Intel Is Evolving Into A Platform ProviderIntel Is Evolving Into A Platform Provider

Intel, looking to duplicate its success in the past two years with its Centrino mobile-computing platform, described plans at its Developers Forum last week to create product platforms that leverage technologies from across the company to attack markets ranging from large companies to digital homes.

The company will accomplish that by continuing to invest large amounts in research and development, CEO Craig Barrett said in a keynote address. "You have two choices with R&D--lead or be led," he said. "R&D drives the next level of innovation. You can have the best business model in the world, but if it's creating last year's technology, it will not be successful."

The R&D investment is focused on moving Intel beyond being a provider of processors to a creator of platforms, Barrett said. Centrino, which combines a Pentium M processor on a chipset with integrated wireless LAN capabilities, was Intel's first platform product. It has been an unqualified success, raking in more than $5 billion in revenue in less than two years.

Intel will upgrade Centrino next year with its Napa platform, which will integrate the company's first dual-core Pentium M processor, code-named Yonah; enhanced graphics functions, code-named Calistoga; and improved Wi-Fi technology, code-named Golan (for more on Intel's dual-core processor plans, see "Intel Steps Up Dual-Core Processor Efforts"). "We've just scratched the surface with Centrino," says Rama Shukla, co-director of the mobile products group. "Our platforms are designed to make sure we're providing the best possible end-user value."

Platforms aren't what some computer makers are looking for, says Bahr Mahony, division marketing manager of the mobile-business unit for Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Many computer makers want the freedom to select the best wireless technology on the market and not be forced to use an integrated solution. "They want choice and the ability to differentiate," Mahony says.

Customers are free to pick and choose components, Shukla responds. But Intel believes that combining technology such as processors, interconnects, and other "embedded IT" such as virtualization and self-managing capabilities to create chipsets and related platforms is what customers will want in the future. Those upcoming platforms will include Anchor Creek, a home-desktop product; Bensley, a two-way Xeon offering; and Montvale, a two-way Itanium product.

Intel has stumbled in some markets. Despite spending large sums over the past six years, the company failed to gain much market share for Itanium, the 64-bit architecture that's designed to replace RISC-based server architectures. Two top server makers, IBM and Dell, have said that Itanium won't play a major role in their future plans.

Still, Intel senior VP Pat Gelsinger says strong demand by other server makers such as Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Silicon Graphics, and Unisys will help secure Itanium's place as the choice for RISC replacement in the years ahead.