  The spectrometer SPI, one of the two main instruments of the INTEGRAL
spacecraft, offers significant gamma-ray burst detection capabilities. In its
35 deg (full width) field of view SPI is able to localise gamma-ray bursts at a
mean rate of ~ 0.8/month. With its large anticoincidence shield of 512 kg of
BGO crystals SPI is able to detect gamma-ray bursts quasi omni-directionally
with a very high sensitivity. Burst alerts of the anticoincidence shield are
distributed by the INTEGRAL Burst Alert System. In the first 8 months of the
mission about 0.8/day gamma-ray burst candidates and 0.3/day gamma-ray burst
positions were obtained with the anticoincidence shield by interplanetary
network triangulations with other spacecrafts.
