See Mannerisms - Does Barrett's Resignation Signal New Business Model At Intel?
Craig Barrett is to resign as Chairman of 
href="http://www.Intel.com">Intel in May. His duties as chairman of the board will be carried out by a non-executive director who was appointed from outside the company but who will have no executive duties.
Unlike previous transitions when Gordon Moore handed over as CEO to Andy Grove, and when Grove handed over to Barrett, and Barrett to Paul Otellini, with the outgoing CEO moving up to the Chairmanship, this 
time the CEO is staying.
The news comes hard on the heels of the announcement that Intel's profits dropped 90 per cent last quarter and the company may move into its first loss in 22 years in Q109. The 53 per cent margin of Q4 is expected to drop into the 40s in Q1.
Barrett of course is a manufacturing guy who is wedded to the belief that process engineering excellence and manufacturing excellence is the basis for success in the semiconductor business.
To this end Intel has maintained hugely expensive R&D programmes to stay at the leading edge of process technology, and has spent huge sums on wholly-owned and operated factories.
However there have been suggestions that this policy may have to change as Intel becomes unable to maintain high margins on its microprocessors, as PCs and lap-tops commoditise, and as Intel's attempts at diversification fail.
Barrett, it is suggested, may have resigned rather than preside over a de-emphasis on Intel's manufacturing investment.
To an extent, Intel has already started on a process of de-emphasising its involvement in manufacturing by throwing in its lot with the Belgian R&D house IMEC for basic process R&D, and by farming out its PC chip-sets to Taiwanese foundry TSMC.
See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Intel, a roundup of content on the chip giant's technology. As well as presenting news coverage from Electronics Weekly, we draw on wider resources available on the Web.
See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on x86 microprocessors, a roundup of content related to x86 microprocessor technologies and developments.
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