Intel corporation

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF INTEL.COM STRATEGY


By Student's Name



Code + Course Name

Professor's Name

University Name

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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


















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.

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.














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 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 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 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 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 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).

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).
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.
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 knowledge about such area they are taking part and
working in (Riedman 2011)

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).
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 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 crucial way to remain in
the industry as a market leader (Byrd and Caldwell 2011).  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 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).
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 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 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.





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. 1250014-1-1250014-23, 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 - 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.









Appendices

"Appendix 1 "Coding " "
" "example, " "
"aterial Type: "Article / " "
" "White " "
" "paper " "
"Technical Format: "text file," "
" "zip " "
" "archive, " "
" "Word " "
" "document " "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "12/22/2010" "
"Date Modified: "12/22/2010" "
"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 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 "


 

 


Parallel Solution to Cat-and-Mouse strategy game problem (akki)

 

 Appendix 2

"Material Type: "Coding " "
" "example, " "
" "Article / " "
" "White " "
" "paper " "
"Technical Format: "zip " "
" "archive, " "
" "PDF " "
" "document, " "
" "text file " "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "12/22/2010" "
"Date Modified: "12/22/2010" "
"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 "
"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


Parallel Algorithm to String Matching Problem

 

 

"Material Type: "Coding " "
" "example " "
"Technical Format: "text file," "
" "zip " "
" "archive, " "
" "PDF " "
" "document " "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "7/28/2010 " "
"Date Modified: "7/28/2010 " "
"Author: "Bradley C." "
" "Kuszmaul, " "
" "MIT " "
" "Computer " "
" "Science " "
" "and " "
" "Artificial" "
" "Intelligen" "
" "ce " "
" "Laboratory" "
"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 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 hashing,"
" "rolling hash search "


 

 Appendix 4


The Knight's Tour: A Concurrent Solution

 

 

"Material Type: "Coding " "
" "example " "
"Technical Format: "Word " "
" "document, " "
" "text file, " "
" ".sln, Excel" "
" "spreadsheet" "
" ", zip " "
" "archive " "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "7/28/2010 " "
"Date Modified: "7/28/2010 " "
"Author: "Peter " "
" "Hinsbeeck, " "
" "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 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)

 

 

"Material Type: "Coding " "
" "example " "
"Technical Format: "text file," "
" "PDF " "
" "document, " "
" "zip " "
" "archive " "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "7/28/2010 " "
"Date Modified: "7/28/2010 " "
"Author: "Bradley C." "
" "Kuszmaul, " "
" "MIT " "
" "Computer " "
" "Science " "
" "and " "
" "Artificial" "
" "Intelligen" "
" "ce " "
" "Laboratory" "
"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 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


Parallel algorithm to solve a Knight's Tour problem variation (Jonas
D'Mentia)

 

 

"Material Type: "Coding " "
" "example " "
"Technical Format: "text file, " "
" ".docx, .rar" "
"Location: " " "
"Date Added: "7/28/2010 " "
"Date Modified: "7/28/2010 " "
"Author: "Jonas " "
" "D'Mentia, " "
" "Kearneys " "
" "Spring, " "
" "Queensland," "
" "Australia " "
"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 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 tree, "
" "Hamiltonian path "