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Intel.com strategy1
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF INTEL.COM STRATEGY
By Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date
Intel.com strategy2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary............................................2
Terms of reference...........................................3
1.0 Introduction.............................................4
1.1 Background information...................................4
1.2 History of innovation in the chosen firm.................6
2.0 Current innovation strategy..............................8
3.0 Challenges, Competition and Choice.......................8
4.0 Impact..................................................10
5.0 Stimulating & Managing the Process......................11
6.0 Evaluation/Analyses.....................................13
7.0 Recommendations.........................................15
8.0 Conclusion..............................................16
Bibliography &References....................................17
Intel.com strategy3
Executive summary
There is rampant evolution in matters of science and
technology. Companies in this industry are trying day in day
out to outdo each other through their various creativity and
innovations. This paper focuses mainly on Intel com, which is
among the major players in the industry of technology. The
focus is mainly on the critical evaluation of the intel.com
strategy in the way it manages to keep up with the other
players in the industry.
Intel.com strategy4
Terms of reference
This report was commissioned by -----------, lecturer of the
Management Communications module as part of an assessment for
that module within the Bachelor of Business (Ordinary) in
Management at the ---------------. It accounts for --% of the
final marks and provides an analysis of intel.com strategy and
their choices relating to that strategy.
Intel.com strategy5
1.0 Introduction
In 1968, Intel Corporation was originated by Robert Noyce
and Gordon Moore. Intel announced the 4004 microprocessor in
the year 1971 and next year they increased the number to 8008.
Intel had employed nearly 25,000 employees in the year 1984,
but the business of their memory chip was throbbing because of
the competition from Japan. Intel appointed Craig Barrett as
the Chief executive, is looking for ways to expand beyond
processors, into chips and products for networking and
communications. The company selected Grove as a wandering
Intel promoter whereas Barrett handles day-to-day operations.
Intel creates an incredible increase in technology every day.
Intel is the world’s largest leader in silicon innovation. It
develops technologies, products, and initiatives to advance
continually how the people work and live. This brief report
critically evaluates the strategy of Intel.com in relation to
the company’s challenges, competition, and SWOT analysis, how
the company stimulates and manages it processes, the current
innovation policy and the recommendations therein.
1.1 Background information
Intel.com strategy6
Intel was well-known as an early pioneer in developing
memory chips: SRAM and DRAM, which represented its core
business until 1981. During the 1990s, Intel took huge money
for its investment in new microprocessor designs whose
evolving the significantly rapid growth of the computer
industry. During this period Intel became the dominant
supplier of PCs microprocessors, and later was known for
revealing aggressively controversial marketing strategies in
defense of its product market position, particularly against
its biggest competitors: AMD and Microsoft for controlling
across the directions of the PC industry (Wai Fong et al
2007).
Intel was a prominent company based on its founding by
its ability to produce semiconductors, and its main products
were static random access memory (SRAM) chips. Intel's
business activities continuously expanded and eventually
produced a wider range of products which still prevailed
today's technology market by various memory devices.
At the end of the 1980s, after altering fundamental aspects of
that business model and repositioning the company's market
focus to microprocessors, the company had successfully become
Intel.com strategy7
a dominant player in semiconductors. Supported by its
advantageous position as microprocessor supplier to IBM and
its competitors within the growingly potential PC market,
Intel started with a 10-year period of unprecedented growth as
the primary hardware supplier to the PC industry which
deriving enormous profit to the company (Woolard 2013).
Demand growth for high-end microprocessors decreased
slowly in 2000. Intel competitors, such as AMD (the largest
competitor in its primary x86 architecture market), earned
significant growth in microprocessors market share, initially
in low-end and mid-range processors but ultimately across the
product range, and finally reduced Intel's dominancy. Intel
attempted to enhance such efforts and strategies to diversify
the company's business beyond semiconductors, but only a few
of these activities were eventually profitable.
1.2 History of innovation in the chosen firm (Wai Fong et al
2007).
