Intel showcases latest chips, tech inside Gilbert Best Buy

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Intel has set up an Intel Experience at a Best Buy store in Gilbert.

Hayley Ringle

Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal

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Intel has opened interactive tech experiences at 50 Best Buy stores around the country, including one in Gilbert, to show off what latest innovations use its silicon wafers.

The 240-square-foot Intel Experience features a 3-D printer, an off-road Mars game showing off augmented reality and digital music remixing with a Ne-Yo song.

Intel, the Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor chipmaker with a large presence in Chandler, wanted to create a place where people can come and interact with the company's cutting edge technology, said John Kalvin, Intel's North America consumer channel marketing manager.

"We're super excited about bringing the Intel Experience to Best Buy and getting all types of consumers into the store to enjoy it," Kalvin said. "Intel Arizona is making the latest and greatest processors, which go in powerful devices for multimedia digital creations."

Intel has 11,700 employees in Chandler, and the silicon wafers are manufactured in Arizona.

The Intel Experiences opened this month across the country, using Best Buy experts to explain the technology.

Ericka Pugh, the Intel Experience expert at the Best Buy in Gilbert's San Tan Village, said people love the experience, especially the 3-D printer.

"This lets them experience the technology we have in store and shows them how they can use it and what they can use the technology for," Pugh said. "It gives them a chance to interact with the technology in a hands-on approach."

The three options in the Intel Experience include a 3-D printer with customers using a computer featuring an Intel chip to get an idea of how you can create and print a robot. Customers can change the body style of the robot and the printer will constantly print a similar robot to show off how it works.

Hayley Ringle covers technology and startups for the Phoenix Business Journal.