Intel in its early years, following its founding in 1968, was a remarkable company. It used its leading-edge capabilities in semiconductor manufacturi

Intel's Transformation 2.0 - by Babbage - The Chip Letter

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2024-09-24 11:00:02

Intel in its early years, following its founding in 1968, was a remarkable company. It used its leading-edge capabilities in semiconductor manufacturing to create and often lead a series of fast-growing new markets: first DRAMS, then microcontrollers, EPROMS, and of course, microprocessors and more.

New products were sometimes commercial or technical failures. We’ve discussed the iAPX432 ‘micromainframe’ chipset that made little or no impact as it was quickly withdrawn.

However, by the mid-1980s, Intel was starting to struggle, and Andy Grove and Gordon Moore made the difficult decision to exit DRAMs in 1985. Intel’s website records the announcement to staff on October 10.

Intel announced its withdrawal from the market for dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The decision wasn't easy – DRAM, introduced in 1970, was one of the company's first major innovations – but it proved to be wise. As Andy Grove explained, "It was an emotional decision. We had been the first to introduce the product and build the business ... In retrospect, getting out of DRAMs when we did was the best business decision we ever made."

The decision to exit DRAM made sense because Intel had a blockbuster product ready and waiting to go. A week later, on October 17, it announced the 80386 microprocessor.