In the beginning, Intel's Architecture Lab (IAL) was
responsible for many of the hardware innovations of the
personal computer, including the PCI Bus, the PCI Express
(PCIe) bus, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), Bluetooth wireless
Intel.com strategy8
interconnect, and the now-dominant architecture for
multiprocessor servers. IAL's software efforts met with a more
mixed fate; its video and graphics software was important in
the development of software digital video, but later its
efforts were largely overshadowed by competition from
Microsoft
The company's first products were shift register memory
and RAM integrated circuits, and Intel grew to be a leader in
the fiercely competitive DRAM, SRAM, and ROM markets
throughout the 1970s. Concurrently, Intel engineers invented
Intel's first microprocessor. Originally developed for the
Japanese company Busicom to replace a number of ASICs in a
calculator already produced by Busicom, the Intel 4004 was
introduced to the mass market in 1971, though the
microprocessor did not become the core of Intel's business
until the mid-1980s. In March 2011, Intel has announced their
SSDs 510 1with 20GB and 250GB capacities and read speeds more
than 500MBps (Woolard 2013). One drawback is that the SSD 510
requires a SATA 6 GBps port in conjunction with the second
generation of Intel Core Series processor. Furthermore, it
still sells only in packs of 1000s which are difficult to
Intel.com strategy9
acquire for the average consumer. After all, the Intel
Scientific Computers division was founded in order to design
and produce parallel computers based on Intel microprocessors
connected in hypercube topologies
2.0 Current innovation strategy
The new Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) of Intel
could improve the Converged Application Platforms (CAP) by
generating a safe, reliable, and consolidated environment for
hosting the voice, data, and video services, all together in
just one multifunction device. Intel Corporation has also
launched the microprocessor chips that would ensure the
increased availability of high-definition video through
internet (Woolard 2013). Intel Corporation launched 16 new
products together with the company's first 45 nanometer (nm)
processors for Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology based
laptops. Intel has developed a new chip which has video
telephony software development on it (Wai Fong et al 2007).
The new generation of the home PC’s will be video phone
ready computers. They will be capable of making and receiving
video phone calls over the standard telephone lines. It will
Intel.com strategy10
allow the user to establish a simple phone connection and see
the person they are speaking to. Intel Corporation is planning
to bring video phone technology to the mass market soon. The
Intel Corporation has proposed to increase the power of latest
Pentium microprocessors and improved compression software to
allow both video and audio information to share the same
standard telephone line (Woolard 2013).
2.0 Challenges, Competition, and Choice
Current Competitors: From the Microprocessor SBU
perspective (Microprocessor and Chipset only), only one
significant competitor will persist: Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD). Having beaten all other microprocessor developers such
as Cyrix and NexGen, Intel's only real competition will come
from the developers of the Athlon, Thunderbird, and
Sledgehammer CPUs (Woolard 2013). Product specialization may
derive a significant menace. If any competitor beats the
market by manufacturing fabulous microprocessor then, the
market demand for Intel's processor would be small and there
is no backup products through which company can survive
(Pickering and Wynn, 2004).
Intel.com strategy11
Besides, the following issues are also considered as
threats for Intel Corporation such as: AMD as a fierce
competitor, always trying to amend its products which can
bring the hard efforts to Intel's microprocessors to recover
(Woolard 2013). Advancement in technology can make the
manufacturing facilities and products getting obsolete. The
high price war is going on between PC producers. Many
competent PC makers are using inferior performance IC'S.
Changing customer taste and preferences along with the
reduction in brand loyalty is a major threat. Currency
changeability in different countries creates problems for the
company's business activities. Intel has strong competitors in
the industry such as Dell, IBM, etc. The company is facing
intense competition to maintain its market share
sustainability (Pickering and Wynn 2004).
Intel Corporation is facing strong political instability,
regulation and tariffs in different countries. Intel is the
largest microprocessor manufacturer company in the world where
most of the computer manufacturers and consumers prefer using
devices with an Intel microprocessor (Solis, 2010). It has the
largest market share of around 80% all over the world.
