Intel pioneer Andy Grove dies, aged 79

San Francisco

ANDY Grove, the Silicon Valley elder statesman who made Intel into the world's top chipmaker and helped usher in the personal computer age, died on Tuesday at age 79, Intel said.

The company did not describe the circumstances of his death but Mr Grove, who endured the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II, living under a fake name, and came to the US to escape the chaos of Soviet rule, had suffered from Parkinson's.