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To: Mike Milde who wrote (6466)	10/12/1999 10:24:00 AM
From: w2j2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Nokia & Intel choose Linux for O.S. in set top boxes: By Dean Takahashi, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Intel Corp. said it has been selected by Finnish communications company Nokia Oy to supply chips for a set-top box for digital television in Europe, an important customer win for Intel outside the personal computer industry. The companies don't plan to disclose the value of the deal, which is expected to be formally announced today. But Claude Leglise, vice president of Intel's Home Products Group in Santa Clara, Calif., said the number of units could reach into the millions as Nokia deploys the boxes next year. The deal is an important victory for Intel, which was late to enter this market and has been struggling to catch up with other chip makers. The Nokia deal is Intel's fourth in the burgeoning market for television set-top boxes, a new generation of machines that offer access to pay-TV such as satellite or cable channels as well as the Internet. Services on these boxes include searchable TV program guides, electronic mail, Web shopping and basic Web surfing. Other Intel customers include Hughes Network Systems, the satellite-TV division of General Motors Corp.'s Hughes Electronics Corp.; Pacific Century Group in Hong Kong; and NEC Corp. in Japan. The Nokia devices are expected to deliver both digital TV and Internet access. "Nokia is cleaning up in Europe and this could mean many millions of chips for Intel, if not 10 million," said Richard Doherty, an analyst at the Envisioneering Group, a market researcher in Seaford, N.Y. The deal leaves Intel partner Microsoft Corp. behind. The Nokia box will use a version of the free Linux operating system software, as well as the Mozilla Web-browsing software from America Online Inc., instead of the Windows CE software that Microsoft has been marketing for set-top boxes. Intel initially was slow to move outside of PCs, where its microprocessor designs enjoy a near-monopoly. But the company has recently moved more swiftly to take advantage of a variety of information appliances. Headed by the 44-year-old Mr. Leglise, a 17-year veteran at Intel, the Home Products Group focuses on bringing the Internet to television, telephones and cars. Beyond the PC microprocessors, Intel is also pitching its StrongArm embedded chips for non-PC information appliances. But Nokia will use the PC chips in its set-tops to ensure their Internet browsers are compatible with all of the top Web sites. Since most browsing software is written to run on PC microprocessors, such chips are also the best choice for set-tops, Mr. Leglise says. "Intel seems to have a winning argument as browsers running on its chips can display the kind of Web sites that users want," Mr. Doherty said. Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.