Intel, Microsoft Slowly Unveiling New Technology Changes In Multimedia Computers ‘A Bomb’ Being Dropped On Industry
Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have begun a slow strip tease, revealing standards and technologies they’ve agreed will be built into new multimedia personal computers this year.
But software and hardware companies are screaming for the two industry leaders to take it all off so they can create new, faster multimedia software based on what the two giants have created. Multimedia standards are critical to what will be inside computers and how quickly programmers can create new programs. The longer Intel and Microsoft wait to show all of their new technologies, the longer it will be before new software will be created.
Intel, for instance, last week unveiled the details of its multimedia Pentium microprocessor, a PC brain that could produce better sound and video on a basic PC without requiring help from add-on circuit boards such as sound cards. The technology, known as the MMX instruction set, represents the biggest alteration for Intel’s x86 architecture since the 386 chip a decade ago.
Fred Pollack, a fellow at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, showed off the MMX technology for the code-named “P55C Pentium microprocessor” at the Intermedia trade show in San Francisco. While computer users may not care right now, computer makers and software developers are watching closely because the details will determine what kinds of products they can launch in coming months.
“This technology will shape the software of tomorrow,” Pollack said. “The future PC will be significantly different than today’s.”
The announcement from Intel is one of several over the next few months that will determine how PCs incorporate new technologies such as three-dimensional graphics, modems that can transmit data and voice at the same time, and multiple connections of peripheral devices such as printers and scanners. Microsoft, meanwhile, demonstrated its “Direct 3D” software standards that make it easy for programmers to create three-dimensional graphics.
Intel is making technical data available on its World Wide Web site: http:/ /www.intel.com. Michael Aymar, an Intel vice president, said further announcements of multimedia programming tools and other data, such as programming tools that aren’t yet finished, will be made available over the next five months.
Although the MMX-based Pentium chips won’t hit the market until late this year, Aymar said it will be included throughout Intel’s entire product line - from low end to high end - in record time: less than 15 months. During 1997, Intel’s Pentium Pro chip will incorporate the new MMX technology and an MMX upgrade chip to replace older Pentium chips will be introduced.
“The news is very important to a lot of Silicon Valley companies,” said Bert McComas, president of Inquest, a market research firm in Gilbert, Ariz., and author of a 370-page report on the evolving PC multimedia standards. “Intel and Microsoft went underground for a while and now they’re beginning this strip tease. People are paying attention because it’s like a bomb being dropped on their old way of doing business.”
The new standards essentially will create a new group of winners and losers in the computer industry - with some hardware and software companies finding their products in more demand while others find that their old staples are no longer in vogue.