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Technology Stocks : PC Sector Round Table
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To: Frodo Baxter who wrote (563)7/12/1998 3:23:00 PM
From: Pierre-X  Read Replies (1) of 2025
 
Re: Computing power; DSP; Integration

I don't think that there is too much computing power speaking absolutely; merely that computing power has temporarily outstripped software demand. I have no doubt however that sooner or later a compelling value proposition will materialize to drive another generation or three power upgrades.

That Intel has not been, as you say, more aggressive about assimilating additional functions is more evidence that they -- along with most of the rest of the industry -- were caught flat footed by the trend toward lower ASPs.

Are you proposing that Intel might be wise to consider joining the ranks of PC-on-a-chip proponents? Would this not be another step on the road to the vertical integration that you've decried in the past? Some good could come of this. Intel's involvement in -- some would say domination of -- the motherboard business has resulted in much greater standardization and therefore predictability and reliability in the product. On the other hand Intel's track record of product innovation outside the CPU business is somewhat spotty; an Intel-PC-on-a-chip could be the doorway to PC decadence as competitors fall by the wayside and the spark of invention mothered by cutthroat-necessity dims.

As you note, Whitney is evidence of Intel's lagged reaction to the "new" PC demand structure of cheap, cheaper, cheapest. Perhaps Gus' prognostications of $500 PCs may prove to be a bulls-eye. Certainly I would have no objection to putting Pentium power in a PalmPilot-sized package, that I can run on standard batteries and tote around in a pocket. This could also be a blessing of nation-promoting magnitude as serious computing power becomes available to the non-electric-powered masses.

God bless,
PX
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