SHANGHAI, China, June 8, 2004 – Working to develop the next generation of interactive entertainment solutions for the burgeoning online industry in China, Intel Corporation and Shanda Networking today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate on software development for the digital home. The MOU outlines efforts the companies will undertake to advance interactive gaming and digital entertainment in the home.

China’s online gaming and entertainment industry is growing robustly, with industry analyst firm IDC estimating up to 54 million gamers by 2008. In addition, IDC predicts the existence of more than 187 million Internet users in China by 2008. Cooperation by Intel and Shanda is focused on developing rich, online content for digital homes based on Intel client and server technologies.