Greg,
From Yahoo news:
Intel to launch Pentium III amid privacy protests
By Therese Poletti
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Intel Corp. on Wednesday will unveil the latest version of its popular personal computer microprocessor, the Pentium III, featuring improved multimedia functions and a controversial security feature that has prompted a boycott by privacy groups.
The world's largest computer chip maker, aiming to show that its new processor has vast support within the computer industry, will host a marketing extravaganza on Wednesday at the San Jose Convention Center, where hundreds of hardware and software companies will display products designed for the Pentium III.
Most major computer makers expected to ship systems featuring the Pentium III on Feb. 26.
The San Jose event is one of the first salvos in a marketing push highlighting the chip's new, more powerful multimedia instruction set, the successor to Intel's MMX multimedia technology. The campaign is expected to portray Pentium III PCs -- with their enhanced video and graphics processing capabilities -- as the best way to explore the Internet, including its audio and video content.
''I think they will try to do a better job this time then they did with the MMX transition,'' said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. ''Very few software applications were designed to take advantage of MMX.''
The roll-out has been marred by calls for a boycott of Intel products by advocacy groups, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, which are concerned that the Pentium III's new security feature might compromise consumer privacy.
Intel disclosed last month that each Pentium III would carry a unique processor serial number, or PSN, that could be used to identify users while buying goods over the Internet, or even while they are just visiting Web sites.
Intel said the number stamp would make it safer for consumers to buy products over the Internet and access confidential information such as health records.
After the initial protests from the privacy groups, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel said it would modify the chip's software by creating a patch that would give users the option of activating the PSN every time the computer is turned on.
Privacy groups are not satisfied, however. They are now asking computer makers to disable the security function in the system's BIOS (basic input/output system) -- the instructions that activate peripheral devices.
An effort to get the Federal Trade Commission involved in asking Intel to recall its products has proved unsuccessful, and it is not clear if the boycott has had any impact on Intel's sales.
''We have to go to the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters of Green Brook, N.J., a privacy resource on the Web. ''We thought direct pressure on Intel is unlikely to be successful."
On its Web site (http://www.junkbusters.com), Junkbusters has created a parody of Intel's marketing campaign, with a blue door that reads ''Big Brother Inside,'' instead of ''Intel Inside,'' the company's ubiquitous slogan,
Intel officials met with additional privacy groups in Washington last Friday, including representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, Private Citizen Inc. and others.
''We have met for weeks with a pretty wide variety of privacy groups and did so proactively well before you read about this in the press,'' said Tom Waldrop, an Intel spokesman. ''There are privacy questions and that is why we created the control utility...We really are at the beginning of exploring this issue. The PSN capability is really a first step toward addressing security on the Internet and in e-commerce.''
(Nasdaq:INTC - news), (NYSE:IBM - news), (NYSE:CPQ - news), (Nasdaq:DELL - news), (NYSE:HWP - news),
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