Intel predicts bright future for laptops

Sales of laptop PCs will outpace desktops by 2009, according to Intel chief executive Paul Otellini.

New mobile interactive devices, and the technologies and internet access to support them, will revolutionise the world as we know it, Otellini told the ninth annual Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame event last week.

Advances in transistor technology that serve as the basis of all computing have transformed the world over the past 60 years, Otellini said.

The first transistor in 1947 could be held in the palm of a hand, but 400 transistors can now fit on the surface of a single red blood cell.

"If these same size and price reductions were applied to today's largest purchases, it would take a microscope to find your house, and the price of a new car would be less than US$.01," said Otellini.

While one billion people currently have access to connected computers, Intel is working aggressively to support technologies that will connect the second and the third billion users, and to accomplish this goal on a worldwide scale.

Bernard Daines, father of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, and James LeVoy Sorenson, medical device pioneer, were inducted into the UTC Hall of Fame at the event last week.