In 1994, Intel worked with a local custom promotional product company called Silicon Valley Ware Inc. of mountain view ca. to design, market and manufacture the promotional chip items. Back in 1992 Silicon Valley Ware Inc. had previously made jewelry for Intel from some of their defective 486 processor chips that Intel wanted to give to it’s employees and business contacts. This time around Intel wanted to offer it’s new Pentium Chip Jewelry to the consumer market as well.
Intel supplied Silicon Valley Ware Inc. with the defective Pentium chips who then set them into their gold plated jewelry designs and finished the items by covering the chips with a clear epoxy layer to give them a gem like finish. These chips were normal production losses – not the Pentium chips which were afflicted with Intel’s famous FDIV flaw in 1994. The publicity of the Pentium FDIV flaw later in the same year did help with creating additional interest in these Penitum chip items. (There were some limited edition keychains made a year later with some of the actual Pentium FDIV flawed chips but they were made exclusively for Intel employees and business contacts only).
These Pentium promotional items were first offered for sale as a retail test program at 20 university bookstores and museums throughout the United States starting in August 1994. Harvard, Columbia, Brown & Standford University all offered the items at their campus bookstores. The Boston Computer Museum and the Smithsonian Institution also offered the items for sale to visitors in their gift stores. Each store had received an average of about 120 items to sell – The items quickly sold out as customers took to the amazing beauty of the Pentium chip’s colors, sparkle, and beauty. The Pentium chip had quickly become fashionable and quite a conversation piece.
Original retail prices for the Pentium pieces in 1994 (black velvet gift box / slip pouch included) were:
Earrings $25, Cufflinks $20, Link Bracelets $25, Lapel Pins $10, & Keychains $10.
By the December 1994 Silicon Valley Ware Inc. had created an additional inventory of 12,000 pieces of Intel Pentium chip jewelry for the retail program, of those 10,000 of the items were the popular Pentium gold plated keychains. Intel had hopes that eventually the items would be popular enough to be sold in department stores but that level of sales was never reached.
By 1996 Intel had moved on from the original Pentium jewelry retail test market with Silicon Valley Ware Inc., but for years to come they would still have many different styles of jewelry & keychains created for them by various other suppliers (using either metal or acrylic materials) that made use of their defective computer chips, showcasing such famous Intel chips as the Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium 3, Pentium 4 and others. Intel chip Jewelry items were offered to their employees though the IntelStore gift catalogs and at company stores located on select Intel campuses.
“Jewelry made of Intel Corp’s defective Pentium chip is displayed on a keyboard at Silicon Valley Ware Inc. in Mountain View, Calif. The microprocessor jewelry—being sold in museums and college bookstores—includes bracelets, key chains, cuff links, pins and earrings.”
 Intel Pentium Processor information card | Intel Pentium Processor This is an actual Intel Pentium processor computer chip, the “brain” behind the world’s most powerful PC’s. The different colors are caused by light reflecting from the tiny electrical paths that connect over 3 million transistors. The Pentium processor is so powerful that it can calculate the multiplication table, one thru ten, 100,000 times per second. So not only are Pentium processors fast, they’re attention-getters. |
![Trollskull Alley Noire [ENG/ITA] - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon ...](https://i.gyazo.com/925f17d2d8dcfd72e12804aab661f5f2.png "Intel Pentium Jewelry 3")
IN THE CHIPS: COMPUTER BITS AS JEWELRY
Using computers to design and sell jewelry isn’t unusual. But making jewelry from computer parts? It’s one of the latest cybertrends.
Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Cal., the world’s leading maker of computer chips (tiny pieces of silicon embedded with trillions of tiny circuits that perform computer tasks), used to discard defective chips. Now Intel gives the chips to Silicon Valley Ware Inc., a small promotional products company in Mountain View, Cal., that sets them into jewelry.
Silicon Valley Ware is headed by designer Diane Emerson, who suggested the idea to Intel and who designs the jewelry. In a test project last year, chip jewelry was created for Intel employees and business contacts. The test was so successful that the jewelry is now available to retailers.
Silicon Valley Ware’s Pentium jewelry collection comprises earrings, key chains, cuff links, bracelets and lapel pins that retail for $20-$25. The collection debuted this past fall (including a day-long event at Nordstrom’s) and now is available in several dozen university and museum shops across the U.S. “We’ve had a lot of requests from people who run jewelry stores, art galleries and such who want to [carry the collection],” says Emerson.
