The "extended PC era" has come to the Middle East and is seting the stage for a future in which more consumer products go digital and interconnect with powerful home PCs, says Intel Corporation.

"The PC is at the centre of the digital universe and the universe is expanding," said Gilbert Lacroix, general manager of Intel Middle East, adding that in the near future one billion PCs will be connected to the Internet. "In the extended PC era, the combination of powerful and versatile Intel Pentium 4 processor-based PCs and a vast array of digital products will help consumers use their home PCs and the Internet in new, exciting ways. This emerging consumer scenario is what we call PC x, the PC to the power of X."

Intel recently introduced the Pentium 4 processor at 1.7 GHz, the company's highest performance microprocessor desktop computers. "As digital consumer devices evolve, they will migrate toward more of the PCs' capabilities and blend into the PC environment, enhancing and extending the home PC," said Lacroix. "In the extended PC era, the home PC will be tasked to do even more and consumers will be at the centre of their own Internet experiences."

The PC will deliver Internet video and audio throughout the home, while at the same time adding value to digital consumer products that take advantage of its unrivalled ability to edit, manage, store and share content in and around the home. "As the most powerful microprocessor for desktop computing, the Pentium 4 processor-based PC is ideally suited to be at the centre of the extended PC era today and in the future," explained Lacroix.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker is also a leading manufacturer of computer networking and communications products.