SAN FRANCISCO — Intel will begin releasing later this year redesigned chips that address recently disclosed processor security vulnerabilities, CEO Brian Krzanich said during a conference call with analysts after the company reported fourth quarter results and gave a first quarter forecast that beat Wall Street's expectations.
Intel reported reported that sales grew by 4 percent in the fourth quarter to reach $17.1 billion and 6 percent for the year to reach a record $62.8 billion. The company expects sales for the current quarter to be between $14.5 billion and $15.5 billion, compared to $14.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017.
Brian Krzanich
"We just wrapped up the best year in Intel's history with the best quarter in Intel's history," Krzanich told analysts on the conference call.
Continuing with what has been a reoccuring theme in recent years, he emphasized Intel's progress in transforming itself from a PC-centric chip supplier to a "data-centric" chip supplier, reflecting the broader role of semiconductors in society amid continual decline in PC sales. Intel's non-PC revenue grew by 21 percent in 2017 to reach 47 percent of the company's total sales.
Krzanich also took pains to highlight Intel's focus on security in the wake of the disclosure earlier this month that researchers from Google and other organizations had discovered security vulnerabilities in processors that could expose data to hackers using sophisticated software analysis methods. Krzanich said Intel has been working "around the clock" with customers and partners to address the vulnerabilities, known as Spectre and Meltdown.
Firmware patches and other software mitigation issues that have been available since shortly after the vulnerabilities were disclosed have a negative impact on system performance depending on the workload, and Intel said recently that the patches can cause systems to reboot prematurely and recommended that users stop implementing them until revised versions are available next week.
"While we've made progress, I'm acutely aware that we have more to do," Krzanich told analysts. "We've committed to being transparent keeping our customers and owners appraised of our progress and through our actions, building trust."
A comparison of Intel's sales in 2017 versus 2016. The 2017 total excludes revenue from McAfee.
Source: Intel
While Intel's immediate focus is on delivering better mitigation patches, the company has already begun working to incorporate silicon-based changes to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown threats, Krzanich said. These products will begin appearing later this year, he added.
"This will be an ongoing journey, but we're committed to the task and confident we’re up to the challenge," Krzanich said.
While Intel's data-centric revenue grew significantly in both the fourth quarter and in 2017 as a whole, PC-centric revenue of $9 billion in the fourth quarter was down 2 percent year-over-year. For the year, though, PC-centric revenue of $34 billion was an increase of 3 percent compared to 2016.
Krzanich said Intel was helped during the quarter by in improved environment for PCs and declining manufacturing costs for 14nm chips.
Intel also said it would increase capital spending this year to about $14 billion, up from about $12 billion in 2017. About $2 billion of the $14 billion is set to come from customer prepayments from memory supply agreements.
— Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.
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