Intel.com strategy12
Moreover, Intel has been successfully created a good branding
strategy through the brand image. Most of the users will
associate PCs with Intel as good microprocessor
architecture. People believe in Intel products as it is a most
reputable name. Intel creates specialized products as it has
captured only one particular area (Solis, 2010). Its employees
are well-skilled in that area, so Intel produces the best
products because of its specialization in products (Curley,
2006). Besides, Intel simultaneously keeps on improving its
products as Intel introduced many versions of "core-called"
processors, and every version are sustainably improved than
the previous ones (Curley, 2006). These product improvements
not only helps in stronger the customer base, but also
complying with the customers' satisfaction. In other side, one
of the most important things for a company to make sustainable
innovations and improvement is substantial financial support
in order to lead the market continuously (Curley, 2006).
Besides, taking risks capability regarding new products is a
considerably important instance. Furthermore, Intel involves
well-skilled and experienced employees with qualified
Intel.com strategy13
knowledge about such area they are taking part and working in
(Riedman 2011)
3.0 Impact
Intel as a foremost semiconductor chip manufacturing
company develops advanced and integrated digital technology
products, integrated circuits (ICs), for computing and
communications industries. Intel primarily operates in the
Taiwan, China (including Hong Kong), and the US (Solis, 2010).
The company recorded decreased revenues from 2008 to 2009
(Riedman 2011). In the fourth quarter 2010, the world volumes
of processors deliveries fell by 0.04% compared with the third
quarter of the same year, and by 0.21% in the fourth quarter
of the previous year (Curley, 2006). As a whole over the years
was observed the displacement of consumer preferences to the
side of productive mobile processors, which was reflected in
the realization of processors increased by 8% (price).
Furthermore, the portion of mobile processors for PC of the
overall mass of the year increased from 50.2% to 54.1%
(Curley, 2006).
Intel.com strategy14
The Mobile segment in the fourth quarter was
characterized by the redistribution of the market between
Intel and AMD (Curley, 2006). The first increased its portion
from 85.9% to 86.1%, the second - decreased it's from 13.7% to
13.5%. Intel increased its proportion from 93.7% to 94.2%,
whereas AMD decreased its portion from 6.3% to 5.8% (Byrd and
Caldwell 2011).
5.0 Stimulating & Managing the Process
Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee
diversity groups as well as supplier diversity programs. Like
many companies with employee diversity groups, they include
groups based on race and nationality as well as sexual
identity and religion. In 1994, Intel sanctioned one of the
earliest corporate Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender
employee groups and supports a Muslim employees' group, a
Jewish employees' group, and a Bible-based Christian group
(Byrd and Caldwell 2011). Intel's leadership position in the
PC architecture theater is very much a de facto competitive
advantage the result of its long-term market dominance and
market position, but not necessarily a result of the superior
Intel.com strategy15
strategy (Solis, 2010). One competitive advantage that has
come about due to the corporate strategy would be Intel's
superior marketing and public relations machine, which is
surely to be counted among its core competencies (Byrd and
Caldwell 2011). By manipulating the public perspectives into
believing it has a monopoly on CPUs (as discussed in the
text), and simultaneously protecting itself from antitrust
litigation by claiming that it is indeed not a monopoly at
all, Intel has secured for itself the best of both worlds.
Customers and investors alike trust Intel because of its
product's stature and importance, yet trustbusters are kept at
bay by the existence of tiny firms like VIA and AMD (Fenwick,
2012).
The company should be customer-oriented because customer
preference changes after a few months and customers always
look for new and updated products (Fenwick, 2012).
