1992 – What's New? Intel Is.

1992 was a wild and exciting year in the personal computer industry. As demand for the Intel486™ microprocessor family grew, we were pressed to keep up. It was a year of unprecedented growth for us, resulting in Intel’s emergence as the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world.

Revenues of $5.84 billion were up 22 percent over 1991, and net income jumped over 30 percent, topping $1 billion for the first time. Fueled by strong demand for our Intel486 microprocessor family, sales were vigorous in the majority of geographies. Europe was the fastest-growing market for our products this year.

Expansion of production capacity and new technology required us to increase capital spending to a record $1.2 billion. When combined with research and development outlays, our investment in the future reached $2 billion. We plan to continue this growth, with R&D and capital expenditures in excess of $2.5 billion in 1993.

Intel486 CPU products booming

The computer industry continued to be characterized by turbulence and change. Computers are now through mass merchandising and direct marketing, supplementing, and traditional sales channels. Prices have plummeted: today, $1000 can buy a full-power Intel486 SX CPU-based PC.

Intel helped fuel this move by cutting prices significantly for certain versions of the Intel486 microprocessor. The price cuts were made possible as production volumes grew and manufacturing efficiencies were realized.

Users demand greater microprocessor performance to drive new, advanced software; in turn, faster hardware enables the development of still more advanced software. This spiral results in a strong movement toward the top end of the Intel microprocessor family, and we expect this trend to continue for some time.

Read the full 1992 Intel Annual Report.