Justin Rattner is stepping down as chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs to meet a requirement under the company's bylaws that employees cannot serve as corporate officers after the age of 65. Intel said that Rattner would take a personal leave immediately to deal with a pressing family matter and would return to Intel at a later date in a role to be determined. Intel Labs will report to Intel President Ren?e James.

Rattner joined Intel in 1973 and was named its first principal engineer in 1979, its fourth Intel Fellow in 1988 and was in the first group of Intel Fellows to be named Senior Fellow in 2001. Rattner has been a keynote speaker at every U.S. IDF since 2005, more than any other presenter to-date.

Intel has found it difficult to make a large impact on the smartphone and tablets markets, which have been dominated by chips built around the ARM architecture.

Intel's new CEO Brian Krzanich has said the company's upcoming chips based on its Silvermont architecture aim to outstrip ARM chips on both performance and power-efficiency.