Emerson and an Intel spokesperson say they are committed to a permanent retail marketing program to generate consumer awareness of technology.
Meanwhile, Connie Perry, a craftsman-entrepreneur in Somerset, Mass., has created CeeDeez, a line of jewelry made from pieces of recycled compact discs and computer chips. The pins and earrings in the line retail for $5-$15 and debuted at the CD-ROM Expo in Boston during the fall.
Perry, who has been doing this for five years, gets her discarded CDs and chips from friends and business companies, sometimes in a barter exchange for creating corporate art for them.
The line is sold in some art stores and in the Boston Computer Museum.
Why would anyone wear computer chips or CDs as jewelry? Emerson and Perry cite their uniqueness and beauty as one reason. “It’s a conversation piece, and the intricate circuitry and interesting light reflection hold people’s eyes,” says Emerson. Adds Perry, “They’re so lovely look at; it’s like looking at a rainbow.”
JEWELER SUES INTEL, ALLEGES THEFT
OF HER PENTIUM-BASED DESIGNS
AP, Associated Press
Feb. 15, 1996 11:46 PM ET
SAN JOSE, CALIF. SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A jeweler who transformed some defective Pentium chips into pins, bracelets, earrings and key chains is suing Intel Corp., claiming that the world’s largest chipmaker stole her designs.
Dianne Emerson, president of Silicon Valley Ware Inc. of Mountain View, said she made thousands of chip ornaments in a test-market program for Intel in 1994.
Intel later canceled a 45,000-piece order and gave the job to another supplier, according to the lawsuit Emerson filed last week in federal court.
The suit alleges Intel had the other company use Emerson’s designs, and seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and copyright infringement.
Howard High, spokesman for the Santa Clara-based Intel, said the lawsuit was without merit.
In late 1994, Intel was criticized for the way it handled a math flaw in the chip, which serves as the brain of personal computers.
The flaw produced errors in some obscure calculations, but did not affect the average computer user. Still, some consumers and analysts blasted Intel for not immediately publicizing the problem and for balking at replacing the chips with no questions asked.
Publicity over the controversy boosted demand for the Pentium jewelry, even though the items were made from chips with different flaws. They sold briskly at college bookstores and museums around the country.
| Intel Computer Chip JewelryBracelets, Lapel Pins, Earrings, Cuff Links & Tie Tacks featuring examples of Intel Chip Technology |
History of Promotional Intel Chip Jewelry
“Intel enters the Computer Chip Jewelry business” (1994)
turning flawed chips into promotional jewelry pieces…
Intel Pentium Chip Jewelry & Keychains (1994)
During the normal manufacture of Intel’s Pentium chips, some flawed chips would inevitably be found during testing and typically Intel had no other choice but to destroy them since they would not meet quality standards that allowed them to be sold to consumers. In Fall 1994, Good Pentium chips were selling for $383 to OEM computer makers, but defective chips were strictly a costly waste to Intel.
But in December 1994, Intel had a brilliant idea, they would transform the defective Pentium chips into unique promotional jewelry items including earrings, pins, link bracelets, cuff links, and even Pentium keychains. This would help recover some of the cost of lost revenue from the defective chips and at the same time offer a new avenue for promoting their new Pentium processor chips to the general public.
In 1994, Intel worked with a local custom promotional product company called Silicon Valley Ware Inc. of Mountain View ca. to design, market and manufacture the promotional chip items. Back in 1992 Silicon Valley Ware Inc. had previously made jewelry for Intel from some of their defective 486 processor chips that Intel wanted to give to it’s employees and business contacts. This time around Intel wanted to offer it’s new Pentium chip jewelry to the consumer market as well. THIS IS NOT ACCURATE: I did the designs and promotional concept and presented to Intel executive Staff in 1994. And the 1995 JCK article explicitly says Silicon Valley Ware was headed by designer Diane Emerson, “who suggested the idea to Intel and who designs the jewelry.”
Intel supplied Silicon Valley Ware Inc. with the defective Pentium chips who then set them into their gold plated jewelry designs and finished the items by covering the chips with a clear epoxy layer to give them a gem like finish. These chips were normal production losses – not the Pentium chips which were afflicted with Intel’s famous FDIV flaw in 1994. The publicity of the Pentium FDIV flaw later in the same year did help with creating additional interest in these Penitum chip items. (There were some limited edition keychains made a year later with some of the actual Pentium FDIV flawed chips but they were made exclusively for Intel employees and business contacts only).
