Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Activeworlds.com (AWLD) #1 internet chat site to go public -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayne Rumball who wrote (107)	2/2/1999 7:42:00 PM
From: IPOhopper	Respond to of 228

Intel Roadmap... Hi all. I have been lurking around SI for quite a while and just now got around to becoming a member. I bought in AWLD the first few days of trading and believe in the technology. I was actually using it back in 1996. Here are some extremely positive comments of AWLD technology from Infoworld's article on Pentium 3 and Intel's Roadmap. -->Intel will try to whet your appetite for 500-MHz Pentium III processors on February 17 when it demonstrates the new 3D rendering technology that promises to make it easier to run more complex Internet-commerce and engineering applications on PCs. But it is still an open question as to whether customers will want peak performance desktops or instead opt for existing Pentium II systems at lower prices because of a lack of mainstream applications that require Pentium III performance. Intel's latest Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines technology (known as NURBS) more efficiently creates mathematical representations of 3D objects to get around bandwidth issues associated with rendering these types of images over the Web. This in turn could spur the development of richer electronic-commerce applications such as 3D virtual shopping malls. For example, a vendor could create Web sites that allow a shopper to click on an object such as a car and open its doors, look inside the interior, or see under the hood without long processing delays. The 3D rendering is sent across the wires as a small mathematical file rather than a large, unwieldy graphics file, according to an Intel representative. What's the Corporate Need? Although NURBS is a technology that will mostly benefit consumers, some analysts and information systems managers see it as good for corporate desktops as well. "It is a cost issue to me," said Rick Smith, chief information officer at the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant chain in Calabasas, California. "If it is not going to cost me more than I usually pay for a system--about $50 per month--then I want it." Smith immediately latched on to the benefits of sending graphics files of new restaurant construction sites back to headquarters, for example, with faster performance. "If I'm sending 20 pictures at 3MB per picture, NURBS is a great enabling technology," Smith said. Anything that reduces network traffic is good thing, added Kim Brown, an analyst at Dataquest, in San Jose, California. "You can't control what knowledge workers do on their desktops. It's like trying to herd cats. You might as well make it as efficient as possible," Brown said. "It is a reason for companies to upgrade." Organizations that do not feel as compelled to upgrade, however, may find existing desktop system prices dropping at a fast rate. Mainstream Apps Won't Benefit Most mainstream desktop applications will not benefit from added 3D features. "We designed Office 2000 to run on existing platforms," said John Duncan, an Office product manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. "It will run at the same or slightly faster speed on current desktops as Office 97 does now." Other software vendors agreed. "We don't build features into our programs that require extraordinary hardware," said Derek Burney, executive vice president of engineering at Corel, "We keep in mind that we have 50 million users, and we can't assume they will buy the latest and greatest." The lack of a compelling reason to upgrade could mean that large corporations may also look at desktops based on Intel's Celeron and low-cost Advanced Micro Devices chips or stay with current systems to save money. PC Makers Jump on the Bandwagon But PC makers may make the choice for their customers. Most manufacturers will move quickly to drop Pentium II-based PCs from their product lines, offering either Pentium IIIs or Celeron-based systems. In terms of performance, a 366-MHz Celeron is about equivalent to a 333-MHz Pentium II, according to Roger Kay, an analyst at International Data Corporation. "But the performance gap between the Pentium III and the Celeron will open wide enough to make it distinguishable." Many customers will opt for the fastest Pentium II rather than the slowest Pentium III chip, because the chip is far less expensive and the performance difference is minimal, according to Kay. Source: Info World