Intel in early 1990s Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Intel in early 1990s - Essay Example In this essay, let us examine some of these policies in early the 1990s that have made Intel the industry leader it is today and the organizational consequences they brought about. 1. Diversification: Due to intense invasion of the Japanese in the memory market, Intel decided to cut its losses and phase out its DRAM product. It shifted its focus to manufacturing of CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors with renewed vigor and this became Intel's largest source of revenue. It had also lined up secondary products like Flash memory and RISC(Reduced Instruction set Computer) processors. Intel began calling itself "The Microprocessor Company" .By pushing both its CISC and RISC technology, Intel hoped to maintain its dominance in processor market.(Dakota Hatch(October 2004). 2. Innovation: Innovation has always been Intel's ace in the sleeve .By its passionate pursuit of the latest and greatest in technology and futuristic vision, it has carved itself an undeniable place in the history of evolution of technology. The emergence of multimedia in the early 1990s signaled a new era of personal computing. Intel was up for the challenge. The Intel Pentium processor served as the engine of this multimedia revolution by making it easy for users to incorporate speech, sound, handwriting and photographic images. The Internet era of personal computing, debuted roughly halfway through the 1990s, marked by the mainstream deployment of Web browsers. The Intel Pentium II and Pentium III processors powered PCs through this pivotal stage of high tech evolution. (Intel Press Release).The Japanese tended to be the process technology leaders into each new smaller line width process generation. By the early 1990s, however, Intel found itself in the position of needing new p rocesses in advance of the DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) industry's needs or its willingness to invest in such processes. Intel had to learn to be a process technology leader and to develop systems whereby it could continue to improve process technology while accelerating its pace of product development. Intel crafted a brilliant 3DCE strategy that used product/process modularity to reduce significantly the complexity of the company's technical challenge: Throughout the 1990s, the company launched each new microprocessor generation on the "platform" of an old (linewidth) process. Alternately, each new process generation was launched with an "old" product technology. In no time, Intel's process technology was second to none .( Sean Osborne,1993). 3. Creation Of Intel Architecture lab in 1991: During the early 1990s, PC demand was poor because of the obsolescence of PC architecture and the non-willingness of PC industry leaders to advance system hardware along with the software. This lack of platform leadership in the industry had limited the scope of innovation at the system level. This was a serious issue for Intel because the microprocessor was a big growth industry and the fact that many companies had a say in PC design indicated that no single supplier could change the system by itself. To tackle the PC platform obsolescence problem and also