Contest: Guess Intel Transistor Shipments, Win a Great Prize!

By esther andrews on December 1, 2008

THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER. Congratulations to the winner who received a $500 Amazon gift card just in time to finish up his holiday shopping – Fenwick Jeffrey of New Brunswick, Canada – with his entry of 20,275,500,698,321,756, which came the closest to the correct answer of 19,914,946,000,000,000

November 11th marked the one-year anniversary of Intel shipping its very first processors that incorporated our 45 nanometer manufacturing capability and reinvented transistor formula called high-k, metal gate. To the everyday consumer, this may not mean much. But think of the innovation involved in reinventing and then stuffing 100s of millions of tiny, tiny transistors inside a processor not much larger than a postage stamp, yet still delivering more performance for your photo, video and music activities in laptops that are now even smaller and faster yet improve battery life.

In honor of this milestone, Intel is offering one lucky winner in the US or Canada US $500 www.amazon.com gift certificate to the person who guesses the exact number of transistors Intel has shipped worldwide from January 1, 2008 to October 31st, 2008.

How do you play? Simple. Use the comments section of this blog to submit your answer. By doing so, you acknowledge the official rules posted at the end of this blog.

Three more things. First, keep in mind that the number of transistors inside several of our products that take advantage of 45nm and reinvented transistors varies, but are typically in the 100s of millions. Intel will only review one submission per e-mail address, and only one number per submission, so don’t list a bunch or try to submit several using the same e-mail account.

Second, please note that Intel can moderate its blog comments so it is likely that your submission post will be delayed up to 24 hours or more. We’ll do our best to post answers as immediately as possible, and Intel’s blog automatically ‘time-stamps’ each submission when its submitted, so the answers will be posted in order and if two individuals submit the winning answer the first person to post wins.

Third, the contest begins now and ends on December 15th, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. Pacific Standard time. The winner will receive a $500 gift certificate for www.amazon.com and will be contacted using the e-mail submitted along with the answer post. This winner will have seven days (December 22, 12:01 p.m. PST) to acknowledge and accept the award.

Official Contest Rules:

(1) For posting at the blogs.intel.com site for the duration of the contest period.

(2) For attachment as an addendum to winner’s affidavits

Guess the Number of Intel’s Reinvented Transistors Contest

Official Contest Rules

Eligibility: No purchase necessary to win. This contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada, excluding Quebec, who are 18 years of age or older. Intel Employees, officers and representatives (and members of their immediate families and those living in the same household of each) of Intel Corporation, their parents, subsidiaries and affiliated companies, advertising and promotion agencies and any company involved in the design, execution, production or judging of this promotion (“contest entities”) are ineligible Void where prohibited.

How to Enter: Beginning December 1, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. PST contestants may submit via a comment to the blog post related to this Contest located at the Technology@Intel blog, their calculation of the exact number of transistors manufactured on Intel’s 45 nanometer process Intel Corporation shipped worldwide between January 1, 2008 through October 31, 2008. If no individual guesses the exact number, then the closest number to the exact answer (above or below it) will win.

Length of Contest: The contest shall run from December 1st, 12:01 p.m. Pacific Standard Time to December 15th, 12:01 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Number of submissions: Contestants can provide only one answer per the e-mail, Intel will have an exact time stamp for each submitted number in case there are multiple individuals who submit the same winning number. Please note: submissions are moderated, so there will be a delay from the time a comment is submitted to actually seeing it posted. Intel Corporation will post the submissions in the exact order as received based on the automatic time stamp generated.

Requirements: Winner must meet the Eligibility requirements outlined above and have an active Internet connection and e-mail address to make a submission. This e-mail address will also be used to send the winning entry a gift certificate in the amount of $500 from www.amazon.com. Submitters can use their own computers and Internet connection or those offered by local libraries and community centers but having your own e-mail address is mandatory to submit and possibly win.

Prizes, One Prize Winner: Only one prize will be awarded. One winner will receive an www.amazon.com gift certificate in the amount of US$500. The winner will be notified via the e-mail used to submit the winning answer. The Winner will be contacted and have 7 days to acknowledge notification via the same e-mail address. Intel will then send the winner an affidavit and release to sign, and winner will have 5 days to sign and return these forms to Intel. Upon return of these documents signed Intel will e-mail the winner the gift certificate. If after 7 days of the initial notification no acknowledgement has occurred, Intel will attempt to contact the second-closet submission and repeat the process until a winner is identified. Where two individuals submit the correct answer, the individual who posted their answer first, as determined by the automatic time stamp, will be awarded the Prize.

Contest Judging: The winner will be determined by Intel Corporation by comparing all submissions in the noted timeframe and selecting the first submission that presents the exact number of transistors, or the closest number above or below the exact answer.