Furthermore, product development and market penetration in the
existing markets might also be a good opportunity (Fenwick,
2012). Advancement in technology also provides the opportunity
to offer new products. Intel can keep on playing significant
roles in the rapidly changing industry with innovation as the
Intel.com strategy16
crucial way to remain in the industry as a market leader (Byrd
and Caldwell 2011). Â Furthermore, backward and forward
integration may reduce the needed expenses, improve the
quality and service. Changing circumstances after economic
slowdown or financial crises is also helpful for the company.
One competitive advantage that has come about due to the
corporate strategy would be Intel's superior marketing and
public relations machine, which is sure to be counted among
its core competencies (Fenwick, 2012).
By manipulating the public perspectives into believing it
has a monopoly on CPUs (as discussed in the text), and
simultaneously protecting itself from antitrust litigation by
claiming that it is indeed not a monopoly at all, Intel has
secured for itself the best of both worlds (Fenwick, 2012).
Customers and investors alike trust Intel because of its
product's stature and importance, yet trustbusters are kept at
bay by the existence of tiny firms like VIA and AMD (Solis,
2010). Intel's marketing clout is also impressive when it
comes to merchandising. By initiating price wars with its
poorer competitor, it has successfully driven AMD out of
particular markets. By charging a premium for Pentiums, it
Intel.com strategy17
encourages a premium image while still outselling and
outpacing the Athlon. Meanwhile, Intel's marketers are hard at
work behind the scenes, concocting exclusive deals with
computer manufacturers, actually cutting AMD out of the
majority of the market (Fenwick, 2012).
6.0 Evaluation/Analyses
In the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten sellers of
semiconductors in the world (Carmona et al 2011). In 1991,
Intel became the biggest chip maker by revenue and had held
the position ever since. Other top semiconductor companies
include AMD, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and
STMicroelectronics (Scanaill et al 2011). Some smaller
competitors like VIA and Transmeta produce low-power x86
processors for small factor computers and portable equipment
(Carmona et al 2011). In other side, Intel has often been
accused by competitors of using legal claims to thwart
competition. Intel claims that it is defending its
intellectual property. Intel has been plaintiff and defendant
in numerous legal actions (Carmona et al 2011).
Intel.com strategy18
Two factors combined to end this dominance: the slowing
of PC demand growth beginning in 2000 and the rise of the low-
cost PC. By the end of the 1990s, microprocessor performance
had outstripped software demand for that CPU power. Aside from
high-end server systems and software, demand for which dropped
with the end of the "dot-com bubble", consumer systems ran
effectively on increasingly low-cost systems after 2000
(Carmona et al 2011). Intel's strategy of producing ever-more-
powerful processors and obsolescing their predecessors
stumbled, leaving an opportunity for rapid gains by
competitors, notably AMD (Riedman 2011). This in turn lowered
the profitability of the processor line and ended an era of
unprecedented dominance of the PC hardware by Intel (Carmona
et al 2011).
7.0 Recommendations
The division that powers remote servers known as the
cloud helped boost the chip maker’s fourth-quarter bottom line
by 39 percent, to $3.7-billion (U.S.). Intel’s smartphones and
tablets business, however, generated negative revenue because
Intel.com strategy19
of incentives given to customers. It may be time to hang up on
the effort (Carmona et al 2011). The attempt to unseat
rival ARM Holdings PLC is becoming increasingly costly and
quixotic (Solis, 2010). Intel’s latest move was to introduce
new chips for LTE, the dominant standard in wireless (Fenwick,
2012). Its offerings haven’t proven superior in cost or power
consumption over those from ARM, whose designs are used in
more than 90 per cent of mobile phones (Scanaill et al 2011).
That Intel has to pay chip makers to use its design shows just
how uneven the playing field is (Byrd and Caldwell 2011).
Broader use of its mobile wares will cut expenses by
$800-million this year, Intel reckons. Much of the sum will
come from reduced subsidies. That’s a start, but the division
lost over $4-billion in 2014 (Carmona et al 2011). A better
decision would be to stop its efforts altogether. The PC
market may compound the problem. Sales have mostly levelled
off this year but could easily resume their downward
trajectory as the march of tablets picks up, and companies
upgrade their desktops less frequently (Carmona et al 2011).
