x86 virtualization is the use of hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities on an x86/x86-64 CPU.
102-579: In the late 1990s x86 virtualization was achieved by complex software techniques, necessary to compensate for the processor's lack of hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities while attaining reasonable performance. In 2005 and 2006, both Intel ( VT-x ) and AMD ( AMD-V ) introduced limited hardware virtualization support that allowed simpler virtualization software but offered very few speed benefits. Greater hardware support, which allowed substantial speed improvements, came with later processor models. The following discussion focuses only on virtualization of
204-550: A BIOS call (INT 15h, AH=87h), as a RAM disk , or as emulation of expanded memory . The difficulty lay in the incompatibility of older real-mode DOS programs with protected mode. They simply could not natively run in this new mode without significant modification. In protected mode, memory management and interrupt handling were done differently than in real mode. In addition, DOS programs typically would directly access data and code segments that did not belong to them, as real mode allowed them to do without restriction; in contrast,
306-403: A dedicated unit in the 80286, while the older 8086 had to do effective address computation using its general ALU , consuming several extra clock cycles in many cases. Also, the 80286 was more efficient in the prefetch of instructions, buffering, execution of jumps, and in complex microcoded numerical operations such as MUL / DIV than its predecessor. The 80286 included, in addition to all of
408-547: A few (such as SMSW and LMSW) are useful for real mode itself. The Intel 80286 had a 24-bit address bus and as such had a 16 MB physical address space , compared to the 1 MB address space of prior x86 processors. It was the first x86 processor to support virtual memory supporting up to 1 GB via segmentation. However, memory cost and the initial rarity of software using the memory above 1 MB meant that until late in its production, 80286 computers rarely shipped with more than 1 MB of RAM. Additionally, there
510-437: A limited group of private investors (equivalent to $ 21 million in 2022), convertible at $ 5 per share. Just 2 years later, Intel became a public company via an initial public offering (IPO), raising $ 6.8 million ($ 23.50 per share). Intel was one of the very first companies to be listed on the then-newly established National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations ( NASDAQ ) stock exchange. Intel's third employee
612-572: A major retrenchment for most of the major semiconductor manufacturers, except for Qualcomm, which continued to see healthy purchases from its largest customer, Apple. As of July 2013, five companies were using Intel's fabs via the Intel Custom Foundry division: Achronix , Tabula , Netronome , Microsemi , and Panasonic – most are field-programmable gate array (FPGA) makers, but Netronome designs network processors. Only Achronix began shipping chips made by Intel using
714-632: A new microprocessor manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona , completed in 2013 at a cost of $ 5 billion. The building is now the 10 nm-certified Fab 42 and is connected to the other Fabs (12, 22, 32) on Ocotillo Campus via an enclosed bridge known as the Link. The company produces three-quarters of its products in the United States, although three-quarters of its revenue come from overseas. The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI)
816-696: A processor for tablets and smartphones – to the market in 2012, as an effort to compete with Arm. As a 32-nanometer processor, Medfield is designed to be energy-efficient, which is one of the core features in Arm's chips. At the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) 2011 in San Francisco, Intel's partnership with Google was announced. In January 2012, Google announced Android 2.3, supporting Intel's Atom microprocessor. In 2013, Intel's Kirk Skaugen said that Intel's exclusive focus on Microsoft platforms
918-723: A reduction in Intel's dominance and market share in the PC market. Nevertheless, with a 68.4% market share as of 2023, Intel still leads the x86 market by a wide margin. In addition, Intel's ability to design and manufacture its own chips is considered a rarity in the semiconductor industry , as most chip designers do not have their own production facilities and instead rely on contract manufacturers (e.g. AMD and Nvidia ). In 2023, Dell accounted for about 19% of Intel's total revenues, Lenovo accounted for 11% of total revenues, and HP Inc. accounted for 10% of total revenues. As of May 2024,
1020-503: A significant enough performance advantage over the 8086-compatible real mode to justify supporting its capabilities; actually, except for task switches when multitasking, it yielded only a performance disadvantage, by slowing down many instructions through a litany of added privilege checks. In protected mode, registers were still 16-bit, and the programmer was still forced to use a memory map composed of 64 kB segments, just like in real mode. In January 1985, Digital Research previewed
1122-579: A standalone business unit. Unlike Intel Custom Foundry, IFS will offer a combination of packaging and process technology, and Intel's IP portfolio including x86 cores. Other plans for the company include a partnership with IBM and a new event for developers and engineers, called "Intel ON". Gelsinger also confirmed that Intel's 7 nm process is on track, and that the first products using their 7 nm process (also known as Intel 4) are Ponte Vecchio and Meteor Lake . In January 2022, Intel reportedly selected New Albany, Ohio , near Columbus, Ohio , as
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#17327919029521224-636: A stroke regained much of its leadership of the field. In 2008, Intel had another "tick" when it introduced the Penryn microarchitecture, fabricated using the 45 nm process node. Later that year, Intel released a processor with the Nehalem architecture to positive reception. 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 and
