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Speaking in Lisbon at the signing of Classmate deal with the Portuguese Government, Intel chairman Craig Barrett told reporters that the company was upbeat on demand prospects for low-cost computers and broadband wireless systems.

"We gave a relatively upbeat business forecast, saying that despite the economic problems in the US our business is so international that we didn't see any slowdown in the PC market,"

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he said.

Apart from broadband wireless, and the next generation of low-cost computers, Intel also remains bullish about the introduction of more digital capability in health care.

"There's a huge opportunity to use it not just in the back-office but in remote diagnostics," he added.

Antitrust case

Barret also took a backhanded swipe at the EU competition case it is currently fighting against AMD: "It looks as the market is functioning as it should, because every year consumers are getting more for less. We continue to say that, please just look at the facts, don't just listen to a competitor complaint," he said.

The European Commission issued additional charges against Intel earlier this month, saying the US company had paid a retailer to refrain from selling computers loaded with AMD processors.

Last year, the Commission accused Intel of giving computer makers rebates to limit their use of rival AMD's chips or avoid them altogether.