Intel has announced the successful completion of its $ 16.7bn deal to buy field - programmable gate array manufacturer Altera , as it begins to move away from the struggling PC market into IoT and data centres . The unit will sit in Intel's newly formed Programmable Solutions Group, headed by former Altera vice president Dan McNamara. Field Performing Gate Arrays ( FPGAs ) are essentially low - power computer chips that can be programmed by third parties to perform specific tasks in the field – common applications include medical devices and autos . FPGAs crucially lower the cost barrier of entry for many , as product manufacturers may now access powerful computing without the expensive hurdle of funding one - off chip development . Intel has struggled to enter the mobile devices market , and although it remains strong in the data centre market , there has been a move towards lower cost , lower - power consumption servers in that area too – such as those designed by ARM . With this deal Intel aims to gain a foothold in the full IoT stack , from device to cloud : low - powered , interned connected devices will frequently offload their heavy - duty processing requirements to massive data centres With Altera ’s acquisition , Intel will be seeking to make a mark in both areas .
Intel has announced the successful completion of its $ 16.7bn deal to buy field - programmable gate array manufacturer Altera , as it begins to move away from the struggling PC market into IoT and data centres . Field Performing Gate Arrays ( FPGAs ) are essentially low - power computer chips that can be programmed by third parties to perform specific tasks in the field – common applications include medical devices and autos . FPGAs crucially lower the cost barrier of entry for many , as product manufacturers may now access powerful computing without the expensive hurdle of funding one - off chip development . Intel has struggled to enter the mobile devices market , and although it remains strong in the data centre market , there has been a move towards lower cost , lower - power consumption servers in that area too – such as those designed by ARM . With this deal Intel aims to gain a foothold in the full IoT stack , from device to cloud : low - powered , interned connected devices will frequently offload their heavy - duty processing requirements to massive data centres With Altera ’s acquisition , Intel will be seeking to make a mark in both areas .