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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC)
INTC 39.79+0.7%9:36 AM EST
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To: Scumbria who wrote (82000)5/29/1999 3:07:00 AM
From: kash johal  Read Replies (1) of 186894
 
Scumbria,

Re: "Webtv goes 64 bit processor for $299 with windows CE.

I would think that Win32 compatibility would be more interesting than 64 bits for this market. Why do you think they did this?"

Well I think that its an economic and political descision.
To get the costs low enough you either have to junk the software margin: such as AOl will do dumping MSFT operating systems etc for the set top market.

Or you junk the CPU margin. MSFT can't very well develop (or pay to develop) an x86 CPU in competition with INTC/AMD/NSM/Rise etc. So the paid QED a few million dollars as a design fee. I imagine the chip is being fabbed by TSMC or UMC. And folks like Sony/Phillips or whomever the set top guy is can probably get the CPU chip at cost - $10 or so.
MSFT makes it money on the services and software and lets the set top guy make a few bucks on the set top.

The current $299 box has a 1.1Gb hard drive currently, I imagine the new ones will have a higher capacity drive.

As far as going with the 64 bit design vs 32. My guess is that MSFT is worried about the gamesystems ruling the world of low end internet access. So they may very well at some point enable a gaming platform with the 64 bit chip. It could also be optimised for HDTV decoding etc as well.

Interesting how the big boys are positioning themselves.

Regards,

Kash
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