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Intel was founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and quickly became one of the defining companies of the semiconductor industry. After early success with memory chips, Intel shifted toward microprocessors in the 1970s with parts such as the 4004, 8008, and 8080, then established the basis of the modern PC market with the 8086 and 8088. The x86 family became dominant after IBM selected the 8088 for the original IBM PC in 1981. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Intel consolidated that position with the 286, 386, 486, and then the Pentium line, combining strong in-house manufacturing with increasingly advanced microarchitectures. Unlike many competitors, Intel controlled both CPU design and leading-edge fabs, which gave it a major advantage in performance, volume, and market influence. By the late 1990s and 2000s, Intel was the clear dominant force in x86. It experimented with several architectural directions, including the short-lived Itanium for IA-64, but its mainstream business remained centered on x86 processors such as Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4. After the NetBurst era reached its limits in power and efficiency, Intel recovered decisively with the Core microarchitecture in 2006, which restored performance and efficiency leadership over AMD. By the end of the 2000s, with Core 2, Nehalem, and its integrated memory controller and QuickPath interconnect, Intel had reinforced its dominance in both desktop and server markets. Historically, Intel was not just the original creator of x86, but the company that turned it into the standard architecture of personal computing.