Personal Technology

hile they can't leap tall buildings in a single bound or reverse time by spinning the world in the opposite direction, processors-the bundles of circuitry that power desktop computers-recently became Super Silicon.

The two leading processor makers, Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), recently revved their chips to 1 gigahertz, or 1,000 megahertz. AMD beat its rival on the road race by first announcing its 1 gigahertz unit, the Athlon. Intel followed a few steps behind by revealing a speedier Pentium III just days later. "This is a significant milestone for the industry," says Gary Bixler, field-marketing manager at AMD.

At first, the professional users who always need more speed will flock to purchase computers equipped with the high-speed chips, says George Alfs, a spokesman for Intel. These professionals, often known as "power users," tend to work with mapping, modeling and imaging applications.

"Power users need all the processing power they can get," Alfs says. "They'll snap up these systems immediately."

But how much power is too much? Do desktop computers now need capes and red briefs? Spokesmen for two leading computer vendors, Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc., say different users will gravitate to different machines.

For instance, agencies that tend to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to technology might be more interested in the low-cost 500 megahertz to 600 megahertz systems on the market. These systems will cost around $600, Alfs says. "Users will be getting a heck of a lot of performance with these systems and will be ready for the next two to three years for any software that comes along."

Agencies with rigid lifecycle management strategies or those that want the best bang for their bucks might choose computers in what is known as the "sweet spot." A sweet spot reflects the current best value for price combined with speed. The sweet spot takes advantage of new discounts for processors that months before were on the "bleeding edge."

Right now, AMD, Intel and Dell say the sweet spot is reflected by systems equipped with processors running at between 700 and 800 megahertz. Gateway agrees: "The bulk of activity in the government space is occurring in the 700 to 800 megahertz range," says Jay Lambke, Gateway's vice president of government sales. This is more than enough power for users who tend to employ standard desktop automation tools, the companies say. "Right now it's the best mix of performance and price," says Bixler.

But soon, possibly by late summer-the height of the federal government information technology buying season-1 gigahertz systems may in fact drop down in price to a range where they are the best options for price and performance. At that time, the 1.2 gigahertz processor may be king.

Hardware

IBM Offers Miniature Hard Drive

IBM Corp. recently announced a miniature hard drive that is slightly bigger than a postage stamp. The drive, which could offer functionality to government executives with multiple offices, is appropriately named the Microdrive. It can hold 340 megabytes of data. By the end of the year, IBM expects that to increase to 1 gigabyte.

The drive is inserted into a card slot that is standard on notebooks and available on some desktops. The drive is currently used for file storage. But later this summer, IBM will release software that enables a Microdrive to hold the full image of a desktop. This means users could store all their most important data, user settings and applications in a Microdrive and move from computer to computer, always having the same desktop in their pocket.

Getting Bit by a Shark

Shark Multimedia Inc., a Freemont, Calif., company that makes networking products for notebooks, is offering a special deal for government customers. The company has discounted its offerings by 50 percent.

Shark's products are just three and a half inches long and less than an inch thick-specifications that company vice president Neal Greenberg says are ideal for mobile users.

Shark offers a 56 kilobit/second modem for Internet or remote dial-in applications, an Ethernet adapter for local area networking, and a hub that expands a single notebook port into three.

All three products use Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology. And because notebooks tend to come with a single USB port for peripheral devices, such a hub could prevent cabling nightmares. Plus, more companies are offering USB devices. Shark's USB hub enables a user to attach an external mouse, monitor and keyboard and use them all at the same time.

Government customers can order the products directly from Shark or through General Services Administration schedule-holder Ocean Interface Co. Inc., a Walnut, Calif., computer hardware vendor.