PCs and Portables Fuel Office Productivity.

Much of the growth in the European IT market is being fuelled by small businesses in all sectors right across Europe. Small enterprises are now investing significantly more in their high-tech futures, leading to a narrowing of the traditional IT chasm between large and small firms. Goran Strandberg, Cisco Systems_ European director of marketing for small and medium business, says "Small businesses can now use technology to secure an inexpensive global presence and compete effectively with their larger cousins." The significance of this trend is reflected in the fact that many companies exhibiting at CeBIT are targeting small and medium businesses far more than in the past and visitors will find more products aimed at this market than in the past. The good news for all visitors is that the rule whereby computers roughly double in power and capacity every 18 months continues to hold true. Competition among PC manufacturers also means that the $1000 PC is now commonplace and with PC prices in the US down below $400 excluding monitors CeBIT visitors should see some new price points appear in the European market. Visitors can expect to see many PCs based on Intel_s latest processors which were launched in January. The new Celeron processors - at 400 MHz and 366 MHz - will mean both Intel and the PC makers will have some explaining to do to visitors as to the real differences between Celeron- and Pentium II-based PCs. Intel also recently announced the latest additions to its Pentium II Xeon processor family with three new 450-MHz versions. The new processors incorporate 512KB, 1MB and 2MB of Level 2 cache resepctively. The cache runs at the same speed as the processors, giving them a major performance advantage over standard Pentium II processors. CeBIT visitors looking for servers or workstation products should find some new and exciting products in this area. Harder to spot will be signs of Intel_s new 64-bit Merced processor. Last year at CeBIT Intel was promising much for Merced but delivery dates for the processor seem to be slipping badly and it could be CeBIT 2000 before we see real products. Watch out too for announcements from Intel_s competitors such as AMD, IBM and Motorola, who often use CeBIT for major European product launches.