1326-544: A technology for page-table virtualization, since the Nehalem architecture, released in 2008. In 2010, Westmere added support for launching the logical processor directly in real mode – a feature called "unrestricted guest", which requires EPT to work. Since the Haswell microarchitecture (announced in 2013), Intel started to include VMCS shadowing as a technology that accelerates nested virtualization of VMMs. The virtual machine control structure (VMCS)
1428-582: A virtual execution mode where the guest OS perceives itself as running with full privilege (ring 0), but the host OS remains protected. As of 2015, almost all newer server, desktop and mobile Intel processors support VT-x, with some of the Intel Atom processors as the primary exception. With some motherboards , users must enable Intel's VT-x feature in the BIOS setup before applications can make use of it. Intel started to include Extended Page Tables (EPT),
1530-456: Is RISC-V , which is an open source CPU instruction set. The major Chinese phone and telecommunications manufacturer Huawei has released chips based on the RISC-V instruction set due to US sanctions against China . Intel has been involved in several disputes regarding the violation of antitrust laws , which are noted below. Intel reported total CO 2 e emissions (direct + indirect) for
1632-576: Is "svm". This may be checked in BSD derivatives via dmesg or sysctl and in Linux via /proc/ cpuinfo . Instructions in AMD-V include VMRUN, VMLOAD, VMSAVE, CLGI, VMMCALL, INVLPGA, SKINIT, and STGI. With some motherboards , users must enable AMD SVM feature in the BIOS setup before applications can make use of it. Previously codenamed "Vanderpool", VT-x represents Intel's technology for virtualization on
1734-703: Is a data structure in memory that exists exactly once per VM, while it is managed by the VMM. With every change of the execution context between different VMs, the VMCS is restored for the current VM, defining the state of the VM's virtual processor. As soon as more than one VMM or nested VMMs are used, a problem appears in a way similar to what required shadow page table management to be invented, as described above . In such cases, VMCS needs to be shadowed multiple times (in case of nesting) and partially implemented in software in case there
1836-460: Is associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove . The company was a key component of the rise of Silicon Valley as a high-tech center, as well as being an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, which represented the majority of its business until 1981. Although Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip—the Intel 4004 —in 1971, it was not until
1938-611: Is available on the AMD family 15h models 6Xh (Carrizo) processors and newer. Also in 2012, Intel announced a similar technology for interrupt and APIC virtualization, which did not have a brand name at its announcement time. Later, it was branded as APIC virtualization ( APICv ) and it became commercially available in the Ivy Bridge EP series of Intel CPUs, which is sold as Xeon E5-26xx v2 (launched in late 2013) and as Xeon E5-46xx v2 (launched in early 2014). Graphics virtualization
2040-464: Is called ring deprivileging , which involves running the guest OS at a ring higher (lesser privileged) than 0. Three techniques made virtualization of protected mode possible: These techniques incur some performance overhead due to lack of MMU virtualization support, as compared to a VM running on a natively virtualizable architecture such as the IBM System/370 . On traditional mainframes,
2142-522: Is considered one of the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturers by revenue and ranked in the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue for nearly a decade, from 2007 to 2016 fiscal years, until it was removed from the ranking in 2018. In 2020, it was reinstated and ranked 45th, being the 7th-largest technology company in the ranking . Intel supplies microprocessors for most manufacturers of computer systems, and
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#17327919029522244-438: Is expected to affect Intel minimally; however, it might prompt other PC manufacturers to reevaluate their reliance on Intel and the x86 architecture. On March 23, 2021, CEO Pat Gelsinger laid out new plans for the company. These include a new strategy, called IDM 2.0, that includes investments in manufacturing facilities, use of both internal and external foundries, and a new foundry business called Intel Foundry Services (IFS),
2346-649: Is no hardware support by the processor. To make shadow VMCS handling more efficient, Intel implemented hardware support for VMCS shadowing. VIA Nano 3000 Series Processors and higher support VIA VT virtualization technology compatible with Intel VT-x. EPT is present in Zhaoxin ZX-C, a descendant of VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4 similar to Nano C4350AL . In 2012, AMD announced their Advanced Virtual Interrupt Controller ( AVIC ) targeting interrupt overhead reduction in virtualization environments. This technology, as announced, does not support x2APIC . In 2016, AVIC
2448-521: Is not part of the x86 architecture. Intel Graphics Virtualization Technology (GVT) provides graphics virtualization as part of more recent Gen graphics architectures. Although AMD APUs implement the x86-64 instruction set, they implement AMD's own graphics architectures ( TeraScale , GCN and RDNA ) which do not support graphics virtualization. Larrabee was the only graphics microarchitecture based on x86, but it likely did not include support for graphics virtualization. Memory and I/O virtualization
2550-594: Is not supported by any Socket 939 processors. The only Sempron processors which support it are APUs and Huron , Regor , Sargas desktop CPUs. AMD Opteron CPUs beginning with the Family 0x10 Barcelona line, and Phenom II CPUs, support a second generation hardware virtualization technology called Rapid Virtualization Indexing (formerly known as Nested Page Tables during its development), later adopted by Intel as Extended Page Tables (EPT). As of 2019, all Zen -based AMD processors support AMD-V. The CPU flag for AMD-V
