Intel Warns Asia Over Linux Plan

rimbaldi writes "Intel's CEO, Craig Barrett recently warned the Chinese government that their attempt to create regional standards for computers and communications, including standards using Linux-based software, may be doomed to failure, since 'such a strategy might protect local companies and markets in the short term, [but] it would make it more difficult for Asian companies to participate in world markets.' This is in reaction to earlier Slashdot-covered stories about an Asian software consortium and China disallowing foreign software."

Comments

Intel Scared?

[yo5oy]

it is just really funny to see a multinational company watching out for the interests of one the largest potential new markets by stating that they won't be able to compete ten to twenty years from now. FUD.

Re:Intel Scared?

[ralphclark]

Yeah - one possible outcome is that China won't be able to participate in global markets - another more likely possibility is that China will export it's homegrown technologies, at unprecedented price levels, undercutting *both* Intel and Microsoft. No wonder Intel are scared.

China already have the manufacturing infrastructure to do all this. They just need to develop their own IP. It's a no-brainer for them.

huh

[BigBir3d]

Is Intel pushing MS Windows now?

Intel > procs and chipsets > DRM > MS Windows

Missing the Point

[overshoot]

Intel is pushing -- hard -- for TCPA/Palladium/NGSCB/whatever. The idea is to make sure that non-TCPA systems are completely left out of the information ecology. With Intel, AMD, Microsoft, and IBM on board the fix is pretty much in.

Or it would be, if nobody like the Chinese got uppity. Planning to go with non-TCPA software is certainly Not Part of the Plan, and could derail all of Intel's plans.

That just can't be allowed now, can it?

Re:Article: -1 troll

[leandrod]

> He's talking about chinese plans to try to grow their own (non x86) chip market through protectionist policies

> The high costs of such a two-pronged approach would make it difficult to compete. "You have to ask yourself this: is there an advantage to having a proprietary standard in your country?"

First, protectionism is everywhere. It is very hipocritical of the US to protect its agriculture and job markets, and then expect everyone else to continue to either import or pay royalties on its chips and software.

Second, this particular piece of protectionism could actually lead to something. If one takes a potentially more efficient and cheaper RISC system, and uses it to run GNU/Linux, he can makes dirty cheap, open systems accessible to millions. One could even see this as a linchpin for the end of proprietary systems dominance, both software and hardware -- yes, x86 is proprietary. In this case, China and its partners in potential would be protecting not a closed market, but a nascent, open industry from dumping, IP claims and similar anticompetitive tatics from US companies.

Now, how MIPS is anymore proprietary than x86 I fail to see. Quite to the contrary.

Re:Or maybe Intel is worried about...

[greylion3]

The parent to this comment has an extremely good point - without Linux, they would have to start from scratch writing an OS for their new chip.
With Linux, all they have to do is write a good compiler.

Re:Huh

[Trigun]

But the world puts up with it because of the shitty, Dollar store trinkets that they produce. They start producing other things that can put a dent in the economy, then you can bet that there would be heavy pressure on their government to stop.

Also, at what point would the people stop being walked all over? Once China has a huge economy, capitalist, communist or otherwise, if the wealth is not spread a bit more than now (which has gotten better than ten years ago), the people just might wise up.

Re:China = 12% of Intel's Revenue

[American AC in Paris]

Ech, replying to my own post...

If you dig a bit deeper into Intel's financials, you'll find that China represents a huge chunk of Intel's growth since 2000--while their total revenue has dropped from 33.7 billion to 26.7 billion, revenue from China has increased from 2.15 billion to 3.2 billion.

In 2000, China was about 6.3% of Intel's total revenue. Today, it's nearly double that. If China's plans succeed, Intel loses both a sizeable chunk of their revenue and one of their biggest growth markets.

Sorry, did I say 'one of their biggest growth markets'? I meant 'biggest'.

Re:It makes sence..

[MrResistor]

My thought was:

"They'll be unable to interoperate with the reat of the world, just like Europeans can't watch American TV shows because they use PAL and not NTSC.

Oh, wait..."

It's quite shocking to me that the top guy at Intel is so fundamentally ignorant of the realities of modern computing and communication.

Re:Nothing really to see here

[grendel's mom]

Then [Asia] can tell intel to conform to their standards or risk losing a giant revenue stream.

Exactly. This is the only reason Barrett has taken this position. This has nothing to do with Intel's worry about "proprietary" anything or their concern for Asian software markets. Intel is only worried they will have to adapt to the (massive) emerging market in Asia.

Re:It makes sence..

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

Do not make the mistake of confusing ignorance with tactics, or that this is aimed at China. This is aimed squarely at western companies who may be interested in working with or investing in China - the same western companies whose bosses will attach significant weight to anything that issues from the mouth of a well-known CEO.

This isn't an attempt to put china off directly, it's an attempt to put western companies off working with China and lending weight to China's approach (which would surely be disasterous for Intel and Microsoft if it encouraged more countries to implement home-grown hardware and software rather than Wintel supported systems).

Re:huh

[Aadain2001]

It's not an "alliance" by choice. Intel knows that Windows is on 95% of the desktops. All they have to do is write a few new subroutines to detect Intel chips and to degrade the system performance if they wanted to hurt Intel. Look at their recent adoption of AMD's 64 bit ISA. It's their way of telling Intel "You better do what we say, because we can always decide to help out your competition instead of you". There was a big lawsuit about this a while back where Bill directly threatened Barret if they didn't do what MS wanted. Hence why Barret is saying this. It's also part of the reason why one half of Intel is pushing Linux and another what's to hide the first half. They don't want to piss MS off.

Re:It makes sence..

[fermion]

From the point of view of Intel and MS, it is even more dire. In response to NAFTA, China has set up a free trade zone in South East Asia, AFTA. There is enough interest in this trade zone to encompass about a third of the world population, and a significant portion of the world economy, especially in the manufacturing sector. If this area standardizes on a *nix with home-grown electronics, it may be very hard for Wintel vendors to sell to the region. And since China is the economic power of AFTA, it is assume that the other countries in the FTA would standardize on their computer product, which would likely be much cheaper than anything WinTel.

In addition, U.S. firms will have to be interoperable with AFTA if we hope to continue trading with them. As such, I would assume that U.S. firms would demand that vendors supply equipment interoperable with AFTA standards. If MS is not able to supply such an OS, then the firms will just have to go elsewhere.