   #copyright

Intel Corporation

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Companies

   Intel Corporation
         Type       Public ( NASDAQ: INTC)
       Founded      1968
     Headquarters   United States Santa Clara, California, USA (incorporated
                    in Delaware)
      Key people    Paul Otellini, CEO
                    Craig Barrett, Chairman
       Industry     Semiconductors
       Products     Microprocessors
                    Flash memory
                    Motherboard Chipsets
                    Network Interface Card
       Revenue      $38.83 billion USD ( 2005)
   Operating income $12.1 billion USD ( 2005)
      Net income    $8.7 billion USD ( 2005)
      Employees     99,900
        Slogan      Leap ahead.
       Website      www.intel.com

   Intel Corporation ( NASDAQ: INTC)( SEHK: 4335) is the world's largest
   semiconductor company and the leading manufacturer of the x86 series of
   microprocessors, the processor in IBM PC-compatible personal computers.
   Founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation and based in
   Santa Clara, California, USA, Intel also makes motherboard chipsets,
   network cards and ICs, flash memory, embedded processors, and other
   devices related to communications and computing. Founded by
   semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Intel combines
   advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing
   capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists,
   Intel's successful "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s
   made it and its Pentium processor household names.

   Intel was an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, and this
   represented the majority of its business until the early 1980s. While
   Intel created the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was
   not until the creation of the personal computer (PC) that this became
   their primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new
   microprocessor designs and in fostering the rapid growth of the PC
   industry. During this period Intel became the de facto monopoly
   supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive
   tactics in defense of its market position, as well as a struggle with
   Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry.

   By the early 2000s, Microsoft had passed Intel in power in the PC
   industry, and competitors had emerged in the advanced microprocessor
   market. Intel's November 2006 stock market capitalization was less than
   one-quarter of its 2000 high, and only 40% of Microsoft's.

History

   Intel headquarters in Santa Clara
   Enlarge
   Intel headquarters in Santa Clara

   Intel was founded in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore (a chemist and physicist)
   and Robert Noyce (a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated
   circuit) when they left Fairchild Semiconductor. It is noteworthy that
   Intel competitor AMD was also founded by members of the Traitorous
   Eight, in 1969. Intel's fourth employee was Andy Grove (a chemical
   engineer), who ran the company through much of the 1980s and the
   high-growth 1990s. Grove is now remembered as the company's key
   business and strategic leader. By the end of the 1990s, Intel was one
   of the largest and most successful businesses in the world, though
   fierce competition within the semiconductor industry has since
   diminished its position.

   Intel has grown through several distinct phases. At its founding, Intel
   was distinguished simply by its ability to make semiconductors, and its
   primary product were static random access memory (SRAM) chips. Intel's
   business grew during the 1970s as it expanded and improved its
   manufacturing processes and produced a wider range of products, still
   dominated by various memory devices. While Intel created the first
   microprocessor in 1971, by the early 1980s its business was dominated
   by Dynamic random access memory chips. However, increased competition
   from Japanese semiconductor manufacturers had by 1983 dramatically
   reduced the profitability of this market, and the sudden success of the
   IBM personal computer convinced then-CEO Grove to shift the company's
   focus to microprocessors and to change fundamental aspects of that
   business model. By the end of the 1980s this decision had proven
   successful, and Intel embarked on a 10-year period of unprecedented
   growth as the primary (and most profitable) hardware supplier to the PC
   industry. After 2000, growth in demand for high-end microprocessors
   slowed and competitors garnered significant market share, initially in
   low-end and mid-range processors but ultimately across the product
   range, and Intel's dominant position was reduced. In the early 2000s
   then-CEO Craig Barrett attempted to diversify the company's business
   beyond semiconductors, but few of these activities were ultimately
   successful. In 2005 and 2006, CEO Paul Otellini reorganized the company
   to refocus on core processor businesses and announced a series of
   dramatic cuts in the size of Intel's workforce that will ultimately
   reduce the company's size by over 10%.

   In September 2006, Intel had nearly 100,000 employees and 200
   facilities world wide. Its 2005 revenues were $38.8 billion and its
   Fortune 500 ranking was 49th. Its stock symbol is INTC, listed on the
   NASDAQ.

