"Where's the leadership even remotely comparable to what Intel innovated over 30 years ago? Dynamic RAMs, EPROMs, the microprocessor, the development system...all of those innovations came before you even went to work there.
No, some of those innovations were happening as I joined Intel. The 8080, which was the first usable PC processor (ignoring one company, Sphere I think it was, that had an 8008 model) came out as I was starting. And the Microprocessor Development System (MDS) and Single Board Computer, were yet to appear. Ditto for several other major innovations. And lots of process and design innovations later.
(I neglected to mention CAD in my laundry list of leadership areas. This was an area Intel absolutely excelled in. One of the main reasons Intel got the PC contract in 1980 (for the '81 launch) was that the 8086 and 8088 were in the CAD data base (Applicon, Calma, Mainsail, the work of Todd Wagner, Dick Gruen, Aryeh Finegold, and many others) while the 68000 was still on rubylith. IBM had understandable doubts that the superior architecture of the 68K would be worth the a) 2x the die size, b) hand layout, and c) production prowess advantages Intel had.)
"Vaunted Intel vaulted to #1 through a virtual monopoly on x86 chips. They abandoned the DRAM business where you made your most significant contribution. Intel makes all of its profit on IA-32; everything else is just "Other". "
Them getting out of DRAMs was disappointing, but it was clearly the right decision. They got out in the mid-80s as Japan, Inc. was putting their eggs into RAM. Look who's where today.
--Tim May |