2652-484: Is one of the developers of the x86 series of instruction sets found in most personal computers (PCs). It also manufactures chipsets , network interface controllers , flash memory , graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and other devices related to communications and computing. Intel has a strong presence in the high-performance general-purpose and gaming PC market with its Intel Core line of CPUs, whose high-end models are among
2754-657: Is performed by the chipset . Typically these features must be enabled by the BIOS, which must be able to support them and also be set to use them. An input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) allows guest virtual machines to directly use peripheral devices, such as Ethernet, accelerated graphics cards, and hard-drive controllers, through DMA and interrupt remapping. This is sometimes called PCI passthrough . An IOMMU also allows operating systems to eliminate bounce buffers needed to allow themselves to communicate with peripheral devices whose memory address spaces are smaller than
2856-471: Is planned for 2027. Including subcontractors, this would create 10,000 new jobs. In August 2022, Intel signed a $ 30 billion partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to fund its recent factory expansions. As part of the deal, Intel would have a controlling stake by funding 51% of the cost of building new chip-making facilities in Chandler, with Brookfield owning the remaining 49% stake, allowing
2958-457: Is virtualizable as described by Popek and Goldberg . VMware researchers pointed out in a 2006 ASPLOS paper that the above techniques made the x86 platform virtualizable in the sense of meeting the three criteria of Popek and Goldberg, albeit not by the classic trap-and-emulate technique. A different route was taken by other systems like Denali , L4 , and Xen , known as paravirtualization , which involves porting operating systems to run on
3060-533: The Concurrent DOS 286 1.0 operating system developed in cooperation with Intel . The product would function strictly as an 80286 native-mode (i.e. protected-mode) operating system, allowing users to take full advantage of the protected mode to perform multi-user, multitasking operations while running 8086 emulation. This worked on the B-1 prototype step of the chip, but Digital Research discovered problems with
3162-515: The PowerPC architecture developed by the AIM alliance . This was seen as a win for Intel; an analyst called the move "risky" and "foolish", as Intel's current offerings at the time were considered to be behind those of AMD and IBM. In 2006, Intel unveiled its Core microarchitecture to widespread critical acclaim; the product range was perceived as an exceptional leap in processor performance that at
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3264-614: The Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 , a law sought by Intel and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). During the late 1980s and 1990s (after this law was passed), Intel also sued companies that tried to develop competitor chips to the 80386 CPU . The lawsuits were noted to significantly burden the competition with legal bills, even if Intel lost the suits. Antitrust allegations had been simmering since
3366-488: The U.S. Department of Defense is another large customer for Intel. In September 2024, Intel reportedly qualified for as much as $ 3.5 billion in federal grants to make semiconductors for the Defense Department. According to IDC , while Intel enjoyed the biggest market share in both the overall worldwide PC microprocessor market (73.3%) and the mobile PC microprocessor (80.4%) in the second quarter of 2011,
3468-492: The Zen microarchitecture and a new chiplet -based design to critical acclaim. Since its introduction, AMD, once unable to compete with Intel in the high-end CPU market, has undergone a resurgence, and Intel's dominance and market share have considerably decreased. In addition, Apple began to transition away from the x86 architecture and Intel processors to their own Apple silicon for their Macintosh computers in 2020. The transition
3570-643: The bare metal network bandwidth in NASA 's virtualized datacenter and in the Amazon Public Cloud . Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California , and incorporated in Delaware . Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer components and related products for business and consumer markets. It
3672-406: The dominant supplier of PC microprocessors, with a market share of 90%, and was known for aggressive and anti-competitive tactics in defense of its market position, particularly against AMD , as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry. Since the 2000s and especially since the late 2010s, Intel has faced increasing competition, which has led to
3774-470: The iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286 ) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities. The 80286 used approximately 134,000 transistors in its original nMOS ( HMOS ) incarnation and, just like the contemporary 80186 , it can correctly execute most software written for
3876-535: The semiconductor memory market, widely predicted to replace magnetic-core memory . Its first product, a quick entry into the small, high-speed memory market in 1969, was the 3101 Schottky TTL bipolar 64-bit static random-access memory (SRAM), which was nearly twice as fast as earlier Schottky diode implementations by Fairchild and the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan . In
3978-457: The x86 processor market is 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. However, the cross-licensing agreement is canceled in the event of an AMD bankruptcy or takeover. Some smaller competitors, such as VIA Technologies, produce low-power x86 processors for small factor computers and portable equipment. However,
