Intel's measures in the late 1970s as a reaction to increasing competition from other chip manufacturers paid off greatly and resulted in a remarkable technological lead against its competitors. The most significant consequence, which was a landmark in the company's development, was IBM's decision to rely on the Intel 8088 microprocessor for its PCs in 1980.

IBM (short for International Business Machines) has been the world's leading company in the big mainframe computers since the 1950s. Due to its dominance, it was often compared with a giant and referred to as "Big Blue." Surprisingly, it was not before 198 1 (the PC revolution had already been on for a few years) that IBM introduced its own Personal Computer.

Because of IBM's dominance and worldwide reputation, its PCs soon became industry standard and penetrated the office market: other established computer companies followed and introduced their own PCs - the so-called "clones" - which were compatible to IBM' s models. To maintain compatibility, all these manufacturers were forced to rely on Intel's microprocessors, which thus were bootstrapped to industry standard, too.

As well as for Intel, the CPU manufacturer, IBM's decision has been crucial for a company in the software field: Microsoft's (Redmond, Washington) MS-DOS was chosen as the IBM PC's operating system and became industry standard. It is essential to every IBM compatible PC. Microsoft, a small company in 1980, grew explosively, and is today's superior software giant.

At the beginning of the 1980s, IBM was concerned about Intel's ability to keep investing in R&D and therefore decided to support Intel by buying $250 million (=12%) of the company's stock. This endorsed Intel's position, and, in 1987, IBM sold the last of its shares in a strong Intel.

Intel today

Annual report 2000

Today, Intel supplies the computing and communications industries with chips, boards and systems building blocks that are the "ingredients" of computers, servers, and networking and communications products. Industry members to create advanced computing and communications systems use these products. Intel's mission is to be the preeminent building block supplier to the worldwide Internet economy.

Intel® Architecture platform products Microprocessors, also called central processing units (CPUs) or chips, are frequently described as the "brains" of a computer, because they control the central processing of data in personal computers (PCs), servers, workstations and other computers. Intel offers microprocessors optimized for each segment of the computing market:

Intel® Pentium® III Xeon™ processors for mid-range to high-end servers and workstations

Intel® Pentium® 4 and Pentium® III processors for entry-level servers and workstations and performance desktop PCs

Intel® Celeron™ processors for value PC systems

Mobile Pentium® III processors for performance in mobile PC systems

Chipsets perform essential logic functions surrounding the CPU in computers, and support and extend the graphics, video and other capabilities of many Intel processor-based systems.

Motherboards combine Intel microprocessors and chipsets to form the basic subsystem of a PC or server.

e-Business solutions enable services and channel programs to accelerate integration and deployment of Intel Architecture-based systems and products.

Wireless communications and computing products These products are component-level hardware and software focusing on digital cellular communications and other applications needing both low-power processing and high performance. These products are used in mobile phones, handheld devices, two-way pagers and many other products. For these markets, Intel offers Intel® Flash memory, application processors based on the Intel® StrongARM processor core, and base band chipsets for cellular phones and other wireless devices.

Networking and communications products Communications building blocks for next-generation networks and Internet data centers are offered at various levels of integration. These products are used in communications servers, network appliances and computer telephony integration equipment.

Component-level building blocks include communications silicon such as network processors and other board-level components, software and embedded control chips. These products are integrated in communications hardware such as hubs, routers, switches and servers for local and wide area networking applications. Embedded control chips are also used in laser printers, imaging, automotive systems and other applications.

New business products These products and services include e-Commerce data center services as well as connected peripherals.

Intel's major customers include:

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of computer systems, cellular phone and handheld computing devices, telecommunications and networking communications equipment, and peripherals.

Users of PC and network communications products including individuals, large and small businesses, and Internet service providers—who buy Intel's PC enhancements, business communications products and networking products through reseller, retail, e-Business and OEM channels.

Other manufacturers including makers of a wide range of industrial and communications equipment.