Larry Ellison has got Intel Corp worried with his assiduous campaigning for the Network Computer, InformationWeek reckons. The paper reports that Intel chief executive Andrew Grove met Ellison last week to discuss a plan for Intel to provide more active support to the cause of the Network Computer, a move InformationWeek reckons would enable Network Computer holdouts Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co to embrace the concept without losing face. The talks, also involving Jerry Baker, president of Oracle Corp subsidiary Network Computer Inc, reportedly covered motherboards optimized for Network Computers, and pricing issues. The Oracle specification already calls for a 133MHz Pentium, but Grove suggested that faster Pentiums should be used. Any such move by Intel would minimize the embarrassment if the disconcertingly threadbare and overpriced NetPC design fails to take off.
