Intel Chief Not Worried About The Future Of Pcs

Intel president and CEO Craig Barrett did not seem paranoid enough about competition, engineering challenges and the appearance of viable alternatives to personal computers for Internet access.

He, in fact, gave the impression of being rather comfortable with Intel's ability to sustain and grow in the Internet age.

For instance, fielding questions from reporters here yesterday on what Intel proposed to do about the popularity of other devices to access the Net, Barrett said, "I'm not going to answer that question because I do not agree with that premise.

"In fact, 99.8 per cent of Internet access all over the world is still through PCs. The handheld and mobile Internet access is happening only in countries like Japan, but this does not affect the future of the PC. For, in Japan, PC sales are growing at 35 per cent which is an all-time high," he said.

 

Asked about the challenges faced by scientists to increase computing power, Barrett said these challenges were something that Intel always had to face.

"Moore's law _computing power doubles every 18 months_ will hold for another 15 years," he noted.

On the shortage of silicon chips, he warned if the strong growth in information technology continued for the second half of this year, the shortage could well drag into 2001.

Barrett, however, parried questions on Intel's plans for India. On whether India had the potential to act as a viable manufacturing and fabrication location for Intel, he answered, "Any place has the potential. We continue to look at India as a possible candidate, but there are no immediate plans."

Barrett said Intel was really interested in participating in educational activities here. "We are promoting the study of maths and science in school and also training 100,000 teachers to incorporate information technology into teaching," he said.

Intel is currently collaborating with the National Council of Education, Research & Traning (NCERT), and also with the education department, government of India for the purpose. It is also in talks with the state government of Kerala to train master trainers of the government in IT who can then branch out and educate others.