4080-464: The 22 nm Tri-Gate process. Several other customers also exist but were not announced at the time. The foundry business was closed in 2018 due to Intel's issues with its manufacturing. Intel continued its tick-tock model of a microarchitecture change followed by a die shrink until the 6th-generation Core family based on the Skylake microarchitecture. This model was deprecated in 2016, with
4182-491: The 80286 over the 8086 (or 8088) could be more than 100% per clock cycle in many programs (i.e., a doubled performance at the same clock speed). This was a large increase, fully comparable to the speed improvements seven years later when the i486 (1989) or the original Pentium (1993) were introduced. This was partly due to the non-multiplexed address and data buses, but mainly to the fact that address calculations (such as base+index ) were less expensive. They were performed by
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4284-804: The 80286 was designed to be a new processor with many similarities to its predecessors, while real mode on the 80286 was offered for smaller-scale systems that could benefit from a more advanced version of the 80186 CPU core, with advantages such as higher clock rates, faster instruction execution (measured in clock cycles), and unmultiplexed buses, but not the 24-bit (16 MB) memory space. To support protected mode, new instructions have been added: ARPL, VERR, VERW, LAR, LSL, SMSW, SGDT, SIDT, SLDT, STR, LMSW, LGDT, LIDT, LLDT, LTR, CLTS. There are also new exceptions (internal interrupts): invalid opcode, coprocessor not available, double fault , coprocessor segment overrun, stack fault, segment overrun/general protection fault, and others only for protected mode. The protected mode of
4386-550: The 80286 was free of the several significant errata that caused problems for programmers and operating-system writers in the earlier B-step and C-step CPUs (common in the AT and AT clones). This E-2 stepping part may have been available in later 1986. Intel second sourced this microprocessor to Fujitsu Limited in about 1985. Intel expected the 286 to be used primarily in industrial automation, transaction processing, and telecommunications, instead of in personal computers. The CPU
4488-470: The 80286 was not routinely utilized in PC applications until many years after its release, in part because of the high cost of adding extended memory to a PC, but also because of the need for software to support the large user base of 8086 PCs. For example, in 1986 the only program that made use of it was VDISK, a RAM disk driver included with PC DOS 3.0 and 3.1. A DOS could utilize the additional RAM available in protected mode ( extended memory ) either via
4590-467: The 80286 was the 80C286. On average, the 80286 was said to have a speed of about 0.21 instructions per clock on "typical" programs, although it could be significantly faster on optimized code and in tight loops, as many instructions could execute in 2 clock cycles each. The 6 MHz, 10 MHz, and 12 MHz models were reportedly measured to operate at 0.9 MIPS, 1.5 MIPS, and 2.66 MIPS respectively. The later E- stepping level of
4692-452: The 8086 instructions, all of the new instructions of the 80186: ENTER, LEAVE, BOUND, INS, OUTS, PUSHA, POPA, PUSH immediate, IMUL immediate, and immediate shifts and rotates. The 80286 also added new instructions for protected mode: ARPL, CLTS, LAR, LGDT, LIDT, LLDT, LMSW, LSL, LTR, SGDT, SIDT, SLDT, SMSW, STR, VERR, and VERW. Some of the instructions for protected mode can (or must) be used in real mode to set up and switch to protected mode, and
4794-505: The IOMMU I/O virtualization functionality for it to be usable. Only the PCI or PCI Express devices supporting function level reset (FLR) can be virtualized this way, as it is required for reassigning various device functions between virtual machines. If a device to be assigned does not support Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI), it must not share interrupt lines with other devices for
4896-469: The Intel platform. On some platforms, it is possible to run a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit host OS if the underlying processor is 64-bit and supports the necessary virtualization extensions. In 2005 and 2006, Intel and AMD (working independently) created new processor extensions to the x86 architecture. The first generation of x86 hardware virtualization addressed the issue of privileged instructions. The issue of low performance of virtualized system memory
4998-553: The UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income. In April 2011, Intel began a pilot project with ZTE Corporation to produce smartphones using the Intel Atom processor for China's domestic market. In December 2011, Intel announced that it reorganized several of its business units into a new mobile and communications group that would be responsible for the company's smartphone, tablet, and wireless efforts. Intel planned to introduce Medfield –
5100-689: The United States. Intel was incorporated in Mountain View, California , on July 18, 1968, by Gordon E. Moore (known for " Moore's law "), a chemist ; Robert Noyce , a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit ; and Arthur Rock , an investor and venture capitalist . Moore and Noyce had left Fairchild Semiconductor , where they were part of the " traitorous eight " who founded it. There were originally 500,000 shares outstanding of which Dr. Noyce bought 245,000 shares, Dr. Moore 245,000 shares, and Mr. Rock 10,000 shares; all at $ 1 per share. Rock offered $ 2,500,000 of convertible debentures to
5202-472: The Xeon 6 processor, aiming for better performance and power efficiency compared to its predecessor. Intel's Gaudi 2 and Gaudi 3 AI accelerators were revealed to be more cost-effective than competitors' offerings. Additionally, Intel disclosed architecture details for its Lunar Lake processors for AI PCs, which were released on September 24, 2024. Intel 80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as
