The world's largest maker of semiconductors Intel announced that it is slashing 12,000 jobs - that's about 11 percent of its global work force - as it continues to reel from a long downturn in global demand for personal computers.

"These are not changes I take lightly," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in an email to workers.  "We are saying goodbye to colleagues who have played an important role in Intel's success," he added.  These cuts are expected to save Intel US$750 million this year, and an estimated US$1.4 billion annually by the middle of next year.  Intel will take a US$1.2 billion charge for the move in its next quarter.

The new cuts will take place by mid-2017 through a combination of voluntary buyouts, layoffs and consolidations of sites across the globe.  They follow big cuts in 2014 when the company shed 5,000 workers, and before that in 2006 when 10,500 workers got the boot.

Intel joins Silicon Valley's other former stalwarts as they try to negotiate the treacherous currents as change comes to the tech world.  Herlett Packard had thousands of job cuts last year.  Earlier this week, IBM announced lower profit and revenue, including a 22 percent drop in sales of computing hardware.  The problem for Intel  is shrinking demand for Intel's core product, chips for personal computers. 

"Intel has been known as the PC company," Krzanich said.  "It's time to make this transition and push the company all the way over" to supplying chips for things like smartphones, cloud computing, sensors, and other devices.