Intel Corp president and CEO, Craig Barrett, used his keynote speech at the Intel Developer’s Forum in Palm Springs to chide the industry for not working together hard or fast enough to firm up the standards that will ensure internet capacity into the next century. In a speech filled with references to his Montana ranch, Intel’s ‘cowboy’ turned peacemaker – citing the next generation I/O agreement (see separate story), the industry’s Bluetooth efforts and universal serial bus work as good examples of working together but said that none of it moves fast enough.
Citing various research sources, Barrett claimed that by the early part of the next decade, there would be 1 billion people on the internet and that 10% of the United State’s gross domestic product would come from e-commerce sources. And the growth of voice and video services on the net will drive up the need for extra internet bandwidth. Is the infrastructure ready? Barrett asked. He called for the industry to work on open specifications, government to support e-commerce initiatives and ensure that education was available to ensure that everybody knows how to use the internet. We want to work to get rid of the term ‘internet user’, he said, because soon everybody will be an internet user.
While admitting that internet appliances would become more important, Barrett said that he expected that the PC would still be the major point of internet access into the next century. The move to 0.18 micron processors and Merced (see separate story) would be the Intel’s contribution to internet backbone and bandwidth concerns, Barrett said. However, he highlighted the slow convergence of the communications industry – working on open standards and cross-industry initiatives – as one of the most important events that will open up the internet.
