Intel says it will soon begin integrating some major networking functions onto its PC chipsets.

Company officials at last week's Intel Developer Forum described plans to separate and integrate one of two main portions of a stand-alone Ethernet-based 10/100-Mbit/s chip - the media-access controller - into the PC core logic.

The other major portion of an Ethernet-based chip - the physical-layer device - would be separated and integrated in a stand-alone board called a riser card, which is installed in a simple PCI slot in the PC.

A complete report can be found at www.techweb.com.