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

To: Road Walker who wrote (170832)	9/9/2002 8:06:39 PM
From: L. Adam Latham	Respond to of 186894

All: WSJ perspective on today's IDF events: online.wsj.com Intel Plans Security Features For First Time in Its Chips By DON CLARK Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Intel Corp. next year plans to build special security features into its microprocessor chips for the first time, a move designed to address problems such as computer viruses and tampering by malicious hackers. The technology, dubbed LaGrande, could also become a factor in a widening debate over how to prevent personal computer users from unauthorized copying of digital information, such as movies or music. Intel has generally been critical of attempts by Hollywood to mandate content-protection technology, though longtime partner Microsoft Corp. has been adding such features to its software. Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief operating officer, said it doesn't plan to offer any copy-protection as part of LaGrande. But he acknowledged that the technology could be a foundation for other companies to do so, possibly working with Microsoft. The LaGrande technology will be first included in Prescott, Intel's code name for a new extension of its Pentium chip line that is due out in the second half of next year. It was one of a series of technical advances outlined by Mr. Otellini at a conference here for software and hardware developers. Other announcements include a move, about a year ahead of schedule, to add a technology called hyperthreading to desktop PCs. The technique allows a single microprocessor to act like two in some circumstances, bringing a performance boost of 25% to 30%. The feature will be added this fall with the next member of Intel's Pentium 4 family, which will also operate at 3 gigahertz, up from the prior top speed of 2.8 gigahertz. The idea of using chip hardware, as well as software, to protect security is not new. But the concept got wider attention this summer with the announcement by Microsoft of a security initiative called Palladium, which the software company said it would seek to develop with help from Intel as well as rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Mr. Otellini said that Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., had been working on the concept for several years, well before Microsoft approached his company regarding Palladium. Though many details of LaGrande haven't been finalized yet, he said, the technology should be able to work with Palladium as well as other security software schemes. Both technology initiatives rely on the notion of partitioning off parts of a computer, in a way that key functions can't be affected by computer viruses or unauthorized tampering by hackers. Intel, in particular, is interested in a concept called "secure booting," to ensure that the basic instructions used when starting a computer cannot be modified for improper purposes.