SRAMS and the microprocessor

   The company's first products were random-access memory integrated
   circuits, and Intel grew to be a leader in the fiercely competitive
   DRAM, SRAM, and ROM markets throughout the 1970s. Concurrently, Intel
   engineers Marcian Hoff, Federico Faggin, Stanley Mazor and Masatoshi
   Shima invented the first microprocessor. Originally developed for the
   Japanese company Busicom to replace a number of ASICs in a calculator
   already produced by Busicom, the Intel 4004 was introduced to the mass
   market on November 15, 1971, though the microprocessor did not become
   the core of Intel's business until the mid-1980s. (Note: Intel is
   usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous
   invention of the microprocessor.)

From DRAM to microprocessors

   In 1983, at the dawn of the personal computer era, Intel's profits came
   under increased pressure from Japanese memory-chip manufacturers, and
   then-President Andy Grove drove the company into a focus on
   microprocessors. Grove described this transition in the book Only the
   Paranoid Survive. A key element of his plan was the notion, then
   considered radical, of becoming the single source for successors to the
   popular 8086 microprocessor.

   Until then, manufacture of complex integrated circuits was not reliable
   enough for customers to depend on a single supplier, but Grove began
   producing processors in three geographically distinct factories, and
   ceased licensing the chip designs to competitors such as Zilog and AMD.
   When the PC industry exploded in the late 1980s and 1990s, Intel was
   one of the primary beneficiaries.

Intel, x86 processors, and the IBM PC

   Despite the ultimate importance of the microprocessor, the 4004 and its
   successors the 8008 and the 8080 were never major revenue contributors
   at Intel. As the next processor, the 8086 (and its variant the 8088)
   was completed in 1978, Intel embarked on a major marketing and sales
   campaign for that chip nicknamed "Operation Crush", and intended to win
   as many customers for the processor as possible. One design win was the
   newly-created IBM PC division, though the importance of the this was
   not fully realized at the time.

   IBM introduced its personal computer in 1981, and it was rapidly
   successful. In 1982, Intel created the 80286 microprocessor, though IBM
   chose not to use that, embarking on an effort to produce its own x86
   processor under a cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Compaq, the
   first IBM PC "clone" manufacturer, in 1985 produced a desktop system
   based on the faster 80286 processor and in 1986 quickly followed with
   the first 80386-based system, beating IBM and establishing a
   competitive market for PC-compatible systems and setting up Intel as a
   key component supplier.

386 microprocessor

   During this period Grove dramatically redirected the company, closing
   much of its DRAM business and directing resources to the microprocessor
   business. Of perhaps more importance was his decision to
   "single-source" the 386 microprocessor. Prior to this, microprocessor
   manufacturing was in its infancy, and manufacturing problems frequently
   reduced or stopped production, interrupting supplies to customers. To
   mitigate this risk, these customers typically insisted that multiple
   manufacturers produce chips they would use to ensure a consistent
   supply. The 8080 and 8086-series microprocessor were produced by
   several companies, notably Zilog and AMD. Grove made the decision not
   to license the 386 design to other manufacturers, instead producing it
   in three geographically-distinct factories in Santa Clara (CA),
   Hillsboro (OR), and Phoenix (AZ), and convincing customers that this
   would ensure consistent delivery. As the success of Compaq's Deskpro
   386 established the 386 as the dominant CPU choice, Intel achieved a
   position of near-exclusive dominance as its supplier. Profits from this
   funded rapid development of both higher-performance chip designs and
   higher-performance manufacturing capabilities, propelling Intel to a
   position of unquestioned leadership by the early 1990s.

486, Pentium, and Itanium

   Intel introduced the 486 microprocessor in 1989, and in 1990 formally
   established a second design team, designing the processors code-named
   "P5" and "P6" in parallel and committing to a major new processor every
   two years, versus the four or more years such designs had previously
   taken. The P5 was introduced in 1993 as the Intel Pentium, substituting
   a trademarked name for the former part number (numbers, like 486,
   cannot be trademarked). The P6 followed in 1995 as the Pentium Pro and
   improved into the Pentium II in 1997. New architectures were developed
   alternately in Santa Clara, California, Hillsboro, Oregon, and Haifa,
   Israel.

