips $ Intel introduces the world’s first on 4-inch wafers. microcontrollers, the 8748 and $ The faster Intel® 8085 micro- 8048, which combine a central processor is introduced, bringing processor, memory, peripherals, a 5-volt power supply advantage. and input-output functions on a single piece of silicon. $ Intel opens a small test facility in Santa Cruz, California, and $ The company launches the expands into Oregon with the world’s first single-board computer, opening of its first fab outside the iSBC 80/10. California, in Aloha. Transparent garnet wafers are used in the production of bubble memories, a business Intel enters in 1977 and pursues for the next 11 years. 1976 1977 Bubbles that don’t break $ EPROMs reach 16K densities $ With a subsidiary called Intel with the introduction of Intel’s 2716. Magnetics, Intel begins making $ The company’s development bubble memories, which are highly systems business expands with reliable even when exposed to the Intellec Series II. electrical shocks, dust, humidity, temperature extremes, vibration, $ Intel launches the 2910, the first and other hazards. single-chip codec (coder/decoder), which becomes a telecommunica- $ Intel opens an assembly site tions industry standard. in Barbados, West Indies. Microcontrollers allow manufacturers to embed intelligence in home appliances, cars, thermostats, and thousands of other products. Fame and fortune grow $ Bob Noyce receives the $ Intel debuts on the Fortune 500 National Medal of Science from list at position 486 and is named U.S. President Jimmy Carter. one of ten “Business Triumphs of $ Intel launches the 8088 micro- the Seventies” by Fortune. processor, a lower cost version of $ Gordon Moore is named Intel the 8086 with an 8-bit data path. chairman and CEO, Bob Noyce $ Intel introduces the 2920 signal becomes vice chairman, and Andy processor, the first microprocessor Grove becomes president and capable of performing real-time chief operating officer. digital processing of analog signals. Employees celebrate Intel’s tenth anniversary with an all-out bash at the San Francisco Cow Palace. 1978 1979 Ten years,10,000 employees $ Intel exits the digital watch busi- $ Employees celebrate Intel’s ness, selling the Microma name to tenth anniversary with an all-out a Swiss company and its watch bash at the Cow Palace in South designs and inventory to Timex. San Francisco. $ The company moves into Arizona $ Intel hires its 10,000th employee. with the opening of operations in Deer Valley, which later move to $ Intel introduces the 8086 16-bit Chandler. microprocessor, which becomes an industry standard. Although their roles change, the same three men—Andy Grove, Bob Noyce, and Gordon Moore (left to right)—continue to lead Intel. Ethernet spurs networking $ Intel introduces the 8051 and $ Intel, Digital Equipment 8751 microcontrollers, which Corporation (DEC), and Xerox become the best-selling micro- announce the cooperative Ethernet controllers in the world. project, which allows different com- $ Intel opens a major campus in puters to communicate with each Chandler, Arizona. other in local area networks (LANs). $ To encourage employees to $ Intel introduces the 8087 math continue their professional devel- coprocessor, which boosts micro- opment, Intel launches a program processor performance by offload- to provide tuition assistance for ing complex math functions. job-related education. Earl Whetstone