Article in today's Houston Chronicle where Bill Gates comments on Compaq networking in-home PCs.
8:40 PM 3/27/1998
Gates
Gates says Compaq networking
Home PCs could connect to others
By DWIGHT SILVERMAN
Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says Compaq
Computer Corp. is working on consumer PCs that let owners
create a home computer network linked by existing phone
wiring.
The Presario computers, which could appear as early as this fall,
would render simple a process that long has been considered too
technical for most home users.
"You don't have to do anything new to network your computers
together," Gates said. "You just plug in the phone cable and the
machines work together."
Gates may be talking about the feature, but Compaq executives
aren't.
Mike Rubin, a director in the Presario desktop division, wouldn't
discuss the home networking feature. But he did say that
Compaq is exploring home networking as part of an "overall
vision" that is combined with high-speed Internet access.
"We also believe that as the World Wide Web becomes more
important to people's lives, it will be much more important to
have access to that connectivity in all different parts of the
house," Rubin said.
Compaq announced earlier this year that it would include in its
consumer PCs in 1999 the ability to use Digital Subscriber Line
technology, a high-speed digital phone line. Compaq is working
with Microsoft and many of the regional Bell phone companies,
including Southwestern Bell, to ensure their computers have
something to hook up to.
Gates was in Orlando speaking to the Windows Hardware
Engineering Conference, a summit of software and hardware
companies that support Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Home networks were being touted by several speakers at the
conference as the next major trend for home computing.
It's the logical extension of the surging popularity of sub-$1,000
personal computers. Analysts estimate that 40 percent of the
inexpensive machines sold in the fourth quarter of 1997 in the
United States were into homes that already had computers.
The computer industry is just beginning to take advantage of the
trend.
Sharewave, a small Californiastart-up partly funded by Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen, recently hired Jim Schraith away from
Compaq to be its new chief executive, and plans to release its
first entertainment-based home network product later this year.
Sharewave is developing a wireless technology that will let
devices communicate using radio waves.
And traditional companies such as Netgear, a subsidiary of
hardware giant Bay Networks, have begun marketing home
network kits. They come with a pair of network cards, cables
and a hub, a small box that serves as a switching station for the
network.
But while those kits are relatively basic, and Windows 95 and
the Macintosh operating systems make networking a lot easier
than in years past, home PC owners still need a basic knowledge
of how a network operates to get them up and running.
The Compaq technology described by Gates is similar to others,
including one being developed by Intel Corp. that would use a
home's electrical wiring to link computers together.
"Consumers do not want to rewire their houses," Rubin said.
Gates said that, while Compaq's technology is intriguing, it's still
too early to say which if any of the alternatives being developed
will become a standard. |
