Only a few hours after Intel announced it would release a specification for a comms riser card, a group of vendors including AMD and Via announced their alternative. The advanced communications riser special interest group (ACRSiG) includes AMD, Acer, 3Com, Via, Nvidia, Lucent, Motorola, Conexant, and Texas Instruments among its members. The SiG will work to produce a riser to open standards for analogue modems, Ethernet, phoneline networking, DSL, audio and wireless networking, it said. The specification will define a physical design and interfaces for the riser. The move doesn't entirely leave Intel on its own with its specification, but the question must be why everyone doesn't just chip in together. For example, Motorola, like the Collosus at Rhodos, manages to have a foot on each side of the harbour. ® See also Intel unveils cunning network mobo plan