Intel doubles investment fund, Barrett upbeat about 2001

Intel announced it has more than doubled its budget for investing in

communications-related companies to $500 million as Intel will be including

companies specializing in wireless technologies. Intel CEO Craig Barrett said he

is optimistic about the chip and high tech industry outlook for 2001.

Intel’s communications investment fund was initially set up in 1999 with a

$200 million budget. So far, the fund has made more than 40 investments in 10

countries. With the expanded budget, Intel hopes to support companies that are

developing wireless gear to access the Internet based on Intel's latest chip

designs, the company said.

Meanwhile, Intel CEO Craig Barrett said he maintains a positive outlook for

the semiconductor industry in 2001. Despite recent concerns over a slowdown in

chip sales, Barrett said he thinks the continued build out of the communications

infrastructure, both wired and wireless, especially in Asia, will continue to

stimulate chip demand. "The convergence of computers and communication over

the next five years will produce immense growth for companies like Intel,

Microsoft and Cisco, the lead suppliers of computers and communication. What

we're all trying to do is continue what we've done in the past and bring great

new technology in the marketplace. And you usually grow out of slow periods or

down periods with new products. You don't grow out of them by cutting back and

laying off people and trying to save your way out. You grow out of them with new

products and new technology," Barrett said.

Barrett also said Intel is now in a position to compete more effectively with

AMD in the market for high-end personal computer processors. "We have some

great technology to compete with people like AMD and Transmeta. We just

introduced the Pentium 4 microprocessor. It's a great new micro architecture. It

has a lot of performance headroom. We introduced it at 1.5 gigahertz. It will be

well over 2 gigahertz next year."

In the mobile processor market, Barrett said Intel’s new PIII chips will

compete effectively with the low-power Transmeta chip thanks to the PIII’s

speed step technology that allows the system to scale down the power consumption

as system performance decreases. "We think we outperformed Transmeta, both

in performance and in power consumption in the mobile end."