One significant opportunity for Intel could be manufacturing
more chips that are designed by other companies (Scanaill et
Intel.com strategy20
al 2011). Signing more deals would increase usage of its
plants, even as it builds market share in the market for
servers that run cloud services. The business has been growing
at a 25-per-cent rate and generates a healthy operating margin
of 54 percent (Byrd and Caldwell 2011).
8.0 Conclusion
Briefly, the company is doing fine outwardly. This brief
report critically evaluates the strategy of Intel.com in
relation to the company’s challenges, competition, and SWOT
analysis, how the company stimulates and manages it processes,
the current innovation policy and the recommendations therein.
Intel.com strategy21
References
Byrd, K, & Caldwell, B 2011, 'Increased Memory Load During
Task Completion When Procedures Are Presented On Mobile
Screens',Behaviour & Information Technology, 30, 5, Pp. 643-658,
Academic Search Premier, Ebscohost, Viewed 17 April 2015.
Carmona, J, Júlvez, J, Cortadella, J, & Kishinevsky, M 2011,
'A Scheduling Strategy For Synchronous Elastic
Designs', Fundamenta Informaticae, 108, 1/2, Pp. 1-21,
Academic Search Premier, Ebscohost, Viewed 16 April 2015.
Fenwick, N 2012, 'The New Era Of Social Business', KM World,
21, 6, Pp. 18-22, Academic Search Premier, Ebscohost,
Viewed 17 April 2015.
Curley, M 2006, 'THE IT TRANSFORMATION AT INTEL', MIS Quarterly
Executive, 5, 4, Pp. 155-168, Business Source Complete,
Ebscohost, Viewed 17 April 2015.
HARMON, R, & MOOLENKAMP, N 2012, 'SUSTAINABLE IT SERVICES::
DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FRAMEWORK', International Journal Of
Innovation & Technology Management, 9, 2, Pp. 1250014-1-
Intel.com strategy22
1250014-23, Business Source Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed 16
April 2015.
Mazars 0002, 'Strategy Consulting: Mazars Group Acquires
Global Intelligence Partners', Business Wire (English),
February, Regional Business News, Ebscohost, Viewed 16
April 2015.
Nikonov, D, Bourianoff, G, Rowlands, G, & Krivorotov, I 2010,
'Strategies And Tolerances Of Spin Transfer Torque
Switching', Journal Of Applied Physics, 107, 11, P. 113910,
Academic Search Premier, Ebscohost, Viewed 16 April 2015.
Pickering, C, & Wynn, E 2004, 'An Architecture And Business
Process Framework For Global Team Collaboration', Intel
Technology Journal, 8, 4, Pp. 373-382, Business Source
Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed 17 April 2015.
Solis, B 2010, Engage! : The Complete Guide For Brands And Businesses To
Build, Cultivate, And Measure Success In The New Web, Hoboken, N.J.:
John Wiley, Ebook Collection (Ebscohost), Ebscohost,
Viewed 17 April 2015. SHAUL, I 2012, 'International
Negotiation', Proceedings Of The International Conference Marketing -
Intel.com strategy23
From Information To Decision, 5, Pp. 455-461, Business Source
Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed 17 April 2015.
Scanaill, C, Garattini, C, Greene, B, & Mcgrath, M 2011,
'Technology Innovation Enabling Falls Risk Assessment In
A Community Setting', Ageing International, 36, 2, Pp. 217-
231, Academic Search Premier, Ebscohost, Viewed 17 April
2015.
Woolard, C 2013, 'TOP DIGITAL MARKETERS: Kevin Sellers', B To B,
98, 3, P. 19, Business Source Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed
16 April 2015.
Wai Fong, B, Soh, C, & Steven, Y 2007, 'A Case Study Of
Rosettanet', Communications Of The ACM, 50, 12, Pp. 57-62,
Business Source Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed 16 April 2015.