   Intel's Santa Clara design team embarked in 1993 on a successor to the
   x86 architecture, codenamed "P7". The first attempt was dropped a year
   later, but quickly revived in a cooperative program with
   Hewlett-Packard engineers, though Intel soon took over primary design
   responsibility. The resulting implementation of the IA-64 64-bit
   architecture was the Itanium and was introduced in June 2001. The
   Itanium's performance running legacy x86 code did not achieve
   expectations, and it inititally failed to effectively compete with
   64-bit extensions to the original x86 architecture, first from AMD (the
   AMD64, then from Intel itself (the EM64T). Intel continues to develop
   the Itanium and the IA-64 architecture.

   During this period Intel's Hillsboro team designed and introduced the *
   P6 Pentium Pro in 1995, the Willamette processor (code-named P67 and
   P68) and marketed as Pentium 4, and finally the 64-bit extensions to
   the x86 architecture, present in some versions of the Pentium 4 and in
   the Intel Core 2 chips.

Pentium flaw

   In June 1994, Intel engineers discovered a flaw in the floating-point
   math subsection of the Pentium microprocessor. Under certain
   data-dependent conditions, low-order bits of the result of
   floating-point division operations would be incorrect, an error that
   can quickly compound in floating-point operations to much larger errors
   in subsequent calculations. Nonetheless, Intel decided to correct the
   error in a future chip revision and did not disclose it.

   On October 1994 Dr. Thomas Nicely, Professor of Mathematics at
   Lynchburg College independently discovered the bug, and upon receiving
   no response from his inquiry to Intel, on October 30 posted a message
   on the Internet . Word of the bug spread quickly on the Internet and
   then to the industry press. Because the bug was easy to replicate by an
   average user (there was a sequence of numbers one could enter into
   Microsoft's calculator tool to show the error), Intel's statements that
   it was minor and "not even an erratum" were not accepted by many
   computer users. During Thanksgiving 1994 the New York Times ran a piece
   by journalist John Markoff spotlighting the error. Intel changed their
   position and decided to offer to replace every chip with a problem,
   quickly putting in place a large end-user support organization. This
   resulted in a $500 million charge against Intel's 1994 revenue.

   Paradoxically, the "Pentium flaw" incident, Intel's response to it, and
   the surrounding media coverage propelled Intel from being a technology
   supplier generally unknown to most computer users to a household name.
   Dovetailing with an uptick in the "Intel Inside" campaign, the episode
   is considered by some to have been a positive event for Intel, changing
   some of its business practices to be more end-user focused and
   generating substantial public awareness, while avoiding (for most
   users) a lasting negative impression.

Intel Inside, Intel Systems Division, and Intel Architecture Labs

   During this period, Intel undertook two major supporting programs that
   helped guarantee their processor's success. The first is widely-known:
   the 1990 " Intel Inside" marketing and branding campaign. This campaign
   established Intel, which had been a component supplier little-known
   outside the PC industry, as a household name. The second program is
   little-known: Intel's Systems Group began, in the early 1990s,
   manufacturing PC " motherboards", the main board component of a
   personal computer, and the one containing the processor and memory.
   Shortly after, Intel began manufacturing fully-configured "white box"
   systems for the dozens of PC clone companies that rapidly sprang up. At
   its peak in the mid-1990s, Intel manufactured over 15% of all PCs,
   making it the third-largest supplier at the time. By manufacturing
   leading-edge PC motherboards systems, Intel placed pressure on other
   manufacturers to rapidly produce systems with the newest
   microprocessors and system architecture, including the PCI bus, USB and
   other innovations. This in turn led to more rapid adoption of each of
   its new processors in turn, making successful competition more
   difficult for followers.

   During the 1990s, Intel's Architecture Lab (IAL) was responsible for
   many of the hardware innovations of the personal computer, including
   the PCI Bus, the PCI Express (PCIe) bus, the Universal Serial Bus
   (USB), Bluetooth wireless interconnect, and the now-dominant
   architecture for multiprocessor servers. IAL's software efforts met
   with a more mixed fate; its video and graphics software was important
   in the development of software digital video, but later its efforts
   were largely overshadowed by competition from Microsoft. The
   competition between Intel and Microsoft was revealed in testimony by
   IAL Vice-President Steven McGeady at the Microsoft antitrust trial.

