Intel Takes on AMD in Chinese Internet Cafes

Intel has teamed up with a Taiwanese motherboard vendor to tap China’s burgeoning Internet cafe market, on the heels of a similar announcement earlier this year by rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Intel China and Elitegroup Computer Systems are taking the battle to system administrators at Chinese Internet cafes, offering the latest version of Intel’s network management software designed for Net cafes, as well as motherboards with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo chips on board.

The chip maker’s Intel Platform Administrator software, IPAT 3.0 with support for Core 2 Duo, was designed to create a more secure, stable network at Internet cafes, with extras such as game management. The software is the first product developed by researchers at an Intel lab in China, designed for Chinese users, the company said in a statement.

Elitegroup will provide the motherboards.

The announcement follows a deal between Advanced Micro Devices (China) and China’s third-largest computer vendor, Tsinghua Tongfang, earlier this year. In April, the two companies shook hands on a pact to sell PCs based on AMD chips to Internet cafes throughout China.

There are more than 120,000 Internet cafes in China, requiring about 6 million PCs, according to Elitegroup. Although the market may not seem huge, nearly a third of China’s 123 million Internet users log on via Net cafes at least part of the time, according to official number cruncher, the China Internet Network Information Center.

Intel and Elitegroup will host a series of meetings in cities throughout China to demonstrate and sell the new products, starting with Wuhan, on Sept. 15, they said. They also plan to work with Net cafe owners to help them find ways to use the products to cut costs and improve their business.

-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)

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