Intel Computer Hardware

Intel computer hardware consists mainly of motherboard chipsets and CPUs (processors). In 1971 Intel manufactured the first microprocessor chip: the Intel 4004. Intel was the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors often found in the average home pc.

Intel was founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation. Although mostly known for their processors, Intel computer hardware does include motherboard chipsets, flash memory, graphics chips, network cards and ICs, embedded processors and other computing devices.

Intel Inside

In the 1990’s Intel formed their successful ‘Intel Inside’ campaign. This advertising campaign was formed to invest in the aspect of personal computers. Prior to this Intel computer hardware had been used primarily for engineers and technologists. After this time Intel became the primary manufacturer of microprocessors for the personal computer. Intel’s most famous CPUs at this time are the Pentiums and Celerons.

Innovations by Intel

In the early 1990s, Intel began manufacturing computer motherboards. Intel is also responsible for many of the innovations in the computer world. These were the PCI-slots, PCI-Express, USB (Universal Serial Bus), and bluetooth. The Microsoft operating systems needed more powerful CPUs and the releases of early operating systems, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000, forced Intel to invest in new CPUs continually.

Dominance decrease

The dominance and monopoly held Intel in computer hardware gradually decreased in the last ten years. AMD made rapid gains and its CPU chips competed with Intel’s and their performance was generally better for price. The computer demand had also slowed down and the microprocessor’s performance outwayed the software at this time.

Intel and Apple

In 2005, Apple announced that they would change to the Intel x86 architecture. In 2006, Apple planned to place Intel chips in all of their computers by the end of 2007, however by August 2006, all its consumer products were running on Intel processors.

The Intel Core 2 CPUs

In 2006, Intel moved away from building CPUs with fast clock speed and built the new generation Core 2 CPUs. Most of these new CPUs have slower clock speeds but are much better then the fast Pentium 4s (read about the Megahertz Myth here). The core microarchitecture improved the processors usage of the clock cycles and power. The core 2 brand was composed of the Solo (single core), Duo (dual-core), Quad (quad core), and Extreme (dual or quad core).

Intel Leap Ahead

In January 2006, Intel officially changed its logo from the, ‘Intel Inside’ to ‘Intel, Leap Ahead’. The reason for this change is that Intel wanted people to be aware that Intel computer hardware is not only the small microprocessor that is inside the computer but in other computing areas. The line ‘Leap Ahead’ is meant to show that Intel is striving to move forward in the future.

Conclusion

Intel computer hardware has vastly impacted the world of computers. For many years, Intel alone manufactured CPUs while now Intel and AMD basically own the market. Over many years, Intel has improved their CPUs and the CPU chart below shows that. When people purchase a CPU it is hard to know whether to buy an AMD CPU or an Intel CPU. This article will compare the Intel CPUs to the AMD CPUs and hopefully you will know which CPU fits your needs.