   Another factor contributing to rapid adoption of Intel's processors
   during this period were the successive release of Microsoft Windows
   operating systems, each requiring significantly greater processor
   resources. The releases of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000
   provided impetus for successive generations of hardware.

Competition, antitrust and espionage

   Two factors combined to end this dominance: the slowing of PC demand
   growth beginning in 2000 and the rise of the low-cost PC. By the end of
   the 1990s, microprocessor performance had outstripped software demand
   for that CPU power. Aside from high-end server systems and software,
   demand for which dropped with the end of the " dot-com bubble",
   consumer systems ran effectively on increasingly low-cost systems after
   2000. Intel's strategy of producing ever-more-powerful processors and
   obsoleting their predecessors stumbled, leaving an opportunity for
   rapid gains by competitors, notably AMD. This in turn lowered the
   profitability of the processor line and ended an era of unprecedented
   dominance of the PC hardware by Intel.

   Intel's dominance in the x86 microprocessor market led to numerous
   charges of antitrust violations over the years, including FTC
   investigations in both the late 1980s and in 1999, and civil actions
   such as the 1997 suit by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and a
   patent suit by Intergraph. Intel's market dominance (at one time it
   controlled over 85% of the market for 32-bit PC microprocessors)
   combined with Intel's own hardball legal tactics (such as its infamous
   338 patent suit versus PC manufacturers) made it an attractive target
   for litigation, but few of the lawsuits ever amounted to anything.

   A case of industrial espionage arose in 1995 that involved both Intel
   and AMD. Guillermo Gaede, an Argentine immigrant formerly employed both
   at AMD and at Intel's Arizona plant, was arrested for attempting in
   1993 to sell the i486 and Pentium designs to AMD and to certain foreign
   powers. Gaede videotaped data from his computer screen at Intel and
   mailed it to AMD, which alerted Intel and authorities, resulting in
   Gaede's arrest. Gaede was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in
   prison in June of 1996.
   iMac Intel Core Duo (20-inch)
   Enlarge
   iMac Intel Core Duo (20-inch)

Partnership with Apple

   On June 6, 2005, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple
   would be transitioning from its long favored PowerPC architecture to
   the Intel X86 architecture. Reasons stated for the change were vague
   but included thermal issues with recent PowerPC G5 chips and an
   implication that the future PowerPC roadmap was unable to satisfy
   Apple's needs for computing power. In particular, the large power
   requirement of the G5 chip and subsequent heat generation was seen as a
   major stumbling block, preventing the placement of such a chip in one
   of Apple's laptop computers. The first Apple computers containing Intel
   CPUs were announced on January 10, 2006. Apple initially planned to put
   Intel chips in all of their computers by the end of 2007, but Apple
   managed to have its entire consumer product line running on Intel
   processors by early August 2006. The Apple Xserve server was updated to
   Intel Xeon processors from November 2006 and is offered in a
   configuration similar to Apple's Mac Pro.

Leadership

   Robert Noyce was Intel's CEO at its founding in 1968, followed by
   co-founder Gordon Moore in 1975. Andy Grove became the company's
   President in 1979 and added the CEO title in 1987 when Moore became
   Chairman. In 1997 Grove succeeded Moore as Chairman, and Craig Barrett,
   already company president, took over. On May 18, 2005, Barrett handed
   the reins of the company over to Paul Otellini, who previously was the
   company president and was responsible for Intel's design win in the
   original IBM PC. The board of directors elected Otellini, and Barrett
   replaced Grove as Chairman of the Board. Grove stepped down as
   Chairman, but will be retained as a special advisor.

Corporate governance

   Current members of the board of directors of Intel are: Craig Barrett,
   Charlene Barshefsky, John Browne, James Guzy, Reed Hundt, James
   Plummer, David Pottruck, Jane Shaw, John Thornton, and David Yoffie.

Origin of the name

   At its founding, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their new
   company "Moore Noyce". This name, however, sounded remarkably similar
   to "more noise" — an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since
   noise is typically associated with bad interference. They then used the
   name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their
   company INTegrated ELectronics or "Intel" for short. However, Intel was
   already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to buy the rights for
   that name at the beginning.

   By coincidence, the BBC television science-fiction serials A for
   Andromeda (1961) and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962) had
   earlier featured a sinister multi-national electronics corporation
   named Intel, which had been involved in a plot to take control of a
   powerful computer constructed on Earth from alien radio instructions.

