Advanced Micro Devices released a new high-speed computer chip for laptops Tuesday that undercuts a similar offering from rival chipmaker Intel by more than US$400.
The 300-MHz AMD-K6/300 processor costs just $229, compared to $637 for Intel's 300-MHz Pentium II processor, AMD said.
The new chip could help drive down prices in the high-performance laptop market, where the average system sells for more than $3,000. AMD-based laptops will likely sell for less than $2,500.
Compaq Computer will be the first to market with a system that features the K6/300. The company unveiled on Tuesday the Presario 1250, a high-performance laptop that will sell for $2,400. Other vendors will also release laptops soon with the new K6, AMD said, but it declined to give names.
- - -
More telephony boxes: Northern Telecom and Compaq Computer said Tuesday they will work together on equipment to carry voice calls on the Internet, making the two companies the newest arrivals to the Internet telephony party.
The collaboration combines Nortel's Internet telephony applications -- which connect Internet callers to the public phone network, and provide services like call waiting and conferencing -- with Compaq's Windows NT ProLiant 800 server.
The companies intend to sell the equipment to Internet service providers that also want to offer phone services to their customers. Nortel (NT) and Compaq (CPQ) have developed a joint marketing program to promote the new products, the companies said in a statement.
The deal is the third major endorsement of Internet telephony by major technology companies in the past week. Last Tuesday, IBM (IBM) announced a suite of hardware and software products to help carriers quickly install their own Internet telephony networks. Two days later, Lucent (LU) said it had developed software that seamlessly integrates Internet calls with the public switched telephone network and enhances calling features for Net telephony service providers.
The equipment companies are responding to the growing demand from ISPs and phone companies to compete with local phone companies. Carrying voice calls over the data network is widely seen as a cheaper way to deliver phone services, and is emerging as a serious threat to traditional carriers.
- - -
GIST partners with Snap: GIST Communications, a TV listings service, agreed to supply TV listings and editorial content to CNET's Snap Internet directory. NBC also owns a portion of Snap.
The agreement builds on GIST's current relationship with other NBC properties such as NBC.com, MSNBC.com, and NBC Interactive Neighborhood, a localized Internet guide. GIST has also partnered with the likes of Yahoo (YHOO), America Online (AOL), USA Today, and CNN Interactive.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- - -
Infoseek Express: Infoseek took the wraps off a new search tool Tuesday that culls results from the Web's leading search engines.
Dubbed "Express," the software plug-in runs within a browser and performs searches faster, said Infoseek (SEEK). It downloads and organizes results from Infoseek, AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, WebCrawler, and Yahoo. When Express delivers results from another search engine, it will also serve the advertising from that site.
Express will appeal to the 77 percent of surfers who use several search sites to find the information they're after, said Infoseek.
The introduction of Express heralds a changing role for Infoseek as it heads towards the November rollout of a joint Net directory site with Disney. That site, slated to be called the Go Network, will feature content from Disney's properties, which include ABC television and ESPN sports. The Infoseek brand will be de-emphasized in favor of the new Go moniker, and Infoseek will focus primarily on the site's search functions, which will retain the Infoseek name.
