An Intel executive said yesterday that demand for personal computers outfitted with Pentium4 CPUs quadrupled worldwide between the second and third quarters.
"If it weren't for the recent terrorist attacks in the US, we would probably be announcing a recovery for the industry right now," said Jason Chen (
Demand for Pentium4s and 845 chipsets, a component that allows the use of SDRAM memory chips instead of the more expensive Rambus memory, have been so brisk that the company will have trouble meeting its orders over the next few months, the executive said. He expects bottlenecks throughout the fourth quarter.
"Fortunately, we did not see major business slump in the third quarter. But we expect to see some impact consumer confidence, especially in the United States [as a result of terrorist attacks]," Chen said.
Demand in China has been particularly strong. When Intel CEO Craig Barrett visited Taipei last July, he said China was leading the world in demand for computers outfitted with Pentium4 CPUs.
"China, India and some other Southeast-Asian countries are still experiencing solid demand," Chen said.
He said consumers in the region are beginning to thirst for the latest technology. With a winning bid to host the 2008 Olympics and impending WTO entry, "people are really excited," Chen said.
"Chinese are now demanding the most advanced technology."
Nevertheless, some economic indicators point to a slowing economy in China, but Chen doubted whether any slowdown would be serious.
Between July and August, one of China's peak buying seasons, demand for personal computers slumped. Families in China generally buy computers for their kids if they score well on university entrance exams, but this year that didn't happen. Chen said the slump turned out to be short-term nervousness and that PC demand rebounded strongly in September.
The executive would not comment on ongoing legal squabbles with Taiwanese chipset-maker VIA Technologies. He said the companies are now engaged in court battles in the US, UK, Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Intel says VIA's new Pentium4 compatible chipsets infringe on their patents. VIA developed a chipset which allows Pentium4 chips to be used with inexpensive memory chips called DDR. VIA argues this kind of memory could replace expensive Rambus mem-ory. The company is suing Intel for patent infringements as well.
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