Intel

In 1968, inventors Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their fledgling computing company "Moore Noyce." Afraid, perhaps, that consumers and investors would mistake it for a brand of high-powered stereo equipment, they decided on the name "Integrated Electronics," or Intel for short. Since then, the name of this company has become ubiquitous, in part because of their highly successful line of powerful computer chips.

Intel broke into the computer chip market with a line of random access memory (RAM) chips. These were essential parts of many industrial, military, and scientific computers throughout the 1970s, and became equally important to personal computers when they first began to become available late in that decade. However, at about this time a group of Intel engineers invented something that would quickly become Intel's main claim to fame: the microprocessor.

Microprocessors are small, incredibly powerful chips that transmit packets of information from one part of a computer to another. The most well-known microprocessor is probably the Central Processing Unit, or CPU, which is found in almost every personal computer on the market today. The company's early mastery of these powerful pieces of technology ensured their dominance of the market through the 1980s and '90s.

In addition to microprocessors, Intel continued to develop other innovative devices, including the often-used Universal Serial Bus. These ports are used to connect exterior devices--such as disk drives, printers, and CD or DVD players--to an original computer. In 2005, Apple Computers CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple would begin using Intel processors in their popular Macintosh computer line.