Advertisment

Intel to change IT systems inspired by Napster

author-image
CIOL Bureau
New Update

Lucas van Grinsven

Advertisment

LONDON: US chip maker Intel said on Tuesday it has been inspired by

song-swapping Internet service Napster and free operating system Linux to

overhaul some of its technology infrastructure.

Despite Napster's short-lived success -- it has been idle since July after

stumbling over legal and technical issues -- the technology behind it helped

Intel to limit expensive network bills, Intel's vice president for Information

Technology, Doug Busch, told journalists here.

The world's largest semiconductor company often needs to send large

multimedia computer files to its employees across the globe, containing

information such as manuals or video messages.

Advertisment

But Intel simply cannot afford to send all these files from its Californian

headquarters over the worldwide Internet, running up a huge telecom bills, Busch

said.

Shortly after Napster began breaking through, some 18 months ago now, Intel

began to develop its own software that, like Napster, would allow employees to

download certain files from each other's computers.

"Absolutely," Busch said, when asked whether he was inspired by

Napster. "I couldn't afford to send big files over the wide area network

(WAN). It didn't fit into my budget. Now employees just look for the file on a

PC closest to theirs, which can be in the same office. It's cheaper. It's

faster," he said.

Advertisment

Intel's peer-to-peer network improved performance and reduced costs by around

10 times, he said, adding storage costs on PCs were also 10 times cheaper than

on big central servers.

Alternatives designed to reduce network bills, such as caching servers which

store popular files on computers around the world, were not attractive for Intel

which has many small offices. Intel would need contracts with different caching

companies, offering little added value, Busch added.

Advertisment

More inspiration from the Internet



The free operating system Linux was another unexpected result from ad hoc
Internet collaboration that has been embraced by Intel, saving the chip maker

$200 million, Busch said.

The company ditched expensive Unix servers with proprietary Unix software and

replaced them by cheaper servers equipped with Intel's own chips that run Linux

software.

Linux was developed by the Finn Linus Torvalds, but improved by volunteer

programmers on the web. Everyone is free to use the program, study the source

code and suggest improvements.

Advertisment

Busch said it was easy to migrate to Linux because of its similarities with

Unix -- Linux is a flavor of Unix. The Linux servers are used in the engineering

and scientific departments of Intel. The company's business lines which rely on

accounting software and other office software still use Microsoft's Windows 2000

as the operating system of choice.

There are not enough robust office software packages that run under Linux, he

said. In any case, using Linux is not much cheaper than Windows 2000. Although

Linux as an operating system is free, the real costs are related to the

computers, and support and maintenance, he said.

For future trends, Busch said the company was developing a method to

prioritise video over email on its data networks. This should make video

conferencing should more attractive.

Other areas in which Intel invests are wireless LAN networks. It also

encourages employees to work from portable laptop computers rather than

desktops, because it makes staff more productive at an extra cost of around $200

a year.

(C) Reuters Limited.

tech-news