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Santa Clara, CA

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Intel Museum

3.9 (94 reviews)
Closed • 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Updated 3 weeks ago

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outside
Amy Y.

For a free museum all about microprocessors and the creation and history of Intel, including its successes and failures, it's actually pretty nifty. Of course this would not be my rating if it there was paid admissions, but it's a fantastic public educational service they're doing. Parking is also free, and it seems you pretty much just park with all the other Intel employees in the lot, though there are visitor-designated areas. This museum is very digestible in 20-60 minutes depending on how thorough you are. The pathway is basically straight ahead from the entrance and past the help desk, and in chronological order as you go along the perimeter. There's a lot of interesting things to learn, including how to write your name in binary, and seeing the history of Intel dipping their hands in the watch business! I also am fascinated by how tiny everything is on the circuit technology. Staff were consistently cleaning the displays, and came around to ask if we wanted to know more about something, or helped with using the interactive exhibits. There is an option to ask staff for a guided tour. There are neat photo ops outside of the museum as well as inside. They even do this funny AR thing that you can send to yourself in addition to bunny suits that you can try on or use for a photo stand-in. They sometimes have a seasonal thing going on; for example, when I went, they were displaying the Gun Fight arcade machine, which was the first video game to use a microprocessor. They had coins they inserted for us to play, and since it wasn't a busy day, we had the option to play multiple rounds. The gift shop to the right of the entrance was stocked with cool Intel swag, and a majority of things were reasonably priced. Whether you're local or from out of town, the Intel Museum is a chill place to be. Even literally - come duck in here if you want some good AC. Intel is amongst the biggest OG entities to hail from the Silicon Valley, so if you want to feel immersed in Silicon Valley and learn some stuff in a peaceful environment, and for free to boot, here you go.

Aparna K.

It was our school field trip and this place is absolutely amazing!!! So much history with enthusiastic staff to explain curious minds. Glad our school chose this and as chaperones we had a blast too !!! Way to go ! Will definitely keep goin back !!!

Front Sign
Howie C.

How exciting is the life of a microprocessor? Not very. But the Intel Museum does a great job of presenting one of the marvels of the 20th Century. This museum is free and takes at most an hour. It presents the history of Intel, it's founder, a history of their processor chips and has interactive screens and areas where kids and adults can get more hands on experience of what goes into making a chip physically and on the programming side. There numerous screen swipe stations that are popular the kids. While you're trying to explain how you first used a 486 chip in the 1990s in your computer, your kids have wandered off trying to spell their name at the 1's and 0's display. The back corner of the museum covers how chips are manufactured and explains and shows the clean rooms of chip manufacturing floors. There are various classic products displayed that have used Intel processors, from computers, to watches to video game machines. The staff was helpful, as they came by to check on us multiple times to see if we had any questions. If you arrange for a guided tour, that is very helpful because the guide simplifies the explanation of all the technical stuff. They host kids and school tours and they have a glass walled meeting room in the middle where they can do fun tech workshops with kids. The museum store has a variety of Intel shirts, jackets, hats, water bottles, pens, pins, bags, toys. The prices seemed very reasonable, at just a bit above cost. There were $10 t-shirts, $4 pens, $3 pins, things that would cost double at other tech onsite stores (like Apple and Google). If you want to get some tech history in for free or don't have time to cover the Computer History Museum that's 7 miles away, stop by the Intel Museum. One caveat... It's only open on weekdays. ***Hot Tip*** Go in the main entrance lobby seating area and sit on the couches. Then look up. You'll see a giant every-angle-of-the-ceiling video of their manufacturing facilities. It's quite relaxing and therapeutic.

Marlana Y.

For a free museum you can't really complain. I would not go out of my way for this but we happen to be in the area and my son wanted to stop by. It has a lot of information and history about computers. My son enjoyed the interactive exhibits. If you're walking by quickly through everything, you can finish the museum in 20-30 minutes. If you're actually reading everything and the interactive exhibits you could finish in an hour.

