September - 2001 - issue > Cover

Barrett was on hand to introduce the Indian market to Intel’s 64-bit Itanium, the first product in its IA-64 family of processors, formerly code-named Merced. The processor technology follows parallel instruction computing, which is supposed to boost performance significantly.

“We expect that by the end of the year, 30 OEMs will be shipping their products using the processor,” said G.B. Kumar, general manager of Intel Internet Group. The only question is what kind of global sales volume Intel can generate.

Intel’s Competition in India
It’s a tough time to introduce a new line of server chips. Could the Indian market provide growth for Intel, even as sales slump in much of the rest of the world? Regardless of the market prospects, vendors are competing for Indian market share.

Number two chipmaker AMD has a three-pronged strategy to take on Intel in the Indian market. It is strengthening its channel program in India, creating a direct customer relationship program, and forging tie-ups with Indian OEMs. AMD wants a market share of 30 percent in India by next year, said Yep Yin Wee, AMD’s product and marketing manager in the far eastern region.

Barrett on The Economic Slowdown

While launching his product, Intel’s CEO did comment on the U.S. economic slowdown and its effect on the semiconductor industry. Barrett, perhaps with reference to the teachings of Intel legend Gordon Moore, said that technology is the one thing that does not recognize a slowdown. He did acknowledge that the semiconductor industry was witnessing the biggest recession in its history. While he said that the worst was probably over, he refrained from making a definitive statement about recovery.

“I will tell you the exact month but cannot tell you the exact year when the slowdown will end,” he joked. On a more serious note, he warned that a “synchronous recession” would have an adverse impact on the Indian economy.

Over the last two years, Intel has invested in 20 Indian companies, including Trisoft Design, CricInfo, Silicon Automation Sytems, Polaris software, VR Real Technologies and Vision, Maya International and Pramati Technologies. Barrett said that India, China and Russia are three major areas of growth in R&D because all three countries have excellent education and produce bright engineers and scientists, with a head for mathematics. “That’s the raw material we need for the future,” he said. “These are the growth areas for Intel.”

In an informal discussion with siliconindia at a networking event back in Silicon Valley, Barrett commented on the Indian market. He pondered, “Its amazing how much IT folks in India seem to be into hardware and manufacturing, though not many products end up coming out of there.” And recalling conversations he had in India he explained, “[IT] companies [in India] told me that they will grow only 25-30 percent this year. I told them that in this market, that’s incredible growth!”