General: If, for reasons beyond Intel Corporation’s control (including, but not limited to, tampering or computer virus infection), the contest is not capable of running as originally planned, Intel, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to cancel or modify the Contest, without liability. Intel will not be responsible for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, or illicit submissions, or for Internet, computer hardware and software, phone, and other technical errors, malfunctions, and delays. Entries are void if they contain typographical, other errors or multiple guesses. The winner will be required to complete an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability/Publicity Release (unless prohibited by law) and any required tax documents. The Affidavit, and Liability/Publicity Release must be returned within five (5) days of receipt of these documents. Non-compliance with any of these requirements may result in disqualification, in which case an alternate winner may be chosen. All entrants agree to comply fully with each provision in these Official Rules. Any person attempting to defraud or in any way tamper with this Contest and any person who does not comply with these Official Rules, will be ineligible for any prize(s) and may be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Right to Use Your Work and Information About You: Contestants understand and agree that their submission will be posted and publicly viewable on blogs.intel.com. By submitting an Entry, you grant Intel Corporation and their affiliated companies the right, except where prohibited by law, to use your name for promotional purposes in promoting or publicizing the contest, including naming the winner in the blog. Intel Corporation and their affiliated companies with respect to all entrants in the Contest, including non-winners and winners. Intel Corporation, however, does not have any obligation to use the winning Entries for any purpose.

Release of Liability and Issues of Law: By participating, all entrants release Intel Corporation, its affiliates, partners, subsidiaries, officers, directors, agents, employees and all entities associated with the development and execution of this promotion from any and all liability with respect to and in any way arising from participating in this promotion, acceptance or use of prizes. Entrants also agree that Intel Corporation, its affiliates, partners, subsidiaries, officers, directors, agents, employees and all entities associated with the development and execution of this promotion are not responsible or liable for any injury or damage to an entrant’s or third person’s computer related to or resulting from the Contest, the Entries and/or its prizes. The Contest Entities are not liable for damage to a user’s computer system (including, without limitation, any server failure or lost, delayed or corrupted data or other malfunction) due, either directly or indirectly, to an entrant’s participation in the Contest or downloading of information in connection with the Contest. Intel reserves the right to modify or cancel the Contest in the event that any portion of any website used to administer any aspect of the Contest becomes technically corrupted.

All Federal, state and local laws and regulations are applicable. THE CALIFORNIA COURTS (STATE AND FEDERAL) SHALL HAVE SOLE JURISDICTION OF ANY CONTROVERSIES REGARDING THE CONTEST AND THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SHALL GOVERN THE CONTEST. EACH ENTRANT WAIVES ANY AND ALL OBJECTIONS TO JURISDICTION AND VENUE IN THOSE COURTS AND HEREBY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THOSE COURTS. The Contest is void where restricted or prohibited by law.

232 Responses to Contest: Guess Intel Transistor Shipments, Win a Great Prize!

  9. Ari Becker says:

    27,535,200,000,000,000 transistors.
    Unfortunately Murphy’s Law says that at least two people will post after me, 1 with a count 1 less than mine and 1 with a count 1 more than mine, but hey I can be hopeful right? :D

  61. Xi Chen says:

    MORE THAN 4.92 × 10exp15. Not exactly the number 4.92 × 10exp15!!! A little more than that!!! Maybe 4.9205 × 10exp15. That will be 4,920,500,000,000,000.
    Huai Gong is really smart. I just calculated out. A little late. Hope I can win.

  137. Karyn Warf says:

    45,500,000,000,000,000
    or
    45500000000000000
    or
    4.55^16
    or
    forty-five quadrillion and five hundred

  175. Isaac W. says:

    If it is broken down by counting about 250,000 shipped E8400′s and E8500′s and about 100,000 Icore7 chips. (my estimate will still be high) but it isn’t taking into account any of the xenon shipments, It should be something around this.
    832 500 000 000 000

  211. Jason Cain Cross says:

    113,258,372,856,211,318
    that’s one hundred thirteen quadrillion, two hundred fifty eight trillion, three hundred seventy two billion, eight hundred fifty six million, two hundred eleven thousand, three hundred eighteen.
    this is coincidentally the same number in my bank account…when I am asleep…and dreaming. :-D

  224. Joseph says:

    Because the Yorfield Penryn was 820million xistors (says HardOCP) per cpu, we’ll guess an average of 531522971.827599499542154243 xistors per chip shipped (because Intel also ships lots of smaller and older CPUs, and the outliers will change the average greatly). Guestimates from various market segments (microprocessors and old cpus, netbooks, laptops, desktops, servers) adjusting for chip counts, leads to the total guesstimate equation of
    531,522,971.827599499542154243*(31,920,033+(3*4,792,318)+(3/4*(32,921,032)*2.15)+2,299,026*1.75*3), giving
    59,239,318,241,393,361

  229. Esther Andrews says:

    This contest ended on December 15 at 12:01pm PST. No more entries were accepted after that time. We are still in the process of confirming the eligibility of the winner. We will announce the winner shortly.

  230. Jeremiah Allen says:

    “This winner will have seven days (December 22, 12:01 p.m. PST) to acknowledge and accept the award.”
    So since you have not yet announced the winner, I guess that doesn’t leave them much time to accept the prize when you do announce it…common, tell us who is closest already!

  231. Esther Andrews says:

    Congratulations to the unofficial winner of this contest, who will receive a $500 Amazon gift card – Fenwick Jeffrey of New Brunswick, Canada – with his entry of 20,275,500,698,321,756, which came the closest to the correct answer of 19,914,946,000,000,000.

  232. slugbug says:

    Congrats to the winner!
    19,914,946,000,000,000 would have been my guess if I was eligible to enter :-(