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To: gnuman who wrote (58276)	6/18/1998 4:51:00 PM
From: Francis Chow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

<Re: Constant Computing> Everyone still sure the managers at Intel are as smart as anyone on this thread? Constant Computing . . . the app that everyone will rush down to the corner store to buy :-)

To: gnuman who wrote (58276)	6/18/1998 6:04:00 PM
From: stak	Respond to of 186894

>>> Constant Computing, "It's being always connected. This concept of access to everything, in real time, is what we at Intel call 'constant computing,'" he, (Otellini), said. That includes applications and processes that run in the background, such as virus checking and encryption, as well as the constant connection implied by increasing Internet usage." My phone company and ISP will love that! :-( <<< Sure, they'll love you. And when you get cable modems at 40$/month the cable co. will love you. Let's see Intel gets maybe 400$ for the cpu in a PC. The cable company gets 480$/year. If PC user supgrade every 2 years or so who makes more money? Content and bandwidth will be where the bucks are. p.s. I'll be a son of a gun, but, that constant computing sure sounds like network computing. The network is the computer?

To: gnuman who wrote (58276)	6/19/1998 12:05:00 AM
From: Jeff Fox	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Gene: re:"Constant Computing, "It's being always connected." This touches on the current physical paradigm shift in telephony. Up to now phone net has been circuit oriented. With circuit switches there are three major pieces of the central office, the line card, the crossbar and the connector. The line card connects to each line and thus its function is minimal. When you get a dial tone you are using the connector. When you connect, you are using the crossbar (or some equivalent), which makes up the actual connection. Now crossbars are shared, thus there is only as many connection paths as needed to support active connections, much fewer than there are lines. Overall it is the crossbar that results in the greatest equipment cost in the switch. So the idea of unconnected lines is purely intended to minimize the number of crossbars needed in a central office. Connection time was the natural model of how to bill phone service, as it encourages people to hang up when they are not talking, which frees up crossbars. Now with data connections all this is totally obsolete. Data is sent in packets along a shared data line. Each line card has all the functions. There are no crossbars. There are no connectors. In a data network there is no distinction of an idle line. Each line is ready to send or receive data at any time. Now - here is the shift - Telephone is now sent as digital data, well, at least after it passes through the central office. Most line connections to the central office either still use old equipment or new equipment that mimics the old model. But it's pretty clear to me that there will be a massive shift over the next ten years to replace all this with straight data line equipment. The introduction of ADSL service is the leading edge of the shift. The reason that Nortel just bought Bay Networks is just to accelerate their ability to build an all data line telephone network. Now for ISP's. These are quintessent "middlemen" that are a manifestation of the inability of phone companies to get with reality. A home consumer now has to call up an ISP and send data over a phone line that is engineered for voice traffic. The ISP merely switches the data onto the digital backbone phone network. In essence they are just doing a conversion job. Once the phone companies provide real digital connections to homes there is no need for ISP's. Your digital line will access the internet directly without conversions. Finnaly, with digital connection there is no such thing as dial tone or that of an idle line. Either there is traffic or there isn't. With no dial tone you are always connected as long as your phone line is functional. So how will you be charged? There are two ways to bill data service, or a combination of both. Either the phone company charges a flat rate, or per megabyte transferred. The American ISP's charge flat rate, but this is all a mess given the different data rates between people. For instance folks with a 56Kb modem are getting say four times the service of someone stuck with a 14Kb modem. Meanwhile those with high bandwidth connections clog up data backbones unfairly. Charge for data transfers are already the norm in some foreign countries now and is really, truly the best and most fair way to charge for network service. If your billed by the byte you will be conscience of wasted data transfers. Now don't get me wrong - I very much want data service to be cheap and get cheaper. Do not confuse billing technique with usage rates. Each of us should be constantly connected and not charged for the connection. Instead you should be charged for the data transfers you do. This makes the phone line on par with other utility services such as gas or electric. Your data line should equally provide voice, internet, and perhaps video. With all this said, Otellini indicating that Intel is working to accelerate the change to the all data public network. He is doing so in order to grow the market for the connected computer - ahem - the Intel connected computer. Intel sees that this growth will stall if the shift to the public data network stalls. Intel makes the desktop PCs, and the servers on each end of the network. Increasingly Intel also makes the network chips and equipment "in the middle". Jeff