   There are some people who believe that the name "Intel" is originated
   from "INTELligence" (one of the ideas behind the microprocessor) or
   INTErnaLs, but actually the name is originated from "Integrated
   Electronics" and nothing other than that.

Competition

   During the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten worldwide semiconductor
   sales leaders (10th in 1987), dominated by Japanese chip makers. In
   1991, Intel achieved the number one ranking and has held it ever since.
   Other top semiconductor companies include Samsung, Texas Instruments,
   Toshiba and STMicroelectronics.

   The only major competitor to Intel on the x86 processor market is
   Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with which Intel has had full
   cross-licensing agreements since 1976: each partner can use the other's
   patented technological innovations without charge after a certain time.
   Some smaller competitors such as VIA and Transmeta produce low-power
   processors for small factor computers and portable equipment.

   In October 2006, a Transmeta lawsuit was filed against Intel for patent
   infringement covering computer architecture and power efficiency
   technologies.

   Intel filed its response to an AMD lawsuit in September 2005, disputing
   AMD's claims, and stating that its business practices are fair and
   lawful. In its rebuttal, Intel laid out the skeleton of its legal
   defense, which included a deconstruction of AMD's offensive strategy
   and levied the charge that AMD's long-struggling market position is
   largely a result of bad business decisions and management incompetence,
   including underinvestment in essential manufacturing capacity and
   over-reliance on contracting out chip foundries.

   Legal experts predict the lawsuit will most likely drag out for a
   number of years, since Intel's response indicates they are not likely
   to try to settle with AMD.

   Competitors in PC chipsets include VIA Technologies, SiS, ATI, and
   NVIDIA. Intel's competitors in networking include Freescale, Broadcom,
   Marvell, and AMCC, and its competitors in flash memory include
   Spansion, Samsung, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, and Hynix.

Finances

   Intel stock price, Nov 1986 - Nov 2006
   Enlarge
   Intel stock price, Nov 1986 - Nov 2006

   Intel's market capitalization is $119 billion (November 8, 2006). It
   publicly trades on NASDAQ with the symbol INTC, and is a member of the
   following indexes: Dow Industrials, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, SOX (PHLX
   Semiconductor Sector), and GSTI Software Index.

   INTC is a widely-held stock, with almost 5.8 billion shares
   outstanding. Institutional investors and mutual funds hold 54% of this
   stock, and corporate insiders, including Gordon Moore and Andy Grove,
   hold only about 3%. Intel achieved its all-time high closing stock
   price on August 31, 2000 at $74.87. Since then, it reached a low
   closing price of $14.62 on September 23, 2002. As of November 2006 the
   stock price was about $20.

Diversity

   Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee diversity groups
   as well as supplier diversity programs. Like many companies with
   employee diversity groups, they include groups based on race and
   nationality as well as sexual identity and religion. In 1994, Intel
   sanctioned one of the earliest corporate Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and
   Transgender employee groups, and supports a Muslim employees group, a
   Jewish employees group, and a Bible-based Christian group<ref.

   Intel received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index
   released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. It has maintained this
   rating in 2003 and 2004. In addition, the company was named one of the
   100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2005 by Working Mother
   magazine. However, Intel's working practices still face criticism, most
   notably from Ken Hamidi, a former employee who has been subject to
   multiple unsuccessful lawsuits from Intel.

Advertising

   Intel has become one of the world's most recognizable computer brands
   following its long-running "Intel Inside" campaign. The campaign, which
   started in 1990, was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter.
   The five-note jingle was introduced the following year and by its tenth
   anniversary was being heard in 130 countries around the world.

   The Intel Inside program was very lucrative for advertisers. Intel paid
   half the advertising costs for any ad that used the "Intel Inside"
   logo. However, in print media, Intel stipulated that the page the ad
   was on must not contain any references to competitors, such as AMD. If
   the ads didn't meet these requirements, Intel did not pay half the
   cost, and the advertiser was prohibited from using the "Intel Inside"
   logo. Intel employed staff whose primary function was looking for
   advertisements which violate the agreement. Advertisers found doing
   so—many of which were "mom and pop" shops ignorant of the reimbursement
   agreement—were requested to stop violating the use of the logo and were
   then told how to legally use the logo and get part of their advertising
   costs reimbursed. PC companies advertising products containing Intel
   chips are required to include the jingle in their film and television
   advertisements in order to receive the reimbursement.

