Exciting Internet applications and new technologies<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): We all know Intel Corporation, the company that
\nhas brought us the 8086, 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium and
\nPentium processor chips. The history of the PC is the history of
\nIntel itself, although this Silicon Valley-based company also
\nmakes other microprocessors such as the i960 processors used in
\nLexmark's Optra N 240 and N 245 printers.<\/p>\n
If the fact that your new PC is already obsolete just a few
\nweeks after it was first placed on your desktop gives you a
\nheadache, blame it on Moore's Law. Gordon Moore, co-founder of
\nIntel, pointed out in 1965 that the performance of microprocessor
\nchips -- with the prices held constant -- doubles every 18
\nmonths. Intel has lived on this axiom, and its strategies have
\nconsistently followed this principle. You may curse the law for
\ndriving you back to Glodok Plaza and compelling you to spend
\nmoney on upgrades, but I still believe that the consumer
\ncommunity as a whole greatly benefits from it.<\/p>\n
Here's one aspect of Intel that many of us may not be aware
\nof: Although the July 8, 1996, issue of Fortune calls Andy Grove
\nMr. Hardware and Bill Gates Mr. Software, Intel is not only a
\nhardware but also a software maker. The difference between Intel
\nand Microsoft is that the former only invents the technologies
\nbut doesn't really develop them commercially. That's easy for us
\nto understand, as the latter would not be very happy if the
\nformer ever started invading its turf. The truth is, according to
\nthe July 10, 1995, issue of the same magazine, out of the 32,000
\nemployees that Intel had last year, 2,000 were programmers.<\/p>\n
What I personally like about Intel is the fact that this
\ngiant company doesn't indulge itself in acquisition sprees. In
\nthe face of fierce competition from Cyrix and AMD, for example,
\nIntel seems to choose to run faster rather than to concentrate on
\nkilling the competitors. Another thing that I like about this
\ngiant is its consistent concern for standards that will allow
\napplication developers to make creative products. The company,
\nfor instance, has been sponsoring a number of task forces whose
\njob is mainly to create these standards.<\/p>\n
One of the standards that Intel has helped create, as
\nexplained by Christanto Suryadarma, Intel's Country Architecture
\nManager for Indonesia, is the Desktop Management Interface
\n(DMI). To understand what its advantages are, just imagine the
\ntypical situation in a typical corporate computing environment,
\nwhere the information system manager has been pulling out his
\nhair trying to track the exact number of PCs of which he is in
\ncharge. He may have no records of their configuration, not to
\nmention the application software that their users are using. In
\nsuch a situation, the technical support that he could provide
\nwould be nightmarish, at best. With the DMI, which includes
\nfacilities for assets management, electronic software
\ndistribution, LAN management and monitoring, remote boot and
\ncontrol, as well as remote hardware and software diagnostics, the
\nIS manager will have more control of the situation and the
\ncorporation will be able to enjoy tremendous savings.<\/p>\n
During a recent outing to the beautiful Lido, Sukabumi, I had
\nthe opportunity to get an update of what Intel has been up to
\nlately. Supplemented with materials found in computer magazines,
\nhere are some of the most interesting byproducts of this
\nmicroprocessor maker.<\/p>\n
Chip<\/p>\n
More than a year ago, my close Singaporean friend, Shin, told
\nme that selling add-on cards would get harder and harder in the
\nfuture as Intel was incorporating all of the features that you
\ncould think of into its chips. When the Digital Signal Processing
\n(DSP) chips came out, for example, everybody was upbeat. DSPs
\nsuddenly made multimedia capabilities much more affordable, as
\npeople could buy off-the-shelf add-on cards and peripherals and
\nput them in their own PCs. Now Intel is coming out with its MMX
\ntechnology that will render these DSPs unnecessary, leaving sound
\ncard and other add-on makers scrambling for new types of products
\nto make and market.<\/p>\n
What this friend said was better explained by the Cannibal
\nPrinciple that was also coined by Moore. The principle itself is
\nnot as savage as it sounds, though. As quoted in Fortune, Moore
\nsaid, \"The whole point of integrated circuits is to absorb the
\nfunctions of what previously were discrete electronic components,
\nto incorporate them in a single new chip, and then to give them
\nback for free, or at least for a lot less money than what they
\ncost as individual parts.\" Thus, for example, all -- or at least