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#17327919029525304-417: The advantages of protected mode except the extended (24-bit) address space. The choice that OS developers faced was either to start from scratch and create an OS that would not run the vast majority of the old programs, or to come up with a version of DOS that was slow and ugly (i.e., ugly from an internal technical viewpoint) but would still run a majority of the old programs. Protected mode also did not provide
5406-587: The advent of such mobile computing devices, in particular, smartphones , has led to a decline in PC sales . Since over 95% of the world's smartphones currently use processors cores designed by Arm , using the Arm instruction set , Arm has become a major competitor for Intel's processor market. Arm is also planning to make attempts at setting foot into the PC and server market, with Ampere and IBM each individually designing CPUs for servers and supercomputers . The only other major competitor in processor instruction sets
5508-430: The assignment to be possible. All conventional PCI devices routed behind a PCI/ PCI-X -to-PCI Express bridge can be assigned to a guest virtual machine only all at once; PCI Express devices have no such restriction. PCI-SIG Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) provides a set of general (non-x86 specific) I/O virtualization methods based on PCI Express (PCIe) native hardware, as standardized by PCI-SIG: In SR-IOV,
5610-402: The assumption of unspecified liabilities. The move was intended to permit Intel to focus its resources on its core x86 and server businesses, and the acquisition completed on November 9, 2006. In 2008, Intel spun off key assets of a solar startup business effort to form an independent company, SpectraWatt Inc. In 2011, SpectraWatt filed for bankruptcy. In February 2011, Intel began to build
5712-478: The basis of their IBM 4680 computer for IBM Plant System products and point-of-sale terminals in 1986. Digital Research's FlexOS 286 version 1.3, a derivation of Concurrent DOS 286, was developed in 1986, introduced in January 1987, and later adopted by IBM for their IBM 4690 OS , but the same limitations affected it. The problems led to Bill Gates referring to the 80286 as a "brain-damaged" chip, since it
5814-439: The classic type 1 hypervisor was self-standing and did not depend on any operating system or run any user applications itself. In contrast, the first x86 virtualization products were aimed at workstation computers, and ran a guest OS inside a host OS by embedding the hypervisor in a kernel module that ran under the host OS (type 2 hypervisor). There has been some controversy whether the x86 architecture with no hardware assistance
5916-754: The code name "Pacifica", and initially published them as AMD Secure Virtual Machine (SVM), but later marketed them under the trademark AMD Virtualization , abbreviated AMD-V . On May 23, 2006, AMD released the Athlon 64 ( "Orleans" ), the Athlon 64 X2 ( "Windsor" ) and the Athlon 64 FX ( "Windsor" ) as the first AMD processors to support this technology. AMD-V capability also features on the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 family of processors with revisions "F" or "G" on socket AM2 , Turion 64 X2 , and Opteron 2nd generation and third-generation, Phenom and Phenom II processors. The APU Fusion processors support AMD-V. AMD-V
6018-420: The companies to split the revenue from those facilities. On January 31, 2023, as part of $ 3 billion in cost reductions, Intel announced pay cuts affecting employees above midlevel, ranging from 5% upwards. It also suspended bonuses and merit pay increases, while reducing retirement plan matching. These cost reductions followed layoffs announced in the fall of 2022. In October 2023, Intel confirmed it would be
6120-456: The company as NM Electronics on July 18, 1968, but by the end of the month had changed the name to Intel , which stood for Int egrated El ectronics. Since "Intel" was already trademarked by the hotel chain Intelco, they had to buy the rights for the name. At its founding, Intel was distinguished by its ability to make logic circuits using semiconductor devices . The founders' goal was
6222-425: The company's focus to microprocessors and to change fundamental aspects of that business model. Moore's decision to sole-source Intel's 386 chip played into the company's continuing success. By the end of the 1980s, buoyed by its fortuitous position as microprocessor supplier to IBM and IBM's competitors within the rapidly growing personal computer market , Intel embarked on a 10-year period of unprecedented growth as
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#17327919029526324-496: The design intent of protected mode was to prevent programs from accessing any segments other than their own unless special access was explicitly allowed. While it was possible to set up a protected-mode environment that allowed all programs access to all segments (by putting all segment descriptors into the Global Descriptor Table (GDT) and assigning them all the same privilege level), this undermined nearly all of
6426-739: The earlier Intel 8086 and 8088 processors. The 80286 was employed for the IBM PC/AT , introduced in 1984, and then widely used in most PC/AT compatible computers until the early 1990s. In 1987, Intel shipped its five-millionth 80286 microprocessor. Intel's first 80286 chips were specified for a maximum clockrate of 5, 6 or 8 MHz and later releases for 12.5 MHz. AMD and Harris later produced 16 MHz, 20 MHz and 25 MHz parts, respectively. Intel, Intersil and Fujitsu also designed fully static CMOS versions of Intel's original depletion-load nMOS implementation, largely aimed at battery-powered devices. Intel's CMOS version of
6528-567: The early 1980s, and manufacturing and development centers in China, India, and Costa Rica in the 1990s. By the early 1980s, its business was dominated by DRAM chips. However, increased competition from Japanese semiconductor manufacturers had, by 1983, dramatically reduced the profitability of this market. The growing success of the IBM personal computer, based on an Intel microprocessor, was among factors that convinced Gordon Moore (CEO since 1975) to shift
