Computer Memory

The company we know today as Fujitsu Siemens began life in 1999 when the German company Siemens started a 50-50 joint venture with the Japanese giant Fujitsu Limited. This partnership lasted 10 years until in 2009 the German half of the enterprise was bought out by the Japanese, who then renamed the company Fujitsu Technology Solutions.

Green IT
Fujitsu-Siemens was focussed particularly on producing ecologically sound computers and the enterprise was seen as a leader in ‘Green IT’. Despite sponsoring the McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team from 1999 to 2000 (a sport not exactly known for a low carbon footprint), the company has a longstanding record of leadership in the field.

As of 2012, the company was 3rd out a total 21 major manufacturers on the ‘Cool IT’ leaderboard, according to Greenpeace.

Long History
The Fujitsu brand certainly has some longevity, as it is the 3rd oldest IT company in the world, beaten only by IBM and Hewlett Packard. Founded on June 20th, 1935, under its original name ‘Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing’. The company even survived the chaos that ensued after the Allied occupation of Japan after WWII. Their association with the German company Siemens also goes back to that time.

Strengthto Strength
Fujitsu Ltd is the fourth biggest IT services provider in the world and is listed as a Global 500 company. The main thrust of the business is computing products, but it also has several subsidiaries that offer a diverse range of services in enterprise computing, telecommunications, air conditioning and microelectronics. The company currently employs in excess of 159,000 people and is listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange, selling products in over 100 countries. 

Today the brand that is Fujitsu manufactures a range of and notebook PCs, desktops, servers, storage and datacentre products. The company has a major presence in the major European, Middle Eastern and African markets and continues to be one of the world’s largest players in the world of computers.

Collaboration
Mergers and partnerships have been a common thread throughout the long history of Fujitsu and things are no different today. In the last few years, the enterprise has collaborated with GLOVIA International and VMware. As serial innovators, Fujitsu will most probably be involved in consumer electronics for the next 80 years and beyond. Cloud technologies, visualisation products, and multi-vendor network automation are just a few of the fields the company is working in today.

The ubiquitous brand that is Intel or Intel Corporation, is an American institution in the world of computing technology. With its headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, it is currently the 2nd biggest producer of semiconductor hardware in the world, second only to Samsung.

If you’ve owned a computer, ever, you’ll likely have been the owner of Intel hardware of some kind. The company invented x86 microprocessor, which are found in pretty much every computer in existence. Even Apple computers use Intel hardware inside their machines.

Their wide range of products includes embedded processors, flash memory, computing hardware, graphics chips and integrated circuits. If you think of any part of a PC, laptop or server, there’ll be something made by them close by.

Where it Started
Intel started off back in 1968, when Fairchild Semiconductor employees Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce got together. The former a famed chemist, and the latter a physicist, they put their considerable minds together and came up with the integrated circuit. They were joined by Arthur Rock, who found investors for their business venture and Max Palevsky and just like that, the Intel Corporation was born.

Name Change
Moore (who interestingly gave the world ‘Moore’s Law, relating to the continual doubling of transistor numbers on IC year on year) and Noyce had an amusing reason why they rejected their first idea for a company name. They were simply going to call the enterprise ‘Moore’s-Noyce’, that was until they noticed it sounded a bit like ‘More Noise’, which in computing, is usually a bad thing. The settled instead for Intel.

Established Dominance
During the 1980s, Intel was already a big player in the market, with around 10% of the worldwide microprocessor market, but wasn’t yet the dominant force it is today. That wasn’t fully realised until around 1992, when it achieved the biggest market share of any company. A status they still enjoy today. Intel also became the largest producer of semiconductors at around the same time.

In the years since the giant has acquired a number of companies along the way. Most notably McAfee, Infineon Technologies, ASML Holding and Omek Interactive.

The influence that Intel has had in the world of computing should not be underestimated, as, without the collective minds of Moore and Noyce, the world might look very different today. Right now, Intel holds anywhere between 65-80% of the market and it is not likely to change anytime soon. The company’s closest competitor is AMD, who typically have much more modest, 30% market share.