Computers’ amazing abilities to entertain people, help them work, and even respond to voice commands are, at their heart, the results of decades of technological development and innovation in microprocessor design. Under constant pressure to extract more computing performance from smaller and more energy-efficient components, chip architects have invented a dizzying array of tricks and gadgets that make computers faster. But 50 years after the founding of Intel, engineers have begun to second-guess many of the chip-making industry’s design techniques.