6630-506: The early 1990s and had been the cause of one lawsuit against Intel in 1991. In 2004 and 2005, AMD brought further claims against Intel related to unfair competition . In 2005, CEO Paul Otellini reorganized the company to refocus its core processor and chipset business on platforms (enterprise, digital home, digital health, and mobility). On June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs , then CEO of Apple , announced that Apple would be using Intel's x86 processors for its Macintosh computers, switching from
6732-506: The emulation on the production level C-1 step in May, which would not allow Concurrent DOS 286 to run 8086 software in protected mode. The release of Concurrent DOS 286 was delayed until Intel would develop a new version of the chip. In August, after extensive testing on E-1 step samples of the 80286, Digital Research acknowledged that Intel corrected all documented 286 errata, but said that there were still undocumented chip performance problems with
6834-418: The fastest consumer CPUs, as well as its Intel Arc series of GPUs. The Open Source Technology Center at Intel hosts PowerTOP and LatencyTOP , and supports other open source projects such as Wayland , Mesa , Threading Building Blocks (TBB), and Xen . Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Gordon Moore (of Moore's law ) and Robert Noyce , along with investor Arthur Rock , and
6936-653: The first commercial user of high-NA EUV lithography tool, as part of its plan to regain process leadership from TSMC . In August 2024, following a below-expectations Q2 earnings announcement, Intel announced "significant actions to reduce our costs. We plan to deliver $ 10 billion in cost savings in 2025, and this includes reducing our head count by roughly 15,000 roles, or 15% of our workforce." In December 2023, Intel unveiled Gaudi3, an artificial intelligence (AI) chip for generative AI software which will launch in 2024 and compete with rival chips from Nvidia and AMD. On 4 June 2024, Intel announced AI chips for data centers,
7038-445: The first commercially available dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), the 1103 released in 1970, solved these issues. The 1103 was the bestselling semiconductor memory chip in the world by 1972, as it replaced core memory in many applications. 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. Intel created
7140-409: The first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004 , in 1971. The microprocessor represented a notable advance in the technology of integrated circuitry, as it miniaturized the central processing unit of a computer, which then made it possible for small machines to perform calculations that in the past only very large machines could do. Considerable technological innovation was needed before
7242-462: The first time and compete in the Unix -dominated server / workstation market. Several additional instructions were introduced in the protected mode of 80286, which are helpful for multitasking operating systems. Another important feature of 80286 is the prevention of unauthorized access. This is achieved by: In 80286 (and in its co-processor Intel 80287 ), arithmetic operations can be performed on
7344-577: The following different types of numbers: By design, the 286 could not revert from protected mode to the basic 8086-compatible real address mode (" real mode ") without a hardware-initiated reset. In the PC/AT introduced in 1984, IBM added external circuitry, as well as specialized code in the ROM BIOS and the 8042 keyboard microcontroller to enable software to cause the reset, allowing real-mode reentry while retaining active memory and returning control to
7446-536: The microprocessor could actually become the basis of what was first known as a "mini computer" and then known as a "personal computer". Intel also created one of the first microcomputers in 1973. Intel opened its first international manufacturing facility in 1972, in Malaysia , which would host multiple Intel operations, before opening assembly facilities and semiconductor plants in Singapore and Jerusalem in
7548-440: The most common of these, a host VMM configures supported devices to create and allocate virtual "shadows" of their configuration spaces so that virtual machine guests can directly configure and access such "shadow" device resources. With SR-IOV enabled, virtualized network interfaces are directly accessible to the guests, avoiding involvement of the VMM and resulting in high overall performance; for example, SR-IOV achieves over 95% of
7650-610: The node. The first microprocessor under that node, Cannon Lake (marketed as 8th-generation Core), was released in small quantities in 2018. The company first delayed the mass production of their 10 nm products to 2017. They later delayed mass production to 2018, and then to 2019. Despite rumors of the process being cancelled, Intel finally introduced mass-produced 10 nm 10th-generation Intel Core mobile processors (codenamed " Ice Lake ") in September 2019. Intel later acknowledged that their strategy to shrink to 10 nm
7752-491: The numbers decreased by 1.5% and 1.9% compared to the first quarter of 2011. Intel's market share decreased significantly in the enthusiast market as of 2019, and they have faced delays for their 10 nm products. According to former Intel CEO Bob Swan, the delay was caused by the company's overly aggressive strategy for moving to its next node. In the 1980s, Intel was among the world's top ten sellers of semiconductors (10th in 1987 ). Along with Microsoft Windows , it
7854-466: The operating system's memory address space, by using memory address translation. At the same time, an IOMMU also allows operating systems and hypervisors to prevent buggy or malicious hardware from compromising memory security . Both AMD and Intel have released their IOMMU specifications: In addition to the CPU support, both motherboard chipset and system firmware ( BIOS or UEFI ) need to fully support
