While these figures are significantly lower than today’s processors, which can accommodate billions of transistors with fabrication processes as small as 3 nm, they were remarkable achievements at the time.
The 386 processor also served as the foundation for popular operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, which continue to be influential today.
Gelsinger has been with Intel since 1979, starting at the age of 18. After the 386, he continued his chip design journey with the subsequent generation, the 486, introduced in 1989. Under the leadership of Intel’s founder and former CEO, Andy Grove, Gelsinger’s career continued to ascend until he became CTO in 2001.
After working for 30 years, Gelsinger left Intel in 2009 to join EMC as President and Chief Operating Officer. Three years later, he moved to VMWare as CEO. Gelsinger returned to Intel as the new CEO in February 2021, succeeding the former leader, Bob Swan. He now leads the company in a competitive and rapidly changing computer industry.
One of the latest products born under Gelsinger’s leadership is the Core Ultra mobile processor series, combining traditional computing with artificial intelligence (AI). Gelsinger also plans to build two new chip factories in Arizona worth $20 billion and open chip production services for other companies.
With his impressive experience and achievements, Gelsinger is regarded as the right person to lead Intel in the midst of fierce competition with rivals such as AMD, Nvidia, and Samsung. His initials engraved on the 386 processor serve as tangible evidence of his contribution and dedication to the company that has elevated his name.
