Intel Corp. may be close to naming a new chief executive officer to replace its former chief Brian Krzanich, who left the chipmaking giant more than six months ago.

Bloomberg today quoted anonymous sources as saying that the new CEO could well be a “nontraditional candidate,” which suggests that a figure from outside the company is a big possibility. Intel is also giving serious consideration to hiring a woman for the role, the report added.

Intel Chairman Andy Bryant has been leading the search for a new CEO ever since Krzanich unexpectedly resigned from the company in June because of a “past consensual relationship” with an employee that went against its nonfraternization policy. However, the search for a replacement has dragged on for far longer than anyone expected as it seems Intel’s board of directors has been unable to agree on a candidate.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, several “obvious” candidates have been already been ruled out, including top executives such as former GlobalFoundries Inc. CEO Sanjay Jha and ex-Intel President Renee James.

Bob Swan, Intel’s chief financial officer and interim CEO, was also believed to be a top candidate, but he has said on more than one occasion that he’s not interested to taking up the post full-time.

It’s not known who is currently leading the race for Intel’s top job, but Bloomberg named several female candidates who’re thought to be in the running. These include Diane Bryant, who used to run Intel’s profitable data center chip business and most recently worked at Google LLC. Lisa Su, CEO of Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., could be another target, Bloomberg reported. The company could also opt to hire someone from outside the industry.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst and president of Moor Insights & Strategy, told SiliconANGLE that hiring an industry outsider would be a risky move for Intel.

“It could be a mistake to go too far outside the industry as the leader may want to fix a problem doesn’t exist, focus on the wrong things or take too much time trying to understand its customers,” Moorhead said.

Whoever does land the role will have their work cut out for them, as Intel is facing challenges on multiple fronts from its rivals even as it continues to churn out impressive financial results, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc.

“The PC/Wintel monopoly is struggling, Arm is doing better than ever and Intel needs a better story for vehicle platforms and to power both cloud and artificial intelligence and machine learning loads,” Mueller said. “The next leader will define the future of Intel more than the last three.”

Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said Intel’s current problems are the result of the actions of Krzanich, who did some “pretty silly things” such as taking on rivals Nvidia Corp. in self-driving cars and Qualcomm Inc. in modems at the same time with “badly flawed strategies.”

As a result, the Intel job is viewed by many potential candidates as a kind of poisoned chalice as the odds on succeeding are long, Enderle said. He said Intel can be fixed, but it will take a CEO with a similar mindset to one of the company’s founders, who can better pick their battles and provide more focus on research and development.

“Outsiders tends to do poorly in the company and Krzanich got rid of anyone that was qualified [to run the company],” Enderle said. “The new CEO would have to hit the ground running with a solid vision that will pull the firm out of the various messes that Krzanich and Bryant have created.”

Intel is set to report its earnings on Jan. 24, and the board apparently wants to have the new CEO in place before that date, Bloomberg said.

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