These Pentium promotional items were first offered for sale as a retail test program at 20 university bookstores and museums throughout the United States starting in August 1994. Harvard, Columbia, Brown & Standford University all offered the items at their campus bookstores. The Boston Computer Museum and the Smithsonian Institution also offered the items for sale to visitors in their gift stores. Each store had received an average of about 120 items to sell – The items quickly sold out as customers took to the amazing beauty of the Pentium chip’s colors, sparkle, and beauty. The Pentium chip had quickly become fashionable and quite a conversation piece.
Original retail prices for the Pentium pieces in 1994 (black velvet gift box / slip pouch included) were:
Earrings $25, Cufflinks $20, Link Bracelets $25, Lapel Pins $10, & Keychains $10.
By the December 1994 Silicon Valley Ware Inc. had created an additional inventory of 12,000 pieces of Intel Pentium chip jewelry for the retail program, of those 10,000 of the items were the popular Pentium gold plated keychains. Intel had hopes that eventually the items would be popular enough to be sold in department stores but that level of sales was never reached.
By 1996 Intel had moved on from the original Pentium jewelry retail test market with Silicon Valley Ware Inc., but for years to come they would still have many different styles of jewelry & keychains created for them by various other suppliers (using either metal or acrylic materials) that made use of their defective computer chips, showcasing such famous Intel chips as the Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium 3, Pentium 4 and others. Intel chip Jewelry items were offered to their employees though the IntelStore gift catalogs and at company stores located on select Intel campuses.
Intel 486 & Pentium Processors Broach Pin (1994)
Broach Pin made by Silicon Valley Ware Inc. for Intel features actual 486 & Pentium processor chips encased in black enamel and gold toned metal frame. Designed by: Dianne Emerson, Silicon Valley Ware, Inc. 1994
Intel Pentium Processor Chip Cuff Links Set (1994)
Item #242 (#239, 240, #243 to 247, 249, 250 similiar)
Brand new set in original velvet jewel box, Intel Pentium Processor cuff links with real Pentium computer chips encased in enamel set in gold plated metal.
| Intel Pentium Processor information card | Intel Pentium Processor This is an actual Intel Pentium processor computer chip, the “brain” behind the world’s most powerful PC’s. The different colors are caused by light reflecting from the tiny electrical paths that connect over 3 million transistors. The Pentium processor is so powerful that it can calculate the multiplication table, one thru ten, 100,000 times per second. So not only are Pentium processors fast, they’re attention-getters. |
Intel Bracelet with Pentium Processor Chips (1994)
Item #703
This is a rare gold-plated bracelet from Intel that features three actual Intel Pentium processor chips, one on each link.These bracelets and other Intel jewelry items were produce for Intel in
by a local promotional product designer and manufacturer named Silicon Valley Ware, inc. of Mountain View CA. Silicon Valley Ware had also produced jewelry items for Intel in the past using their i486 processor chips to create gifts to give to employees and business contacts.On the back of each bracelet link is the Intel logo embossed into the piece.Item is a 4-link bracelet, the other is the 3-link bracelet version (shown). Designed by: Dianne Emerson, Silicon Valley Ware, Inc. 1994
Back of the Intel Pentium CPU bracelet with Intel logos
Intel Necklace with Pentium Processor Chips (1994)
Item #987
This is a rare gold-tone necklace from Intel that features 6 actual Intel Pentium processor chip dies each mounted in metal frames that resemble the actual finished Pentium chips.
On the back of each chip is the Intel Inside / Pentium logo embossed into the piece. Never sold at retail, only samples created.
Measures 30″ long.
Designed by: Dianne Emerson, Silicon Valley Ware, Inc. 1994
Intel P5 Pentium Processor Chip Lapel Pin (1994)
Item #806
Actual Intel “P5” Pentium Processor Chip embedded in metal gold-toned setting.
Has the Intel logo in back of pin.
Chip die is marked “Intel c.1992 P5”
Made by SIlicon Valley Ware, Inc. for Intel.
Measures 3/4″ x 3/4″.
Intel Pentium Processor Chip Cuff Links (1994)
Item #237
This is a early style design of Intel large Die Pentium Processor chip cuff links.
Comes in velvet gift box. Designed by: Dianne Emerson, Silicon Valley Ware, Inc. 1994