some Intel engineers are leaving, while others are being hired by NVIDIA
Intel’s Israeli subsidiary has played a fundamental role in the company for decades. Although it has been around much longer, its first major milestone occurred in March 2003. That same month, Intel launched the Centrino platform worldwide, and much of the technology that made it possible was developed company engineers in Israel. Centrino was a huge success at the time and was a fundamental development that helped Intel dominate the laptop market.
Intel Israel’s next big achievement didn’t take long to arrive. In 2006, a team of engineers working in Haifa developed the Intel Core microarchitecture, a solution that at that time revolutionized the market due to its energy efficiency and performance. This implementation was so durable that it has survived to this day, although, logically, it has undergone countless modifications and not all of them have been successful. In addition to all this, Intel’s Israeli division has been instrumental in the development of the Pentium MMX, chips for artificial intelligence and 5G connectivity.
Intel Israel faces restructuring
In September 2022, I had the opportunity to visit Intel’s semiconductor plant in Kiryat Gat, Israel, and took the opportunity to speak at length with Tomer Sasson, an Israeli industrial engineer who served as the development lead for both 12th Intel Core processors (Alder Lake). ) and 13th generation Intel Core (Raptor Lake).
One of the questions I asked this specialist was aimed at explaining the reasons why Intel Israel has managed to establish itself as one of the company’s most influential subsidiaries globally. The answer that Tomer Sasson gave me was very interesting:
“We are aware of the problems and do not dwell on them. We focus on them, on the problems they create, and look for ways to solve them, which allows us to work very intensively to achieve our goal.”
“I think it’s part of our culture. As you know, we speak Hebrew, not English, and people who speak this language are very straightforward. We take on problems and don’t think about them. We focus on them, on the problems they pose, and look for ways to solve them, which allows us to strive very intensely to achieve our goal. However, we also know how to collaborate with our teams in other countries, such as the US or India, in areas such as design, manufacturing, validation or platform management, and this is exactly what I am responsible for.”
“In any case, this is all the result of teamwork, not the efforts of an individual or one country, so this was made possible thanks to the efforts we made in collaborating with other Intel offices and planning activities. I believe it’s all of this, coupled with dedication, motivation and an approach that allows us to tackle problems head-on and get to the bottom of things, that makes us so unique.
Be that as it may, Intel is now going through a very difficult phase. And this echo resonates even in its Israeli branch. In Israel, this company has approximately 11,700 employees and about 7800 – engineers who work in the research and development department. According to DigiTimes Asia, Intel’s board of directors plans to lay off several hundred employees from its research and development centers in Israel as part of the company’s restructuring to cut costs.
Interestingly, earlier this year, dozens of Israeli engineers left Intel and joined NVIDIA without explanation. Who knows, maybe even then they saw the impending deep crisis in which Intel is now immersed.
Image | Intel
Additional information | DigiTimes Asia
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