Microprocessor Marketing Wars: Chip Makers Discover the Consumer

Ever since the launch of the 4004 microprocessor in 1971, AMD, IBM, Intel, MIPS, Motorola, National, Sun, Texas Instruments, Zilog and many other major corporations have fought epic marketing wars to establish their chips as the engines of choice for multiple generations of computers.

There were battles over technical specifications, performance benchmarks, software architectures, RISC, 32 bits, and much more. Over the years, the fight shifted from one for hardware design engineers’ hearts and minds to a battle for those of the computer companies’ CEOs', and ultimately, for those of the consumers themselves. This combative environment drove the evolution of spec-based to brand-based microprocessor marketing.

Join us for more discussion on how the marketing of microprocessors changed as the semiconductor industry grew at unprecedented rates during the 70’s thru the 90’s. Learn about the events and the decisions that shaped the both the semiconductor and computing industries. Wonder at how annual chip marketing budgets ballooned from $100,000 to over $1Billion in less than 20 years.
The panelists and moderator for this session were all protagonists in these microprocessor marketing wars at three of the major players: AMD, Intel and Motorola.

Speakers and Panelists:
- Jack Browne: Hi End Microprocessor Marketing Manager, Motorola, 1981-1992
- Dave House: Intel SVP - General Manger, Microprocessor business, 1978-81, 1982-91
- Claude Leglise: Intel 8086-8088-286-386-486 Marketing Manager, 1982-1990.
- Melissa Rey: Intel Senior Marketing Communications Manager, Intel X86 (8086
through the 386) communication programs. 1978-1988
Moderated by David Laws: AMD (1975-1986) V.P.Business Development

Join us for this informative and engaging discussion as the Computer History Museum continues celebrating the Salute to the Semiconductor.