Intel's Foundry Goal: Next-Gen Systems?

Tam Harbert, EBN
5/13/2014

The PC market declined 8% last year, according to IHS. In its first-quarter earnings report, released in April, Intel reported an 8% drop in revenue from the fourth quarter of last year. Net income dropped 26%.

Coincidence? I think not. Personal computers have been Intel's primary market for decades, and the company was late to recognize how much smartphones and tablets were eating the PC market's lunch. The company has said it would reduce its workforce by 5% this year. Last month, it said it would close a Costa Rican facility, cutting 1,500 jobs. It also will delay the opening of its Fab 42 in Arizona.

The search for growth and revenue is one reason Intel has been raising the profile of its foundry business over the last year. It entered the foundry business in 2010, taking on a few small customers such as the programmable logic startups Achronix Semiconductor and Tabula. Intel CEO Paul Ortellini downplayed the moves at the time, saying, "We don't see ourselves as a general-purpose foundry."

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