He used it to slashed prices, and as PCs with "Intel Inside" began to dominate the market, he left the competition behind.

By the early 1990s, Intel was the world's foremost producer of microprocessors, supplying 90 percent of the world's computers with their juice.

Yet Grove and Intel were not out of the woods yet. Intel faced its biggest--and most public--crisis in 1994. After introducing the new Pentium processor, the fastest microchip yet created, Intel engineers found a bug in their new product. At first, Grove did not bend. Refusing to see the public relations implications, he decided to selectively replace only a few computers containing the problematic chip.

"I was one of the last to understand the implications of the Pentium crisis," he writes in his book. "It took a barrage of relentless criticism to make me realize that something had changed and that we needed to adapt to the new environment."

Grove soon realized that in the computer revolution, consumer discontent could kill a product. Reversing his previous strategy, Grove declared he would replace computers containing Pentium chips. The move cost Intel nearly $475 million, but the company rebounded from the temporary crisis with major publicity--and celebrity for its CEO, Andy Grove.

Those who know him say Grove will never let up and will continue to adapt his company to the constantly changing computer revolution.

"There is a huge element of competition to him," says Ramo. "He takes nothing for granted."

In an industry only a decade old, a shrewd manager cannot afford to.