Intel has closed its mega $16.7bn (£11.2bn) deal to acquire programmable chip maker Altera, likely in a bid to move away from the declining PC market. The unit will sit in Intel's newly formed Programmable Solutions Group, headed by former Altera vice president Dan McNamara. Intel hopes to shove Altera’s field-programmable gate array (FPGA) tech into data centres and the much-hyped internet-of-things (IoT) market. "The combination is expected to enable new classes of products that meet customer needs in the data centre and Internet of Things market segments," said Chipzilla in a statement. Intel will place Altera’s FPGA products with Intel Xeon processors, it said. Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich said: "We will apply Moore's Law to grow today's FPGA business, and we'll invent new products that make amazing experiences of the future possible – experiences like autonomous driving and machine learning." ® Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration
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 .