Intel is asteroid #8080 and also known as 1987 WU2. Intel was discovered at the French Centre de recherches en géodynamique et astrométrie (CERGA) Observatory on the Calern plateau in Caussols, Alpes-Maritime, France. According to the official naming citation as well as all Wikipedia articles, the observatory seems to have discovered the asteroid Intel on its own. Intel’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.86 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.29, a period of revolution of 1 764 days, and an inclination of 9.4 degrees.

Intel is named after the Intel 8080 microprocessor. Most likely the asteroid number inspired the name. The naming citation honours the Intel 8080 as the ancestor of the microprocessor series over 8086, 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486 to the Pentium processors. The naming citation calls the latter “today’s Pentium processors”. Wasn’t expected that the name sticks? Was intended to show that astronomers can be short-sighted? Was intended to mark a certain point in time instead of honouring the namesake? But the naming citation continues to honour the Intel 8080 microprocessor as fundamental to the “PC revolution” and thus contributing much to the advance of astronomy at amateur and professional observatories worldwide. A tool and item couldn’t be honoured more, especially when competitive products are forgotten completely.

Because the asteroid number inspired the name, so Intel belongs to the asteroids with a playful name. The same principle as in the case of the asteroids Mersenne or Prime or Myriostos. Intel obviously represents microprocessors. The Intel 8080 indeed made digitization of many processes possible. Most striking nevertheless is that competitive products are completely ignored by astronomers. Not any asteroid yet bears any of the fancier names of microprocessors from AMD or from temporary competitors like Texas Instruments, IBM, or Motorola. So this looks like the asteroid Intel would be named for the purpose of advertising, which would be strictly prohibited by the rules for naming asteroids. Hence Intel also indicates a huge bias in favor of those, who are richer or incumbent. Ignoring competitors or ignoring other options also belong to the possible interpretations of Intel.