Reports are reaching The Register that Sun's Scott McNealy and Intel's Craig Barrett are in preliminary talks over the future of chip technology. According to our source, Barrett is going behind the scenes in an attempt to persuade Sun to adopt some elements of Intel technology in its product line-up. Although Microsoft is understood to be furious at the discussions, the reports suggest that Intel is prepared to weather that particular storm. And in other sheer speculation, some folk are wondering if Sun and Dell might not cosy up together... ®