Intel Sees Grantsdale As Key To Convergence

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company formally unveiled Grantsdale on June 21 under the 915G and 915P names. The chipset will include integrated high-definition audio technology and support increased storage management capabilities.

"We're not just doing technology for technology's sake," said Bill Leszinske, Intel's director of digital home marketing and planning. "The big challenge this year is we're very focused on usage models."

Earlier this year, Intel began discussing how Grantsdale's advanced graphics and audio capabilities would facilitate the vendor's move into the digital home and convergence arenas. In preannouncement demonstrations of systems with the chipsets and 3.4GHz, Pentium 4 processors, the company showed how PCs using Grantsdale provide Dolby 7.1-quality audio, multidisplay capabilities in a single system and seamless writing to dual hard drives managed by Intel's new Storage Matrix technology.

Some solution providers said they would wait and see if the chipset would give Intel a competitive edge. Suchindrin Chatterjee, CEO of Lagerfields, a Peoria, Ariz.-based system builder and solution provider, said Grantsdale's success depends on how it competes with 64-bit processor technology from Advanced Micro Devices.

"There are two issues," Chatterjee said. "One is the operating system that runs on it and what applications run on the operating system, and what other [processor] speeds can be used." He said success would also depend on whether Intel produced enough supply for the market.

John Samborski, vice president of Ace Computers, an Arlington Heights, Ill.-based system builder, said pricing would also be an important factor.

"I would like to see [Grantsdale] be a big thing," Samborski said. "We're still seeing a lot of people looking for a low-ball price."