NEW YORK - Intel Corp.'s push to create and boost new categories of small, cheap Internet-connected devices is taking the world's largest chip maker in some unusual directions.
 
It's investing in wireless networks, or even buying them outright. It's relying on software that isn't from Microsoft. And it's looking at making processors cheaper and smaller rather than faster and faster.

To Chief Executive Paul Otellini, it's all part of bringing the Internet to new places and people, and computer makers are responding.

"I've not seen energy like this from our customers in a long, long time," Otellini told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "Everyone views this as being sort of hyperexpansive to the existing market."

A centerpiece of the strategy is the Atom processor, which packs the power of a PC-class processor from six years ago into the smallest space yet — 25 Atoms will fit on a square inch. It's intended for Mobile Internet Devices — iPhone-like tablets that provide a "full" Internet experience, better than that available on cell phones. More at Yahoo.