In the agreement, Intel will provide a royalty-free license to the government for the Pentium design commonly found in desktop computers. AFRL will partner with the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Reconnaissance Office to make the Pentium chip radiation hardened. Spacecraft need computers to run communications and sensor systems and to process their data. Over time, radiation damages solid state electronics and causes their eventual failure by shutting down transistors.
Dead transistors mean dead satellites.
And once in orbit, satellites are virtually impossible to fix. Exploiting Intel's considerable investment in Pentium technology will give the Defense Department a tremendous capability in space.