Bytes

Intel goes downmarket

Intel said last week that it is to move into the low-cost PC market, where its Pentium II chips have been losing market share to cheaper products from rivals AMD and Cyrix. A new chip with the brand name Celeron, based on existing Intel P6 architecture minus L2 cache, will be announced next month.

Intel also issued a profits warning for the first quarter, because of weaker than expected demand. Rather than concentrate on developing and selling increasingly powerful chips with previous generation processors migrating to the lower end of the market, the company said its strategy will be "to use one core technology as a foundation for developing a range of processor products designed specifically to meet the needs of multiple [market] segments".

Andy Grove, Intel chief executive and chairman, said: "It is part of us recognising that the PC market is no longer a homogenous market."

The company plans to advertise both Celeron and Pentium, and continue to use "Intel Inside'' as the company slogan. "This is a logical step in the evolution of our `Intel Inside' branding strategy," said Dennis Carter, vice-president of Intel corporate marketing. "The purpose of having separate brands is so that users can quickly and easily identify the computer with the processor that best suits their needs, from performance PCs down to basic PCs."

Celeron PCs should be available in the summer, but concern about the effect of removing cache memory, and costs associated with the chipset and motherboard, have led to a lukewarm response to the new 266Mhz chip among computer manufacturers and developers. "It's about an extra 50 bucks for the chipset, motherboard, voltage regulator," said Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst at MicroDesign Resources. "I would rather have a Pentium MMX or AMD K6 3D or Centaur WinChip."

"There is absolutely zero reception for the chip among vendors," said Ashok Kumar, a semiconductor analyst with Piper Jaffray. "Only NEC-Packard Bell and Sony have signed on."

Boost for software industry

Barbara Roche MP, Small Firms Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said last week that the Government is to spend pounds 860,000 to boost the UK's software industry by launching the Software Business Network. This will provide information and advice about funding, marketing and management practice, as well as establishing a contact network and directory, electronic discussion forums, regional and national meetings, regional centres, and a website.

"The UK must be a major global player in the information technology revolution," Roche said, adding that the Government will fund the network for three years, after which it is expected to be self-funding. It will also be backed by Close Brothers Corporate Finance, Price Waterhouse, EM Warburg, Pincus & Co and Sun Microsystems.

The launch follows studies by the DTI and the Bank of England which showed that the British software industry was under-performing.

IBM gets licence for Java chip

IBM has reached a licence agreement with Sun Microsystems to use "picoJava 1" processor design in customised chips for small networked devices such as cell phones, pagers and digital television boxes. The technology has been licensed to other companies, but products have been slow to appear. Sun says this is because other licensees are designing whole new custom devices as well as chips - a lengthy process, but IBM should soon bring custom chips to the market place.

IBM confirmed that the licensing agreement is part of its network computing strategy, which will make customised Java-native chips available for electronics manufacturers. Both companies expect new classes of network-connected devices to emerge, including personal digital assistants, game devices and global positioning systems.

The cost of computer crime

In its third annual survey, the Computer Security Institute said 520 specialists polled at US corporations, government agencies, financial institutions and universities reported that the security of their networks was at increasing risk from computer viruses, laptop theft, financial fraud, theft of proprietary information, and sabotage.

"Sixty-four per cent of respondents report computer security breaches within the last 12 months," the survey said. "This represents a dramatic increase of 16 per cent over 1997s." Most computer crime victims could not estimate how much money they had lost. But 241 organisations did calculate their losses: $136m - up 36 percent from 1997.

Patrice Rapalus, director of the San Francisco-based institute, said that not enough was being done to combat computer crime. Previously, internal networks have been the main area of concern, but almost half of respondents this year identified the Internet as the point of attack. Culprits were thought most likely to be independent hackers and disgruntled employees, rather than competitors.