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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pigboy who wrote (101463)	3/24/2000 6:31:00 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Hi Pigboy, Re: "where we are heading in the next several years with regards to storage?" More Re: "the processor is moving to the periphery and the storage is moving to the center of networks in the future. " Only my guesses: Scale up -> higher-end Intel chips (Merced, McKinley) Scale out -> more mid-range Intel chips (Xeon) Maybe Paul could jump in here and provide insight RE: "Wondered if this is obvious or is this off the mark in your opinions?" Good post, but it misses the mark regarding nw and comm processors which will help process the delivery of data across the Internet. Using Server Farms as an example, the transacted data goes outbound (and inbound too) from the Server Farm, to the Internet nodes. Intel is pushing standards in this area, and while standards have a way of commoditizing the market, it also has a way of growing the market into critical mass. And critical mass is exactly the kind of stuff Intel is fabulous at doing. The post assumes in a pretty quick fashion that 'scale up' is a commodity business, when it's not. While not my area, last I read, IBM sells this solution in the $100k range, so one can imagine the chip component of that price tag and the great margins. 'Scale out' is Microsoft's thrust (versus Sun's 'scale up') and Intel is well-positioned for scale out, in addition to scale up (got to love how Intel keeps positioning themselves as the neutral supplier). Scale out deals with higher volumes, exactly the kind of stuff Intel is great at doing. No matter how you look at this, Intel's management has done a wonderful job at repositioning the company to take advantage of shifting dynamics (which the post described quite nicely for the most part). The only small nit might be, the post may incorrectly give a reader the impression Intel is following a shifting dynamic, when in fact, they are leading it, e.g. higher-end cpu's (outbound from Server Farms), nw comm processors (transport), PCs/IA/PCOAC (inbound data recipients from Server Farms), and IP telephony (comm). The data is processed; the data flows; and Intel's building blocks are center and core to this transportation and processing. Amy J

To: Pigboy who wrote (101463)	3/24/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 186894

pigboy - Re: "but he has this theory (im sure he's not alone) that the processor is moving to the periphery and the storage is moving to the center of networks in the future. " That fellow has some interesting ideas - well considered. However, he quotes somebody who finds the EMC storage very scaleable, saying that the big EMC storage allows them to scale and add more applications for their users. The key word here is "applications". Applications don't run directly on storage devices - they run on processors - servers, mainframes, whatever. And Intel is still in the eye of this hurricane. By the way - I think EMC is a great company - I visited them in 1994 when they were on nobody's radar screen - and bought their stock about 9 months later. Paul

To: Pigboy who wrote (101463)	3/24/2000 2:57:00 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Pigboy, There is an interesting article in the most recent Forbes FYI from George Gilder along the same lines. His thesis is that through the progression of the information age that critical components move from no supply, to the "name your price" phase and the eventually to a commodity state of plenty of supply where it becomes hard to make money. He cites the cost/transistor as reaching a point where it's too cheap to make big money. Then he cites BANDWIDTH, where the big money is being made now but eventually supply will catch up with demand. Now, he sites the next boom and place to position yourself is in STORAGE-width because there will be a shortage created by all the bandwidth. He gives a couple of picks...IBM was one. I can't remember the others... Jim