Intel, SAP team on e-commerce

The US chip colossus and German business application software powerhouse said that together they intended to rocket the progress of the sector through a joint venture called Pandesic.

Craig Barrett, president and chief operating officer of Intel, said that the firms would provide "the consuming public [with] the thrill of electronic commerce".

Paul Wahl, CEO of SAP America, said that e-commerce would cut across barriers into small and medium-sized enterprises: "We don't make a lower limit anymore. The Net is an opportunity to go into [new] markets."

"A couple of years ago we had product that started with a 'P'," said Intel's Barrett. "People said it sounds like a toothpaste. Hopefully, in two years, the Pandesic name will be a name like Pentium is in high-performance processors."