7956-536: The prerelease version of Concurrent DOS 286 running on the E-1 step. Intel said that the approach Digital Research wished to take in emulating 8086 software in protected mode differed from the original specifications. Nevertheless, in the E-2 step, they implemented minor changes in the microcode that would allow Digital Research to run emulation mode much faster. Named IBM 4680 OS , IBM originally chose DR Concurrent DOS 286 as
8058-670: The primary and most profitable hardware supplier to the PC industry, part of the winning 'Wintel' combination. Moore handed over his position as CEO to Andy Grove in 1987. By launching its Intel Inside marketing campaign in 1991, Intel was able to associate brand loyalty with consumer selection, so that by the end of the 1990s, its line of Pentium processors had become a household name. After 2000, growth in demand for high-end microprocessors slowed. Competitors, most notably AMD (Intel's largest competitor in its primary x86 architecture market), garnered significant market share, initially in low-end and mid-range processors but ultimately across
8160-514: The product range, and Intel's dominant position in its core market was greatly reduced, mostly due to controversial NetBurst microarchitecture. 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. Bob had also for a number of years been embroiled in litigation. U.S. law did not initially recognize intellectual property rights related to microprocessor topology (circuit layouts), until
8262-459: The program that initiated the reset. (The BIOS is necessarily involved because it obtains control directly whenever the CPU resets.) Though it worked correctly, the method imposed a huge performance penalty. In theory, real-mode applications could be directly executed in 16-bit protected mode if certain rules (newly proposed with the introduction of the 80286) were followed; however, as many DOS programs did not conform to those rules, protected mode
8364-617: The protection of the hypervisor's memory impossible, in particular, the protection of the trap handler that runs in the guest kernel address space. Revision D and later 64-bit AMD processors (as a rule of thumb, those manufactured in 90 nm or less) added basic support for segmentation in long mode, making it possible to run 64-bit guests in 64-bit hosts via binary translation. Intel did not add segmentation support to its x86-64 implementation ( Intel 64 ), making 64-bit software-only virtualization impossible on Intel CPUs, but Intel VT-x support makes 64-bit hardware assisted virtualization possible on
8466-536: The release of the 7th-generation Core family (codenamed Kaby Lake ), ushering in the process–architecture–optimization model . As Intel struggled to shrink their process node from 14 nm to 10 nm , processor development slowed down and the company continued to use the Skylake microarchitecture until 2020, albeit with optimizations. While Intel originally planned to introduce 10 nm products in 2016, it later became apparent that there were manufacturing issues with
8568-407: The resulting virtual machine, which does not implement the parts of the actual x86 instruction set that are hard to virtualize. The paravirtualized I/O has significant performance benefits as demonstrated in the original SOSP '03 Xen paper. The initial version of x86-64 ( AMD64 ) did not allow for a software-only full virtualization due to the lack of segmentation support in long mode , which made
8670-405: The same year, Intel also produced the 3301 Schottky bipolar 1024-bit read-only memory (ROM) and the first commercial metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) silicon gate SRAM chip, the 256-bit 1101. While the 1101 was a significant advance, its complex static cell structure made it too slow and costly for mainframe memories. The three- transistor cell implemented in
8772-514: The site for a major new manufacturing facility. The facility will cost at least $ 20 billion. The company expects the facility to begin producing chips by 2025. The same year Intel also choose Magdeburg , Germany , as a site for two new chip mega factories for €17 billion (topping Tesla 's investment in Brandenburg ). The start of the construction was initially planned for 2023, but this has been postponed to late 2024, while production start
8874-503: The smartphone market. Finding itself with excess fab capacity after the failure of the Ultrabook to gain market traction and with PC sales declining, in 2013 Intel reached a foundry agreement to produce chips for Altera using a 14 nm process. General Manager of Intel's custom foundry division Sunit Rikhi indicated that Intel would pursue further such deals in the future. This was after poor sales of Windows 8 hardware caused
8976-449: The success of the PC in the early 1990s that this became its primary business. During the 1990s, the partnership between Microsoft Windows and Intel, known as " Wintel ", became instrumental in shaping the PC landscape and solidified Intel's position on the market. As a result, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs in the mid to late 1990s, fostering the rapid growth of the computer industry . During this period, it became
9078-400: The twelve months ending December 31, 2020, at 2,882 Kt (+94/+3.4% y-o-y). Intel plans to reduce carbon emissions 10% by 2030 from a 2020 base year. Intel has self-reported that they have Wafer fabrication plants in the United States, Ireland , and Israel. They have also self-reported that they have assembly and testing sites mostly in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and one site in
9180-443: The x86 architecture protected mode . In protected mode the operating system kernel runs at a higher privilege such as ring 0, and applications at a lower privilege such as ring 3. In software-based virtualization, a host OS has direct access to hardware while the guest OSs have limited access to hardware, just like any other application of the host OS. One approach used in x86 software-based virtualization to overcome this limitation
