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To: greenspirit who wrote (747)	10/26/1997 5:28:00 PM
From: Mark Brophy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 990

Intel is greatly frustrated with Microsoft. The idea of a "Wintel" alliance is the biggest myth in the computer industry today. It's not a well-known fact, but Intel employs thousands of software engineers. A significant amount of their work ends up in Microsoft operating systems. Contact Paul Engel for details. I have a funny feeling Intel is getting a little frustrated with Microsoft's slow pace in making the OS user friendly. Is it out of line to suggest that they could invent their own OS to use with the Merced chip? Yes, it's out of line. It would be too expensive to develop an OS. However, there are other ways Intel is using to promote better OS development. For instance, Intel's investment (and yours and mine) in Phoenix Technologies greatly helped the development of the ACPI power management spec. Phoenix taught Microsoft and Intel the tricks they learned in the BIOS that were moved to the OS and application level. Phoenix detailed this process in a past issue of the company newsletter, but they don't seem to have back issues on their web site. Another Intel effort is to make it easier for other OS vendors to compete against Microsoft. I2O is an effort to make drivers independent of the OS, so driver developers for servers can simultaneously support WinNT and Unix. The Merced project also ensures that HP-UX will be immediately available the day the processor is released. Microsoft is also frustrated with Intel. They've made WinNT run on DEC Alpha processors and other vendors such as MIPS and PowerPC (since discontinued). They're also the biggest vendor of application software for the Mac and established that position before they became dominant in Windows application software. For instance, Excel is a port of a product originally developed for the Mac. Intel is having a difficult time adjusting to it's newfound position of leadership in the computer industry. When IBM was on top of the heap, their labs did a lot of basic research that moved the industry forward. Now, the Gerstner regime has greatly cut back on it and their focus is on research that will lead to practical profitable products. Unfortunately, Intel hasn't taken their place and we're suffering from a basic research deficit. The non-profit standards orgs such as USB, 1394, AGP, and I2O are good mechanisms to avoid the wrath of the trust busters, but it's still oriented to near-term products. When you earn more money than every other company in the industry combined, the long-term health of the entire industry rests squarely on your shoulders. Intel has no one to blame but itself if the industry ever stops growing. Remember the years of contraction when IBM ran the PC industry in the 80's?