INTEL FEATURE: INTEL, the inventor and largest producer of microprocessors, chips to you and me, is something of a wild card in the current global crisis that has hit hi-tech companies.

What one has to keep in mind is that chips are the brains of almost every electronic product in use, and many have Intel inside.

We are not just talking about mobile phones and computers, although with their Pentium chips in a large per cent of PCs, the importance of these markets cannot be underestimated.

An innovative company from its inception 30 years ago, Intel is continually striving to be ahead of the game.

Big reductions in staff have been forced on Intel just as they have on other giant companies in the industry.

And like their rivals, natural wastage has been the prime goal in trying to achieve necessary job cuts.

So far, certainly in the UK and Swindon in particular, where 750 people are employed at their Piper's Way European headquarters, they have been successful, with no forced redundancies to date.

That first PC sparked a computer revolution.

Today the PC is everywhere, with more than 200 million in use throughout the world.

A child using a Pentium processor-based PC has more computing power than was available to mainframe computer operators just a decade ago more power than the Government first used to send men to the moon.

It is fair to say that the PC has democratised computing around the world.

Many people now believe that technological literacy will dictate opportunities for future generations.

People's livelihood will rest on their ability to gather, process and distribute information via increasingly powerful PCs.

As microprocessor inventor Ted Hoff reflects: "Information is power. I like the way the microprocessor has spread that power around."

Today, the PC's emerging status as the linked communications device of choice is revolutionising modern life yet again. PC-based video conferencing, internal networking and the internet are standard business communications tools.

And people everywhere are turning to their PCs to tap into the internet, to connect, explore and create new worlds of entertainment, information and communication.

Twenty-five years ago, manufacturing processes were relatively primitive.

As Intel chairman Andy Grove recalled: "The fabrication area used to look like Willy Wonka's factory, with hoses and wires and contraptions chugging along the semiconductor equivalent of the Wright Brothers' jury-rigged aeroplane.

"It was state-of-the-art manufacturing at the time, but by today's standards, it was unbelievably crude."

The fact is, we may be even more amazed at what emerges over the next 30 years.

As microprocessors become faster and more powerful, an endless array of new applications develop and existing applications will spread to the far corners of the world.

And Intel stands at the centre of these emerging markets. In some ways, the term "emerging" seems a contradiction in terms, given the present sad state of the IT sector.

However, there is no question that the telecoms giants will emerge from the present strife, albeit a great deal leaner and wiser.

It isn't a case of whether but when, and indications are that while the next 18 months will be not without pain, the companies will emerge into the light.

Meanwhile, research and development continues and Intel plans to be right up to speed when things improve.

And Swindon will play a large part in the continued success of the company.