\nmost of -- the functions of your sound card will be incorporated
\ninto the upcoming processor chips so that you may no longer have
\nto have the SoundBlaster card on your PC.<\/p>\n
And improving on the multimedia and communication
\ncapabilities is basically what this MMX is all about. The MMX
\ntechnology will be built into the next generation of Pentium and
\nPentium Pro chips. Once you have it on, your PC communication
\nusing the Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) modems will
\nbe enhanced, your 3-D games will be more eye-popping, and video
\nplayback will become smoother and richer in color.<\/p>\n
Internet phone<\/p>\n
Here's what may be bad news for our international carrier, PT
\nIndosat (although I'm convinced they are already anticipating
\nit). Technologies on the Internet have progressed so rapidly that
\nyou can even now make a phone call through Cyberspace. If you
\nhave Internet access and your PC has both a sound card and a
\nmodem, you can use Intel Internet Phone and talk with someone
\nacross the globe and you only have to pay local call charges and
\nan Internet subscription. I've seen the Internet Phone myself,
\nand it really has potential.<\/p>\n
Although the sound that you'll hear is not yet CD-ROM quality,
\nyou will have no difficulty communicating with the guy on the
\nother end. By the way, as I mentioned in my recent article, you
\nwill need a full-duplex sound card in order to use the Internet
\nPhone like your ordinary phone. Just for your information, there
\nare at least two full-duplex sound cards that you can buy in
\nGlodok, Zoltric (Rp 125,000) and Yamaha 701 (Rp 85,000). Both are
\nPlug 'n Play, so that you can install them without any hassle.<\/p>\n
Intel is not the only company that makes Internet Phone
\navailable. Two other companies that do are NetSpeak with its
\nWebPhone and VocalTec with its similarly named Internet Phone.
\nWhat the three of them bring to us has a significant impact.
\nAlready I have talked to a number of people who claim that they
\ncan now chat with their children, relatives or friends in the
\nU.S. as well as the other parts of the world without having to
\nworry about IDD phone charges.<\/p>\n
The Beta version of the Intel Internet Phone is still free,
\nand you can download it from www.intel.com\/iaweb\/cpc. Now, don't
\nyou agree with me that, in general, the dizzying pace of
\ntechnology actually benefits consumers?<\/p>\n
Serial bus<\/p>\n
Here's the buzzword that you'll be hearing more and more in
\nthe near future: Universal Serial Bus, or USB. It's not a
\nbrainchild of Intel, but the company sponsors the standard.
\nBasically, the USB is a peripheral connection that resembles the
\nSCSI interface. In a typical SCSI subsystem, you can daisy-chain
\nup to seven SCSI devices such as hard disk, CD-ROM and scanner.
\nIn a USB, you can connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as
\nprinters, modem, and tape backup, to only one single PC port. New
\nmotherboards on the market have already incorporated USB
\ncapability, and the latest IBM Aptivas are even USB-ready.<\/p>\n
The benefits of USB include plug and play operation, automatic
\nconfiguration so that you don't have to worry about IRQs or DMAs,
\nand the use of a standard connector.<\/p>\n
Other technologies<\/p>\n
Other technologies for which Intel has been responsible
\ninclude the DSVD itself, which I talked about in one of my past
\narticles. ProShare, which brings video-conferencing to the
\ndesktop, is another creation of Intel. Intercast technology,
\nwhich Intel is developing together with Intercast Industry Group
\nthat involves Time Warner, CNN and others, will embed Internet
\ninformation into TV signals so that you can 'watch' Internet on
\nyour TV. Intel Streaming Media Viewer, another Internet
\napplication from Intel, allows web-site visitors to play audio
\nand video files in real time as they are being downloaded into
\ntheir PCs. These are mostly software, not hardware.<\/p>\n
As always, a lot of exciting advances in technology are around
\nthe corner. However, as I've said many times before, you don't
\nhave to own all them if you don't need them. Buying a PC is like
\nbuying a car; you cannot expect to buy a PC and use it for the
\nrest of your life. If you still can accomplish your tasks with
\nthe PC that you have today, that's fine. Just be patient and wait
\nuntil your requirements really make it necessary to buy a new
\none. When the time comes to buy a new PC, you should buy the best
\nthat your budget can allow. That's it. Just remind yourself that,
\nalthough the fast pace of technological development is exciting,
\nyou don't have to jump on the latest technology bandwagon.<\/p>",
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