Riedman, P 2011, 'Btob's Best Marketers', B To B, 96, 10, P.
S010, Business Source Complete, Ebscohost, Viewed 16 April
2015.
Intel.com strategy24
Appendices
Appendix 1
aterial Type:
Coding
example
,
Article
/ White
paper
Technical Format: text
file,
zip
archive
, Word
documen
t
Location:
Date Added: 12/22/2
Intel.com strategy25
010
Date Modified: 12/22/2
010
Author: Dmitry
Vyukov,
Moscow,
Russia
Description:
The included code and white paper provides a parallel solution
for enumerating the total number of possible wins, losses, and
draws for a two-person strategy game. A Cat and Mouse move on
a directed graph; the Cat attempts to catch the Mouse, while
the Mouse attempts to occupy a goal node within the maximum
number of moves allowed. Even though the problem deals with
graphs, the solution given is based on dynamic programming. A
detailed description of how to apply dynamic programming to
this problem is included in the write-up. Parallelism is
Intel.com strategy26
implemented with Pthreads.
DISCLAIMER: This code is provided by the author as a submitted
contest entry, and is intended for educational use only. The
code is not guaranteed to solve all instances of the input
data sets and may require modifications to work in your own
specific environment.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers, Graduate
students, Undergraduate
students
Language: English
Keywords: Strategy, game, graph
traversal, dynamic programming,
parallel algorithm, Threading
Challenge Contest, Pthreads
Intel.com strategy27
Parallel Solution to Cat-and-Mouse strategy game problem
(akki)
Appendix 2
Material Type: Coding
example
,
Article
/ White
paper
Technical Format: zip
archive
documen
t, text
file
Location:
Intel.com strategy28
Date Added: 12/22/2
010
Date Modified: 12/22/2
010
Author: Akshay
Singh,
Pune,
India
Description:
The included code and white paper provides a parallel solution
for enumerating the total number of possible wins, losses, and
draws for a two-person strategy game. A Cat and Mouse move on
a directed graph; the Cat attempts to catch the Mouse, while
the Mouse attempts to occupy a goal node within the maximum
number of moves allowed. Even though the problem deals with
graphs, the solution given is based on dynamic programming.
The parallel solution has been implemented using akkithreads –
a C++ wrapper over the Pthreads library with additional
Intel.com strategy29
features such as JobQueues (Static / Dynamic) and a ThreadPool
implementation.
DISCLAIMER: This code is provided by the author as a submitted
contest entry, and is intended for educational use only. The
code is not guaranteed to solve all instances of the input
data sets and may require modifications to work in your own
specific environment.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers, Graduate
students, Undergraduate
students
Language: English
Keywords: Strategy, game, graph
traversal, dynamic programming,
parallel algorithm, Threading
Challenge Contest, Pthreads
Appendix 3
Intel.com strategy30
Parallel Algorithm to String Matching Problem
Material Type: Coding
example
Technical Format: text
file,
zip
archive
documen
t
Location:
Date Added: 7/28/20
10
Date Modified: 7/28/20
Intel.com strategy31
10
Author: Bradley
C.
Kuszmau
l, MIT
Compute
r
Science
and
Artific
ial
Intelli
gence
Laborat
ory
Description:
The included code and white paper provides a parallel solution
for the DNA string matching problem, as described in the
included problem description text file. The included write-up
Intel.com strategy32
gives an overview of Cilk++ and some of the tools available
for Cilk programming. The Rabin-Karp hashing method and a
simple search algorithm to compare the query string with a
successive database substrings is presented and analyzed.
After some serial optimizations are described, the write-up
describes how the algorithm is parallelized using Cilk++. The
code was intended for Linux OS platforms.
