Announced at the Asia-Pacific Intel Developer Forum (APAC IDF) Fall 2002, held in Taipei from October 14-15, the alliance consists of 12 Asian IT companies - Asustek Computer, Compal Electronics, First International Computer (FIC), Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry), Gigabyte Technology, Inventec, Micro-Star International (MSI), Mitac International, LG Electronics, Quanta Computer, Samsung and Wistron.
To push the cooperation forward, Intel recently offered its PC manufacturing partners a “Desktop and Mobile Platform Vision” guide, which stresses the most critical issues in current system product markets, such as wireless communications and extended battery life. As an aid for the hardware makers when designing products, the guide will be updated annually to meet market needs, Intel said.
According to the chip giant, a prototype product based on the alliance concept will be launched in 2003. In the future, the efforts will be extended to the handheld device market.
Though Intel will not participate in production, it appears that the company is still trying to establish its influence by leading the architecture development of systems products. However, as PC products have become highly standardized, it will be a challenge for PC manufacturers to develop diverse products while following Intel's guidelines.
Source: DigiTimes