Amethyst W.

I really enjoyed visiting this place. Interesting to see the history of Intel. It was a quick visit, but also worth a stop to learn a little bit about the company.

Dom N.

I'm in Silicon Valley today. I've been meaning to do this for a very long time. I never been here, this is my first time at Intel in Santa Clara. I had to pre-call in, to see if it was operating today and there is no special event at the moment. It's very neat in here. A must see.

Exterior
Kevin C.

Very well thought out museum highlighting the history of Intel and the leaps and bounds they have come from. The organization and layout is very intuitive to follow, the path is all chronologically ordered and details for each and every item on exhibit. The staff are very kind, patient, and pumped up to get visitors started experiencing the location. The whole exhibit can be experienced in an hour. The entrance is to the side of the main lobby. There is a gift shop as well with unique small crafts and outfits and accessories. There is a visitors area parking area and the crowd fluctuates depending on time of day and any large tours that are making a stop. This is a free museum and you can do a self guided tour or a guided tour by the staff. There are some neat interactive screens to play with too. Overall, a nice place to spend some time if you're in the general San Jose Silicon Valley area.

Evolution of the silicon wafer sizing and content!
Rahul T.

Intel Museum is simply amazing. I really enjoyed seeing the progress that we have made from 3.2 microns to 7 nm chips. The museum has a lot of interesting and interactive activities that include 4G vs 5G speed demo, AR funny stuff, Intel Bunny Suit cutouts for taking pictures, etc. It also has 2 Pokemon Go Gyms and 3 PokeStops. Have fun people, you'll learn a good deal about the computing units in our computers and a lot of other things as well!

No cups by the water fountain. The fountain itself is at a trickle and I can't bend my head around to try and drink from the faucet.

Tried the Intel Museum again because my friend in town wanted to check it out! I thought maybe when I went last time it was just a bad day, nope. Do not waste your time here. It was such a mess! I at least wanted to try on a bunny suit but the station was in bedlum. I've attached other photos as well. They really need some guides or at least someone who knows how to keep the place running during the day. Besides all that, the circulation was so awful, the museum itself smelled nauseating.

Kenzie K.

The Intel Museum is a very interesting place to come and learn about both the history and functionality of computers and computerized devices. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and articulate; he shared a plethora of information with us during the tour. I particularly enjoyed the display that illustrates how computer chips have evolved throughout their history. While we didn't have any Rug Rats along with us, I noticed that there are a lot of exhibits that give kids the opportunity to try things out :-) The gift shop here is very well stocked with T-shirts and other souvenirs; all in all I'd say that a visit here will be time very well spent.

Henry M.

Open Monday- Saturday for sure, not sure about Sunday. It's a small Museum on the first floor of the building, there are some cool things to get geeked out at " for me it was the 270lb silicon round thingy lol" overall it's an ok place to visit if you are in the area otherwise I'd say meh just skip it.

Wafer evolution

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16 years ago

Intel Museum features the company history of computers and their brand of processors. Some of the exhibits are neat.

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17 years ago

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10 years ago

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12 years ago

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11 years ago

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14 years ago

It is a great place for kids to visit. They will learn a lot...

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14 years ago

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12 years ago

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13 years ago

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10 years ago

Pretty interesting to see the history behind some of the best technology we use everyday. The gift shop also has a variety of trinkets.

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10 years ago

great piece of Computer history. it is totally free so it is worth visiting. lot of processors, nice interactive exhibitions for youngsters

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Review Highlights - Intel Museum

“Intel's founders invented the microprocessor and then revolutionized the process by using silicon in its chips.”

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Computer History Museum - Punched Card Gallery in Revolution exhibition.

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Computer History Museum - Calculators Gallery in Revolution exhibition.

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Et Voila Paris - Walking tours in Paris can be customized according to your interests

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