To: Mike Buckley who wrote (29260 ) 8/2/2000 1:50:00 AM From: tekboy Read Replies (1) | Respond to Speaking of Intel, here's what Briefing.com had to say today:The strategy behind Intel's IXA is to establish the architecture as the industry standard for building communications equipment, then push their IXA chips and software into as many market segments and sub-segments as possible. Quite a few companies are already in the programmable chip business, and Intel will continue to beef-up their technology through acquisition in order to establish IXA as the dominant architecture. It is a monumental undertaking, but this is Intel we're referring to, and they certainly have the muscle. Intel's acquisitions of Level One, Softcom, Parity Software, NetBoost and Trillium were all crafted with the development of IXA in mind. Intel has also created a $200 mln venture fund to subsidize communications start-ups as well as more established companies in their quest to develop IXA and push it to the forefront. By incorporating reprogrammable chips into the networking and communications equipment framework, adding functionality to the end product becomes much easier. Rather than rendering the entire product obsolete, as was the case with ASICs (Application Specific ICs), software can be implemented to reprogram the chip and add the functionality the end user needs. The technology has been around for a while and companies such as Wind River Systems (WIND), which makes operating system software for embedded applications, and MMC Networks (MMCN), which makes programmable network chips, have been shipping products for some time. However, the recent push by heavyweights Lucent (LU), IBM (IBM), Motorola (MOT) and Intel foreshadows the growth and widespread implementation of the technology. It won't be long until the market stops tying Intel's success to the PC market as the company is clearly making huge strides through acquisitions to capitalize on the growth of the communications market. - Matt Gould, Briefing.com
