Intel Corp. plans to focus unprecedented attention on one of the more obscure components of personal computers when it launches its newest chip set next month.
The attention follows a fundamental shift in Intel's product marketing strategy, in which the world's largest chip maker has said it will focus less on the speed of the chips and more on the features and user benefits of the Intel platform.
Chip sets - groups of integrated circuits that work together as humble gatekeepers for data coming into and out of the core of the PC - have tended to miss out on the media and marketing attention paid to the brains of the operation, the microprocessor.
Microprocessors, like Intel's Pentium 4 or Itanium 2 chips, are more visible because they control how fast the PC can run, and consequently have gotten the media attention and millions of Intel's advertising dollars.
Intel's newest chip set, code-named Grantsdale, will be pitched as one of the stars of the show as the importance of PC speed gives way to multimedia and communications features.
To be released by the end of June, Grantsdale has been upgraded with more powerful sound and graphics, an ability to turn a PC into a wireless access point, and a speedier link for peripherals and memory.