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To: Scumbria who wrote (79546)	4/20/1999 2:45:00 AM
From: Process Boy	Respond to of 186894

Scumbria and Thread - CMP article about Intel Networking Processor initiatives. techweb.com Intel Sets Sites On Network Processor Market (04/19/99, 5:13 p.m. ET) By Mark LaPedus, Electronic Buyers' News In another major effort to expand its communication-IC business, Intel announced plans Monday to enter the emerging network-processor business. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, which is also in the process of acquiring LAN/WAN-chip giant Level One Communications for more than $2 billion, is the latest company to announce plans to enter the fast-growing networking processor market, a business projected to grow to more than $600 million by 2002, according to Dataquest, in San Jose, Calif. Current vendors in the networking-processor business include C-Port, LSI Logic, MMC Networks, Maker, MIPS Technologies, Motorola, Softcom Microsystems, and T.sqware. Network processors are used in LAN/WAN-equipment, such as switches, routers, and others. In theory, network process enables a LAN-based system to support WAN protocols, such as ATM and packet-over-Sonet. In some cases, the network processor offloads critical instructions from the host processor in a system, thereby improving throughput. In other cases, these new processors can replace the host CPU. Nonetheless, Intel has high hopes in the business. "This is the next significant step in Intel's strategy to be the leading supplier of communications building blocks," said Mark Christensen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Network Communications Group, in a statement. Intel did not provide product details, but the chip giant would announce its new networking processors later this year.

To: Scumbria who wrote (79546)	4/20/1999 2:52:00 AM
From: Process Boy	Respond to of 186894

Scumbria and Thread - Article on Intel/NBC digital content and e-commerce initiative. From ZDNet. NBC, Intel will work on Digital TV Intel will give NBC technology to help it bring digital TV's interactive features into its current programming. By Robert Lemos, ZDNN April 19, 1999 12:30 PM PT Updated 4:58 PM PT LAS VEGAS -- Intel Corp. continues to look at new ways to drive online content and e-commerce opportunities. The big chipmaker said it would team with NBC to expand digital television. The two will work to develop interactive features, including checking an electronic program guide, chatting, sending electronic greeting cards or taking interactive quizzes. Intel has done similar work with the Public Broadcasting System. "(The NBC deal) follows the same themes as what we have done with PBS," said Ron Whittier, senior vice president of Intel's content group, in an interview here. "We have been working with NBC (on analog enhanced TV) for about four or five years now. This deal extends that to the digital domain." The deal better positions both Intel and NBC to take advantage of e-commerce in the future, said Whittier. "You add data to TV, and you add the potential for personalization and e-commerce," he said. Whittier added that Intel intends to be only a technology provider, and keep to the background, letting NBC brand its services. HDTV booster The two hope that those extras will help make the HDTV sets and their price tags -- now well into four figures -- more attractive for consumers, said NBC spokesman Jeff DeMarrais. The new programming will "speed the marketplace into going out and getting the HDTV sets," he said in a telephone interview from Las Vegas. The multiyear pact with Intel (Nasdaq:INTC, the world's largest computer chip maker, will mark NBC's first collaboration in the digital television arena. The General Electric Co. unit is preparing to begin digital high-definition TV (HDTV) broadcasting in the autumn. HDTV features sharper pictures than conventional analog television. In addition to the clearer picture, HDTV also can pack much more information into digital form, allowing the interactive features that NBC is planning. U.S. television networks are scheduled to begin HDTV broadcasting in 30 U.S. cities by the end of the year. NBC is scheduled to make the enhanced digital TV programming available to viewers in the fall of 1999. The network plans an average of three hours a week in enhanced broadcasting content for NBC's Saturday morning block of teenage programming and NBC sports programs. There also will be some enhanced broadcasting each day during prime time. The enhanced content will be available to viewers using a personal computer with a digital TV function, a digital television set or a powerful set top box that can tune in the new digital signals. Included in the items that Intel will license to NBC are the software, tools and the applications to create and insert the enhanced portions of the digital broadcast into NBC's existing programming. Material from Reuters was used in this report

To: Scumbria who wrote (79546)	4/20/1999 3:04:00 AM
From: Process Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Scumbria and Thread - Reuters article on Network Processors. Additional details and conclusions by the author. Intel To Make Networking Microprocessors By Duncan Martell PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) is again turning up the heat at its nascent data-networking business. In its latest move into the new market, the world's largest chipmaker announced plans Monday to develop a microprocessor designed for the gear that shunts data back and forth on computer networks. The so-called network microprocessor -- typically thought of as the brains of personal computers -- could let companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), Northern Telecom Ltd (NYSE:NT - news). and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news) introduce products far faster than before. It also would let them upgrade the equipment that directs network and Internet traffic easier and cheaper. ''This would allow for networking manufacturers to implement new upgrades without totally redesigning the chip(s)'' that are in data networking equipment, said Mike Wolf, an analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Most data networking gear, such as routers and switches, currently use a type of semiconductor called an ASIC, or application-specific integrated circuit. Instructions for ASICs are hard-wired directly into the chip and can't be changed. But with a processor, networking companies could simply reprogram them with new software instructions, Intel said. While Santa Clara, California-based Intel already makes a chip used in printers and routers, it does not yet have an offering that would let networking companies link the functions of the myriad ASIC chips now used in each product. The process of designing a new chip takes 12 to 18 months, analysts noted. Analysts and industry sources expect the network processor to use the StrongArm chip, which Intel acquired from Digital Equipment Corp. about a year ago. They said the StrongArm makes sense because of its low power consumption and simple design. The analysts said the potential market for the processor is large because of the demand for gear that links networks and routs vast amounts of voice, data and video from one end of the world to the other. ''There's a class of processor out there now where they don't have a solution and companies are throwing tens of billions of dollars at this market,'' said Richard Doherty, director of research for Seaford, New York-based market research firm Envisioneering. Intel's networking business is expected to be a central focus of its twice-yearly analyst meeting in New York Thursday. Intel executives have said selling networking and communications gear will be the next growth engine for the 31-year-old chipmaker. Craig Barrett, Intel's chief executive, has already put the data networking business on the fast track. Mark Christensen, the 40-year-old executive in charge of the group, is charged with boosting revenue growth in Intel's networking business so that it outpaces its rivals by two to three times. Analysts estimate Intel's networking business amounted to $790 million in 1998. And the forthcoming network processor is merely the latest step in Intel's effort to pump up revenues at the networking business to the ''multibillion'' level. ''Strategically, this is a big deal for Intel,'' said Jim Turley of the Microprocessor Report in Sunnyvale, California. ''Networking right now is one of the minor branches off the Intel tree, but they want it to be a very big deal when and if the PC dies.''