Intel boss hails Internet future

Intel's senior vice president of sales, Sean Maloney, claims the computer industry has spent 40 years in search of a medium it can call its own - and has finally found it in the form of the Internet.

In an exclusive interview with Silicon.com, Intel's number three said the chip giant is working towards making PCs and servers right for the Internet. He said other companies must also focus on the Net, predicting that half of the world's six billion people will be online within 10 years.

Intel last week announced it will establish large server farms - with the goal of driving demand for powerful processors - but also as data centres for Web application hosting, storage and delivery of online content. Maloney said everyone working in the industry now has to design products to be better at delivering on the Internet.

On the subject of the controversial ID facility within the company's flagship Pentium III processor, Maloney was candid - he said most consumers will probably choose to disable the feature, while businesses will welcome the chance to track clients over networks more easily.
However, he noted that there are other ways of identifying PCs, not least through hard drives and operating systems such as Windows 98 - as the creator of the infamous Melissa virus now knows all too well.

The full video interview with Maloney can be seen in Silicon.com's Processors Channel.