INTEL LAUNCHES NETWORKING PRODUCTS

Having rules the heart of desktops for time immeasurable, Intel Electronics, Inc., the titanic manufactured of semiconductors and microprocessors, has recently taken its first tentative steps into the networking domain.
With a view to taking the fast emerging and currently Rs. 300 crore worth networking market very seriously, the company has announced plans that will place it in a position of strength as a networking solution provider.
Intel, has divided its activities into three business groups; semiconductor, communications, and microprocessor, and w ill now focus on the communications side.
Three thrust areas have been identified within the communications, feature rich hardware faster networking equipment.
Said Atul Vijaykar, country manager, Intel Asia Electronics, Inc.: “We are looking at providing lower cost of ownership and at accelerating the transition to high bandwidth networks”.
Attributing his observations to research, he pointed out that in an informations systems infrastructure, while half the cost is related to the hardware and the software, the other half goes towards maintaining it. “We want to overcome the latter expense by first approaching the LAN market which is fast moving towards Fast Ethernet,” Vijaykar added.
Talking to IS Computer world, B. Sonesh, business manager-networking, Intel Asia, revealed that the company’s target segments in the networking market are local area networking market are local area networking, workgroup computing, and LAN management, “On the work group level, we want to provide high bandwidth networking and desktop server management”, said Sonesh.
According to the company, the Intel Ether Express Pro 100 LAN Adapter, a part of the company’s networking arsenal, provides 10 times more power to desktops with increased bandwidth and performance, on the same investment.
With products such as these, the company is positioning Fast Ethernet in the Indian market as an alternative to switches.
“Shared Fast Ethernet is supposed to be better than switches as Fast Ethernet is found to be faster, cost effective and manageable while the switches happen to be inherently difficult to manage,” Said Sonesh.
“Shared 100 for moderate sized work groups not only gives 40 percent better performance, it also costs significantly less”.
The company, in the next one year, hopes to capture 25 percent of the NIC (Network Interface Cards) market, which ahs a strength of approximately 500,000 units.
Introducing the networking products in India, Intel also demonstrated its Fast Ethernet, LANDesk Management and ProShare video conferencing products.
Said Vijaykar. “A better networking infrastructure allows users to take full advantage of the capabilities of the latest Pentium and Pentium Pro microprocessors.”
Intel offers a complete range of products (see box) for local area network including network adapters, shared fastthernet hub, fast Ethernet switching hub print servers, network management software and desktop video conferencing equipments.