   The Centrino advertising campaign has been hugely successful, leading
   to the ability to access wireless internet from a laptop becoming
   linked in consumers minds to Intel chips. In the UK this has caused
   some controversy, as the ASA upheld complaints that this was a
   misleading advert.

   In 2006, Intel has expanded its promotion of open specification
   platforms beyond Centrino, to include the Viiv media centre PC and the
   business desktop Intel vPro.

   In December 2005, Intel phased out the "Intel Inside" campaign in
   favour of a new logo and the slogan, "Leap ahead". The new logo is
   clearly inspired by the "Intel Inside" logo. In fact, sometimes "Intel
   Inside" is used, only this time with the processor name between the two
   words. Like so: "Intel Core Duo Inside".

   In mid January 2006, Intel announced that they were dropping the long
   running Pentium name from its processors. They phased out the Pentium
   names from mobile processors first, when the new Yonah chips, branded
   Core Solo and Core Duo, were released. The desktop processors changed
   when the Core 2 line of processors were released. The Pentium name was
   first used to refer to the P5 core Intel processors (Pent refers to the
   5 in P5,) and was done to circumvent court rulings that prevent the
   trademarking of a string of numbers, so competitors could not just call
   their processor the same name, as had been done with the prior 386 and
   486 processors. (Both of which had copies manufactured by both IBM and
   AMD.)

   Though some in the Macintosh community were concerned that Intel's
   branding, including the decals and jingle, would be used with the new
   Intel-based Macintoshes (see Apple Intel transition), this has not
   occurred.

   Intel's "Intel Inside" campaign has generally been considered to be
   world class marketing. However, over the years there have been several
   plays on the Intel branding scheme which have appeared on the web.
   While such jabs at Intel are obviously beyond the company's ability to
   control, they do tend to show that not everyone believes that Intel's
   programs and policies are always world class. For example, there is the
   popular "evil inside" logo , the ubiquitous picture of a tombstone with
   "R.I.P Intel Inside" , and the descriptive "Idiot Outside" logo: .

Jingle

   The famous "D♭  G♭  D♭  A♭" jingle was written by Walter Werzowa from
   the Austrian 1980s sampling band Edelweiss.

Sale of Intel's XScale processor business

   On June 27, 2006, the sale of Intel's XScale assets was announced.
   Intel agreed to sell the XScale processor business to Marvell
   Technology Group for an estimated $600 million in cash and the
   assumption of unspecified liabilities. The move is intended to permit
   Intel to focus its recources on its core x86 and server businesses.
   Both parties advised they expect to close the transaction within five
   months, at which time Intel will continue manufacturing Xscale
   processors until Marvell secures other manufacturing facilities.
     * Marvell buys Intel's handheld processor unit for $600 million

Intel and Free software

   Intel has a significant participation in the open source communities.
   For example, in 2006 Intel released MIT-licensed X.org drivers for
   their integrated graphics cards of the i965 family of chipsets. On
   other occasions, Intel released FreeBSD drivers for some networking
   cards , available under a BSD-compatible licence, which were also
   ported to OpenBSD. However, after the release of the wireless products
   called Intel Pro/Wireless 2100, 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG and 3945ABG,
   Intel is being criticised for not granting free redistribution rights
   for the firmwares that are necessary to be included in the operating
   systems for the wireless devices to operate. As a result of this, Intel
   became a target of massive campaigns to allow free operating systems to
   include binary firmwares on terms acceptable to the open source
   community. Examples of negative press include an article by
   Linspire-Linux creator Michael Robertson in March, 2003. In the article
   titled: " Is Intel's "Centrino" Techno-Latin for "No Linux?"",
   Robertson goes on to outline the difficult position that Intel is in
   releasing to Open Source, but not wanting to upset their large customer
   Microsoft. Although Intel has received a significant negative attention
   as a result of the wireless dealings (for another example, Theo de
   Raadt of OpenBSD claimed that Intel is being "an Open Source fraud"
   after an Intel employee presented a distorted view of the situation on
   an open-source conference ), the binary firmwares still have not gained
   a licence compatible with free software principles

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