9282-588: The x86 platform. On November 13, 2005, Intel released two models of Pentium 4 (Model 662 and 672) as the first Intel processors to support VT-x. The CPU flag for VT-x capability is "vmx"; in Linux, this can be checked via /proc/cpuinfo , or in macOS via sysctl machdep.cpu.features . "VMX" stands for Virtual Machine Extensions, which adds 13 new instructions: VMPTRLD, VMPTRST, VMCLEAR, VMREAD, VMWRITE, VMCALL, VMLAUNCH, VMRESUME, VMXOFF, VMXON, INVEPT, INVVPID, and VMFUNC. These instructions permit entering and exiting
9384-408: Was Andy Grove , a chemical engineer , who later ran the company through much of the 1980s and the high-growth 1990s. In deciding on a name, Moore and Noyce quickly rejected "Moore Noyce", near homophone for "more noise" – an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since noise in electronics is usually undesirable and typically associated with bad interference . Instead, they founded
9486-536: Was a performance penalty involved in accessing extended memory from real mode as noted below. The 286 was the first of the x86 CPU family to support protected virtual-address mode , commonly called " protected mode ". In addition, it was the first commercially available microprocessor with on-chip memory management unit (MMU) capabilities (systems using the contemporaneous Motorola 68010 and NS320xx could be equipped with an optional MMU controller). This would allow IBM compatibles to have advanced multitasking OSes for
9588-559: Was a thing of the past and that they would now support all "tier-one operating systems" such as Linux, Android, iOS, and Chrome. In 2014, Intel cut thousands of employees in response to "evolving market trends", and offered to subsidize manufacturers for the extra costs involved in using Intel chips in their tablets. In April 2016, Intel cancelled the SoFIA platform and the Broxton Atom SoC for smartphones, effectively leaving
9690-486: Was addressed with MMU virtualization that was added to the chipset later. Because the Intel 80286 could not run concurrent DOS applications well by itself in protected mode, Intel introduced the virtual 8086 mode in their 80386 chip, which offered virtualized 8086 processors on the 386 and later chips. Hardware support for virtualizing the protected mode itself, however, became available 20 years later. AMD developed its first generation virtualization extensions under
9792-480: Was clear that the new Microsoft Windows environment would not be able to run multiple MS-DOS applications with the 286. It was arguably responsible for the split between Microsoft and IBM, since IBM insisted that OS/2 , originally a joint venture between IBM and Microsoft, would run on a 286 (and in text mode). Other operating systems that used the protected mode of the 286 were Microsoft Xenix (around 1984), Coherent , and Minix . These were less hindered by
9894-556: Was designed for multi-user systems with multitasking applications, including communications (such as automated PBXs ) and real-time process control . It had 134,000 transistors and consisted of four independent units: the address unit, bus unit, instruction unit, and execution unit, organized into a loosely coupled (buffered) pipeline , just as in the 8086. It was produced in a 68-pin package, including PLCC ( plastic leaded chip carrier ), LCC ( leadless chip carrier ) and PGA ( pin grid array ) packages. The performance increase of
9996-514: Was launched in October 2013 and Intel is part of the coalition of public and private organizations that also includes Facebook , Google , and Microsoft . Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee , the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below
10098-461: Was not widely used until the appearance of its successor, the 32-bit Intel 80386 , which was designed to go back and forth between modes easily and to provide an emulation of real mode within protected mode. When Intel designed the 286, it was not designed to be able to multitask real-mode applications; real mode was intended to be a simple way for a bootstrap loader to prepare the system and then switch to protected mode; essentially, in protected mode
10200-955: Was part of the " Wintel " personal computer domination in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1992, Intel became the biggest semiconductor chip maker by revenue and held the position until 2018 when Samsung Electronics surpassed it, but Intel returned to its former position the year after. Other major semiconductor companies include TSMC , GlobalFoundries , Texas Instruments , ASML , STMicroelectronics , United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Micron , SK Hynix , Kioxia , and SMIC . Intel's competitors in PC chipsets included AMD , VIA Technologies , Silicon Integrated Systems , and Nvidia . Intel's competitors in networking include NXP Semiconductors , Infineon , Broadcom Limited , Marvell Technology Group and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation , and competitors in flash memory included Spansion , Samsung Electronics, Qimonda , Kioxia, STMicroelectronics, Micron , and SK Hynix . The only major competitor in
10302-401: Was reported that all Intel processors made since 1995 (besides Intel Itanium and pre-2013 Intel Atom ) had been subject to two security flaws dubbed Meltdown and Spectre. Due to Intel's issues with its 10 nm process node and the company's slow processor development, the company now found itself in a market with intense competition. The company's main competitor, AMD, introduced
10404-428: Was too aggressive. While other foundries used up to four steps in 10 nm or 7 nm processes, the company's 10 nm process required up to five or six multi-pattern steps. In addition, Intel's 10 nm process is denser than its counterpart processes from other foundries. Since Intel's microarchitecture and process node development were coupled, processor development stagnated. In early January 2018, it
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