Intel creates subsidiary to seek federal business

Intel Corp. has launched a wholly owned subsidiary, Intel Federal LLC, to focus on new sales opportunities within the federal government, the company announced August 30.

Until now Intel sold its computer chips only through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Initially Intel Federal will focus on the high-performance computing segment, including work on exascale computing with the Energy Department and other agencies. In time, the subsidiary will be open to working with all branches of the government, according to the Intel announcement.

“Reaching supercomputer performance levels of a hundred times more powerful than today by 2018 will require the combined efforts of both industry and government,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Datacenter and Connected Systems Group. “An exaflop supercomputer’s performance is the equivalent of every person on Earth making about 150 million calculations per second.”

“The creation of Intel Federal demonstrates the strategic importance of these programs and will give us the ability to establish and maintain the unique processes, procedures and controls needed to develop and manage programs with the government,” he added.

Intel has named Dave Patterson president of Intel Federal. He most recently served as president and CEO of Optelecom-NKF Inc., and prior to that was president and CEO of Siemens Government Services Inc. Patterson will report directly to Skaugen.

Initially Intel Federal will have offices in Oregon, California and the Washington, D.C., area. Over time the subsidiary plans to expand its focus to a wide variety of other programs within the government.