CNN - Race is on to build a cheaper PC

Race is on to build a cheaper PC

April 5, 1996
Web posted at: 11:00 p.m. EST

From Correspondent Brian Nelson

SAN JOSE, California (CNN) -- There has been plenty of talk in recent months about a new generation computer. The machine of the future is a $500 network computer that designers say could relegate the Microsoft-dominated PC to second-class status.

This week, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made it clear that, as far as he's concerned, the PC is here to stay and will only get better.

Proclaiming the personal computer's convergence with the television, Gates recently outlined his Simply Interactive Personal Computer before a gathering of software developers in San Jose. (1M QuickTime movie)

As Gates explained it, the SIPC will be a simple machine that can be turned on instantly with no boot-up time. It will become as common as a telephone and the centerpiece of entertainment and communications in the home, delivering high quality digital sound and pictures.

"We would like to make it as easy as just plugging in a disk to watch a movie, listen to music, even have the PC keep track of what your favorites are," Gates said. "You can just pick your mood and have it do the right thing, and in fact, deliver that to whatever room that you happen to be in."

Microsoft says leading computer makers Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Intel have endorsed the concept. Toshiba has gone a step further by building an early prototype destined for family living rooms. Toshiba's machine is a small standard personal computer built around a new digital video disc player.

Gateway 2000 recently introduced a high-quality, big-screen television called Destination. The company claims it has the intelligence of a computer, but with a minimum price tag of $4,000, it's not likely to start showing up in living rooms anytime soon.

Gates acknowledges that PCs need to become more affordable, not less. Already, the Microsoft PC world is being challenged by a $500 "network" computer, promoted by a Gates' rival, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison.

For $500, Ellison says, consumers would also get high quality music and video and Internet connections by going through large networks. Theoretically, there would be no need for expensive CD-ROMs, disk drives or Microsoft software, for that matter.

But before companies can begin mass marketing their wonder machines, they will need to overcome the need for wider bandwidths -- that is, a bigger pipeline -- to bring all that digital data into the home. And that may not happen until the turn of the century.

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Race is on to build a cheaper PC

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