>>I wonder though about the analyst's statement in something else someone posted this morning about the NIC market drying up because its functions would be integrated more and more into chips. True?<<
Good question, but first, remember what some ANALyst told us
yesterday about COMS. (Briefing.com) It's a lot easier for
them to sell you 'the easy story' instead of the truth. Most
ANALyst have a very limited understanding of technology. They
did not major in computer science or engineering or some
other science related field.
>>...NIC market drying up because its functions would be integrated
more and more into chips. True?<<
This has been talked about since mid last year. Intel has
been trying to do this, but the truth is that it's a lot
harder to do than it seems. Steve, who probably knows a lot more
about chip technology, could add/verify to my spiel.
I think there is also a big question as to whether it's the
best strategy (integrating NIC chips onto CPUs), since some
people believe that it would lock up two functions together
and it's not so good for the box makers and network strategist.
Another reason: Intel is the one who most probably would
do this, and possibly the only one who would try to do it (IMO), and they would try to do it for proprietary reasons. Another reason the box makers would hate this idea.
Another reason: Intel doesn't have the same level of expertise
as 3COM to make these chips. We're talking about a lot of
intelligence in these things so that more and more control of
the Network can be configured.
Another reason: If/when somebody does integrate the NIC functions
on the chip, then 3COM will do somewhat the same, BUT will be
3 steps ahead, because that's their specialty. Another words,
there's still a lot of value that can be incorporated into
these NICs as time goes by and the need gets greater because
of the more powerful desktop networking capabilities.
Personally, I can't wait until all of networking components
become more chip oriented, because COMS' niche specialty
will be better exploited. This doesn't apply only to NICs,
but to switches, hubs, switch routing....
Any network engineers care to comment or correct this? Igor?
Steve? |
