Bangalore: The world's largest chipmaker, Intel Corp today (Nov 19, 2004) said that personal computers would continue to dominate as more applications get digitised, even as low cost access devices like Simputer would play a small role in computer penetration across the world.

"There is an opportunity obviously for dedicated devices, but every time this opportunity comes up, the great flexibility and capabilities of personal computers tends to trump the dedicated devices," Intel CEO Craig R Barrett said at a the CEO forum organised by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) in Bangalore.

He cited Simputer, developed by IISc (Indian Institute of Science) professors in Bangalore as one of the low cost access devices, which will have a role in computer penetration, but was bullish on the PC for its ability to handle more applications.

"Yes, you can in a dedicated device take a digital photos or digital music, but can it do the applications you want to," Barrett, who is the Chairman designate for Intel said.

He said hardware manufacturers globally were operating on thin margins producing the computers and cost differences were minimal with a high performance PC available in India for several hundred Dollars.

Barrett said that the healthcare industry offered tremendous opportunities for the semiconductor industry, as "healthcare was the one of the last industries to make good use of IT".

He said that the transistor in the chips that are currently produced are smaller than virus, blood cells and cancer cells and "using the processing real time can help trace elements of diseases in the early stages".