President and CEO, Intel Corp. AGE 59 ADDRESS Robert Noyce
Building, 2200 Mission College Boulevard, P.O. Box 58119, Santa
Clara, Calif. BIO Too bad that Hummer all-terrain vehicle Barrett
drives isn't amphibious. With his elevation this year to CEO,
Barrett is finding himself leading Intel through some of the
choppiest waters it's seen in years. As the man who got most of
the credit for Intel's amazing ability to keep pumping microchips
into the marketplace, he may find himself the victim of too much
success. Since most computers are working just fine with last
year's processor, consumers have turned their attention to the
bottom line--price--which could cut into Intel's profit margins.
Another problem: Intel, the other side of the Wintel juggernaut,
is the focus of its own antitrust suit. 1998 POWER PLAY The
popularity of lower-priced PCs caught Intel off guard. Other
microprocessor makers like AMD and Cyrix were only too happy to
fill the industry's orders for cheap but zippy chips. But more
than 80% of the world's PCs still have "Intel Inside," and with
the second-generation Celeron chip it released in August, Intel
is making inroads on the fast-growing sub-$1,000 computer market. PLACE YOUR BETS Financial analysts disagree about Intel. Its
stock has been as high as $100 and as low as the mid-60s in the
past year. Your best bet is to hold on to what you've got.
