All,
The following is take from C/NET (6/11):
____
Intel steps up Java
accelerator
By Nick Wingfield
June 11, 1997, 5:15 p.m. PT
SAN JOSE, California--Intel chief executive
Andy Grove today announced a new version
of the company's Vtune product, which is
designed to accelerate the performance of
Java programs on Intel hardware.
In his keynote speech at the Netscape
Communications' developers conference,
Grove also touched on the impact the Internet
is having on businesses and how Intel
hardware is powering large servers
connected to the Net.
But perhaps more
interesting than
Grove's comments
was the fact that he
showed up at all. Intel
has traditionally been
a close ally of
Microsoft, which in
turn has been one of
Netscape's chief
rivals. His
appearance
underscores
Netscape's stated desire to stay neutral in
the battle for Internet software supremacy.
Increasingly, Microsoft and Intel are pursuing
partnerships and product developments
outside of their marriage in the personal
computer industry. Microsoft's Windows CE
and WebTV software, for example, do not run
on Intel hardware. (Intel is also an investor in
CNET: The Computer Network.)
"It shows how convoluted the industry really
is," said Kam Stewart, a software developer
at Images in Light, as he waited for Grove's
keynote to being today. "Everyone is hedging
their bets."
But today Grove refrained from pledging
undying loyalty to Netscape. In fact, a good
part of his speech didn't have much to do with
the Internet at all, instead focusing on
improvements Intel is making in bus and
multimedia performance of its
microprocessors.
Grove also discussed hardware that is
powering the large servers containing "data
warehouses" on the Net and other networks.
He was joined by Jerry Peterson, a senior
vice president at Tandem Computers, in
demonstrating a massive server "cluster",
called 2Ton, which is 35 feet long and
contains 2 terabytes of data.
However, Grove did say that the Internet is
revolutionizing how businesses interact with
each other and with consumers. On the
Internet, he said, small businesses have a
greater opportunity to compete with large
companies.
"In the future, business will be conducted
screen to screen," Grove said.
Grove also announced and demonstrated
Vtune version 2.5, a tool that allows
developers to test the performance over their
Java applications. The tool will allow
developers to optimize the performance of
their Java applications only on Intel's
hardware, not on other platforms such as
PowerPC or SPARC. Vtune will be available
in August.
"We want Java to run best on Intel
architecture," Grove said.
In addition to Intel, a number of other
companies made announcements
associated with the Netscape developer
conference today:
Intelligent Environments announced the
availability of new Java class libraries for
Amazon, the company's tool for building Web
applications that connect to legacy systems.
Elemental Software shipped Drumbeat, a
drag-and-drop Web application development
environment.
Diffusion announced that its IntraExpress
"push" technology server will be able to
broadcast information to Netscape's
Netcaster technology. IntraExpress will also
be able to send messages to Netscape's
Messenger email client.
Photo by Donald R. Winslow
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