DISCLAIMER: This code is provided by the author as a submitted
contest entry, and is intended for educational use only. The
code is not guaranteed to solve all instances of the input
data sets and may require modifications to work in your own
specific environment.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers,
Undergraduate students
Language: English
Keywords: String matching, DNA string
matching, Cilk++, RabinKarp
Intel.com strategy33
hashing, rolling hash search
Appendix 4
The Knight's Tour: A Concurrent Solution
Material Type: Coding
example
Technical Format: Word
document
, text
file, .s
ln,
Excel
spreadsh
eet, zip
Intel.com strategy34
archive
Location:
Date Added: 7/28/201
0
Date Modified: 7/28/201
0
Author: Peter
Hinsbeec
k, Intel
Description:
Several years ago, an ex-colleague of the author returned from
a job interview with an interesting story. He was given the
option to choose from a short list of problems to solve in a
given time period. One of them was the classic “Knight’s Tour”
problem from the game of chess. Since then, the author often
thought about how he might respond to such a job interview
Intel.com strategy35
question, and, how easily his solution might parallelize.
DISCLAIMER: This material includes the author’s approach to
the problem; serial and parallelized versions of the code; and
a spreadsheet that shows the timings obtained for each
version.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers, Beginning
programmers, Undergraduate
students
Language: English
Keywords: Knights Tour, serial solution,
parallel solution
Appendix 5
Parallel algorithm to solve a Knight’s Tour problem variation
(BradleyKuszmaul)
Intel.com strategy36
Material Type: Coding
example
Technical Format: text
file,
documen
t, zip
archive
Location:
Date Added: 7/28/20
10
Date Modified: 7/28/20
10
Author: Bradley
C.
Intel.com strategy37
Kuszmau
l, MIT
Compute
r
Science
and
Artific
ial
Intelli
gence
Laborat
ory
Description:
The included source code implements a variation of the
Knight’s Tour problem that counts the number of possible tours
of a given length in parallel, as described in the included
problem description text file. The algorithm enumerates legal
paths that are half of the set length and then matches up the
endpoints of different half tours to identify and count the
Intel.com strategy38
number of tours that will return the knight to the original
square. The parallelization was done with a combination of
Cilk++ and POSIX Threads. The code was intended for Linux OS
and includes a makefile to build the applications.
DISCLAIMER: This code is provided by the author as a submitted
contest entry, and is intended for educational use only. The
code is not guaranteed to solve all instances of the input
data sets and may require modifications to work in your own
specific environment.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers,
Undergraduate students
Language: English
Keywords: Knights Tour, Cilk++, POSIX
Threads, Pthreads, Hamiltonian
path
Appendix 6
Intel.com strategy39
Parallel algorithm to solve a Knight’s Tour problem variation
(Jonas D'Mentia)
Material Type: Coding
example
Technical Format: text
file, .d
ocx, .ra
r
Location:
Date Added: 7/28/201
0
Date Modified: 7/28/201
0
Author: Jonas
Intel.com strategy40
D’Mentia
,
Kearneys
Spring,
Queensla
nd,
Australi
a
Description:
The included source code implements a variation of the
Knight’s Tour problem that counts the number of possible tours
of a given length in parallel, as described in the included
problem description text file. The write-up defines a brute
force serial method and then an optimization to that
algorithm. The optimized algorithm enumerates legal paths that
are half of the set length and then matches up the endpoints
(leaves on a search tree) of different half tours to identify
and count the number of tours that will return the knight to
the original square. Discussion of the parallel solution
Intel.com strategy41
identifies three possible places within the serial algorithm
that could be made to execute in parallel. The analysis for
two of these computations proves that the required
computations are not very amenable to parallelization, but the
third is implemented using OpenMP. The code was intended for
Windows OS and includes Microsoft Visual Studio solution and
project files to build the application.
DISCLAIMER: This code is provided by the author as a submitted
contest entry, and is intended for educational use only. The
code is not guaranteed to solve all instances of the input
data sets and may require modifications to work in your own
specific environment.
Recommended Audience: Advanced programmers,
Undergraduate students
Language: English
Keywords: Knights Tour, OpenMP, search