Innovators & Influencers: At Intel, A Repeat Performance Helps Reclaim Lost Ground

After a difficult year, Intel turned to a source of earlier successes to regain its footing. Twenty-six-year veteran Dadi Perlmutter led development of the new Core 2 Duo chips, which helped Intel reclaim market share lost to Advanced Micro Devices.

Senior VP Perlmutter was the design mind behind the original Pentium and the Centrino. Core 2 Duo replaced the Pentium in July, winning benchmark tests and converts among IT buyers. Perlmutter, who manages Intel's mobile chips group, this summer took responsibility for architectural decisions company-wide.

Perlmutter's team and another headed by senior VP Pat Gelsinger will lead development of Intel's next CPU line. That's meant daily meetings between the two--and many debates. Perlmutter has the final say.

He now needs to make more of those complex technical calls Intel requires to keep its lead. "The job ahead of us is to sustain it and increase it," he says, "not lose it again."

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