by Doug Millison for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Intel CEO Craig Barrett got down on his knees and begged forgiveness for cancelling the 4-gigahertz Pentium 4 chip.

Reports the San Jose Mercury News today:

Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett is known for his dry sense of humor. He also has good-naturedly participated in some odd marketing stunts, such as the time The Blue Man Group brought him out on the stage at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show by causing his head to emerge from a mound of wobbling Jello.

But at Gartner Group's recent Fall Symposium/IT Expo in Orlando, Fla., Barrett took CEO humiliation -- or humility, depending on your view -- to a new level. During an interview on stage with Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds, Barrett got down on his knees. In front of an audience of about 7,000 information-technology professionals, Barrett asked their forgiveness for the Santa Clara company's latest product slip-up, the cancellation of its 4-gigahertz Pentium 4 personal-computer chip.

"Is it a missed commitment? Absolutely. Would we have preferred not to miss that commitment? Absolutely? I get on my knees in front of the audience, forgive us," said Barrett, according to a transcript of the event.

Barrett also acknowledged for the first time that Intel's plans to develop all future chips with two processors was a move to "avoid the power challenge." As chip makers pack more and more transistors into chips, the chips generate excessive heat.

Links:

Tech Notebook: Barrett eats humble pie over product snafu, by Therese Poletti, Michael Bazeley and Dean Takahashi, San Jose Mercury News, 2 November 2004

Affiliate link:

OnlineJournalist.org, edited by Doug Millison: "on a need to know basis"