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The 'grand prize' winner of the Intel Core Processor Challenge - to 'evolve the "big, beige box" and help bring to market more stylish, small, quiet and cool-running PCs perfect for any room in the home' - will receive $300,000 to help enable the mass production of the winning system and $400,000 to finance Intel-backed marketing. The 'first-place winner' (whoever comes second!) will receive up to $300,000 to help enable the mass production of their system.

Philip Schiller, Apple's VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, was at Intel's Developer Forum yesterday and must have been tempted to suggest that Intel need look no further than Apple's Mac mini for its 'sexy, stylish and small' computer. However the compact Mac lacks the Core2Duo processor and ViiV

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technology required of the winner.

As a result, the competition has already been dubbed as 'the search for the Mac mini killer', although the iMac is arguably Apple's core machine in the home multimedia market.

Naturally, Intel's call to arms makes no mention of Apple, even if it sounds like it could have come from an Apple press release.

'Our intent with the Intel Core Processor Challenge is to think outside of the box - think sexy, small and sleek PCs optimised for multimedia entertainment - and we're putting our money where our mouth is,' said Eric Kim, general manager, Intel's Digital Home Group.

'Consumers today make home PC purchase decisions based on more than just price and features; they also consider the size, shape and style. Ultimately we want to see more stylish and smaller PCs that have the performance and power efficiency thanks to Intel Core 2 Duo processors, as well as the essential multimedia capabilities that Intel Viiv technology delivers, making them a great entertainment system for any room in the home.'

For ore information about the competition see intel.com/idf/corechallenge.htm.