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The Processor Speed Race... Slows Down

Techstination feature for Thursday, December 16, 2004

When it comes to new computers…the push for faster and faster processors….slows down. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. It's one of the big technology developments of 2004… until this year…there seemed to be an endless race to push out computers with faster and faster processors. The new emphasis, says Intel's consumer education manager Ralph Bond, is on other capabilities….

"In the old days, it used to be simply, gigahertz, gigahertz, gigahertz….and even before megahertz, right? It was simply a clock speed game. Now it's about the combination of sure, processing power, but also associated chipsets as we call it in our industry, that add things like 7.1 surround sound audio, audio built in amplifiers and all kinds of things coming up on the landscape here that combined with the raw horsepower of the processor, equal a new power equation that's richer and deeper than just clock speed."

The shift is allowing Intel to sell a backlog of unsold processors and it is also allowing rival AMD to gain some ground with its 64 bit processors for desktops and notebooks. It is also making it clear… PCs will be just one part of home wireless networks…

"We're going to see more and more consumer electronics products coming out of the box with that WiFi capability so they can immediately join a home wireless network."

Expect to hear more about that from the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.