????芯片制造商英特爾(Intel)的CEO保羅·歐德寧領導該公司連番實現了創紀錄的銷售收入——該公司上一財年的銷售收入高達540億美元。他還推動了“超級本”趨勢，目的在于重新點燃市場對PC（個人電腦）的熱情，同時倡導3D三柵極晶體管（3-D Tri-gate transistor）這類突破性的創新技術。然而，他在移動領域獲得的業績記錄很成問題。

????英特爾在周一上午發布的一份聲明中表示，這位即將離任的CEO將在明年5月份退休。此舉令人頗感意外，因為歐德寧今年才62歲，離該公司強制性退休年齡65歲還差幾年的時間。公司發言人堅稱是歐德寧本人決定離職的，并且表示董事會“很遺憾”地接受了他的辭職請求。

????歐德寧在一份聲明中稱：“我有幸領導了世界上最卓越的一家公司。我在英特爾任職已將近四十年了，而且擔任公司CEO也有八年的時間了。現在該是我離職的時候了，該把英特爾的領導權轉交給新一代領導層。我期待與安迪·布萊恩特（英特爾公司董事長）、董事會以及管理層團隊在接下來為期六個月的過渡期內一起工作，并且在我作為公司CEO退休之后，可以擔任公司管理層的一名顧問。”

????即便其離職的氛圍是和睦友善的，但歐德寧是在英特爾處境艱難時期準備離開公司的。雖然這家世界上最大的芯片制造商目前仍然統治著PC行業，但它在智能手機及平板電腦市場上一直步履蹣跚，而且在服務器領域可能很快將會面臨來自對手基于ARM芯片的競爭。歐德寧非常清楚英特爾未來面臨的諸多挑戰。

????歐德寧在去年1月份接受《財富》雜志（Fortune）采訪時曾表示：“這么多年來，我們一直非常有信心而且放心的業務是英特爾芯片加上微軟軟件，而且我們知道我們必須要做的事情。我們按照某個技術規格制造我們的芯片，而微軟則負責開發軟件。我們這兩家公司可謂是強強聯手。瞧，每年100家廠商推出各種新款PC，這一切似乎都像是珠聯璧合。但在手機領域，情況就完全不同了。”

????即使英特爾與微軟的關系發生了變化——開發Windows 8操作系統的微軟正在推出自行研制的兩款Surface平板電腦，而其中只有一款采用了英特爾的芯片，另一款則采用其競爭對手的ARM芯片。與此同時，最受市場歡迎的蘋果（Apple）iPad平板電腦也沒有使用英特爾的芯片。

????Intel CEO Paul Otellini led the chipmaker to record sales -- a whopping $54 billion in its last fiscal year. He also drove the "ultrabooks" movement in an effort to reignite demand for PCs and spearheaded breakthrough innovations like 3-D Tri-gate transistors. His track record on mobile, though, is questionable.

????The outgoing CEO will retire in May of next year, Intel (INTC) said?in a release issued Monday morning. The move came as a surprise because Otellini is 62, still a few years away from the company's mandatory retirement age of 65. A company spokesperson insisted that it was Otellini's decision to leave, saying the board accepted his resignation "with regret."

????"I've been privileged to lead one of the world's greatest companies," Otellini said in a statement. "After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it's time to move on and transfer Intel's helm to a new generation of leadership. I look forward to working with Andy [Bryant, chairman of Intel's board], the board and the management team during the six-month transition period, and to being available as an advisor to management after retiring as CEO."

????Even if the departure is amicable, Otellini is leaving Intel at a rough period of transition. While the world's largest chipmaker still rules the PC industry,?it has stumbled in the smartphone and tablet markets?and could soon face competition in the server space from rival ARM-based chips. Otellini is well aware of the challenges ahead for Intel.

????"Our comfort zone for so many years was Intel chips and Microsoft software and we knew what we had to do," Otellini said in an interview with?Fortune?last January. "We built our chips to a certain specification and Microsoft did their software and we worked together and, voila, new PCs would come out from 100 vendors a year and everything would just kind of work together. It's different in the phone space."

????Even Intel's relationship with Microsoft (MSFT) has changed -- the Windows 8 maker is launching two versions of its Surface tablet, and only one of them is powered by Intel; the other by rival ARM chips. Meanwhile, the most popular tablet, Apple's (AAPL) iPad, doesn't use an Intel chip.