Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner has stepped down from his post because of his age. The company forbids any employer to be beyond 65 working still. Rattner will be on extended leave. Intel did not provide details about his return and to what his return will account for.

The official announcement from Intel says:

"Justin Rattner is stepping down as chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs. Justin's transition is required under Intel's corporate bylaws which state that Intel employees may not serve as corporate officers past the age of 65. Rattner will take a personal leave immediately to deal with a pressing family matter and will return to Intel at a later date in a role to be determined. Intel Labs will report to Intel President Renée James until further decisions related to its leadership are made."

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich showed his appreciation for Rattner and thanked him for his leadership. Rattner had been one of the key instruments for building the chip giant as it is today. Rattner came to Intel in 1973. He was the first principal engineer of the company. He also became the fourth Intel Fellow for 1988 and later on became the Senior Fellor in 2001.

Apart from Rattner's stepping down, Intel has been making headlines especially with the CEO's announcement that they will be working double time to release the company's chip sets for smartphones. Intel is also working on chips for tablets and wearable devices. However, the CEO noted that they are still very conscious about going into the television market.

"We believe we have a great user interface and the compression-decompression technology is fantastic," Krzanich said.

"But in the end, if we want to provide that service it comes down to content. We are not big content players." He added.

Krzanich also mentioned that they are venturing into chip development for devices like Google Glass. Wearable computing devices could be the next trend and Intel wanted to lead the battle.

"I think you'll start to see stuff with our silicon toward the end of the year and the beginning of next year," Krzanich said.

"We're trying to get our silicon into some of them, create some ourselves, understand the usage and create an ecosystem." He added.