Intel Free Press

Touchy Subject: Touchscreens on Laptops

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:36:22 GMT

Research Findings Challenge the Conventional Wisdom about PC Touchscreens

Participants in the study were given a laptop with a simulation of the touch-friendly Windows 8 environment. (Flickr photo)

Touch made smartphones easy to use. Touch turned tablet computers from a novelty into a multi-billion-dollar market. But touch on a laptop? That's a touchy subject -- if you listen to conventional wisdom.

Tapping away on a vertical screen all day could be "painful," causing users to develop aching "gorilla arms," some experts warn. Even the late Steve Jobs once said Apple had no plans to add touch to its laptops: "Touchscreens don't want to be vertical," he said at the MacBook launch in 2010. "It's ergonomically terrible."

Yet conventional wisdom didn't stop Gary Richman and his team at Intel's PC client solutions division from diving deeper into the concept of bringing touch to laptops.

"A Gut Reaction"

"I just thought that touch on a notebook might be kind of cool," Richman said. "It was a gut reaction on my part."

That feeling grew as the team grew to understand that Microsoft's focus for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system was "touch first, touch first."

"People were getting more and more accustomed to touch on phones and on tablets, yet here everyone was saying 'we all know' that touch on a vertical plane didn't make sense," Richman said.

So he enlisted team member Daria Loi -- a user experience manager -- to test the "no touch on laptops" rule in the real world.

"We felt that if we don't explore this and challenge the conventional wisdom, years from now notebooks will end up being your grandfather's PC," Richman said.

Testing the No-Touch Rule

Loi set up focus groups in Chicago and Milan in her native Italy. The focus group members were ordinary computer users from all walks of life. They were given regular laptops that had been outfitted with touchscreens and a simulation of the touch interface of the Windows 8 "Metro" OS.

Over a couple hours, the participants were told to go through a number of common computer scenarios, including formatting a picture, creating a PowerPoint presentation and even resetting the Wi-Fi connection. They had the option of using the touchscreen, the mouse, the track pad or the laptop's keyboard. Participants were allowed to make whatever choice best suited their needs.

"We weren't doing it to prove whether one mode was better than another," Loi said. "We had no preconceived ideas."

But the results were "astonishing," she said. More than 77 percent of the time, the focus group participants chose to use touch for the various tasks assigned to them.

"As soon as I reviewed my tracking documents, there was no ambiguity about users' strong preference for touch -- I was blown away," Loi said.

A Hit with Focus Groups

"Wow, this is easy!" said "Pamela" from Chicago. "It's almost reading your mind," she said of the touch interface. "You think of it and you do it. Just touch it."

Another tester, "Betty," said, "I like the scrolling because you can just kind of flick your hand and go quicker."

Loi recalled that one user, an older man, said he had never used a touch interface before.

"He was telling me how long it had taken him to learn how to use a mouse and a trackpad," Loi said. "It had been a very frustrating experience for him to learn how to use these devices. 'This is so easy,' he said. 'I'm amazed at how quickly I'm learning.'"

"Simpatico!"

In her studies, Loi said people approached the touchscreen in a variety of ways. They didn't try to touch a "vertical" screen, but instead adjusted the laptop screen so that it was at a comfortable angle. They often held the screen with two hands, using their thumbs to touch buttons on the bottom and sides of a screen. It was almost as if the laptop was a giant cell phone.

Participants in an Intel user experience research study enjoyed using touch interfaces on a laptop. (Flickr photo)

One woman in the Milan focus group said that interacting with the notebook via touch was "simpatico."

"I found this very telling," Loi said, noting that "simpatico" is a term used in Italy to describe a level of affinity between people, not between person and technology."

In practice, it meant that touch had turned a boring, run-of-the-mill laptop from a "work" device to a "play" device that encouraged people to interact with it in a variety of ways.

What about the dreaded "gorilla arms?" When asked about fatigue, no one said that was a problem.

"I believe it's actually healthier for your wrist," said "Heidi" from Chicago. Pointing at the touchscreen she said, "Here you are moving other muscles. I think that's good for the body."

Worth the Higher Price, Testers Say

Though touch was rated overwhelmingly positive, Loi noted that didn't mean the participants were ready to ditch all other forms of interaction. Most of the testers preferred to enter text on a keyboard, for example.

One last point: When informed that a touchscreen would add to the price of a laptop, most of the testers said they'd be willing to pay "substantially" more for the feature.

One Chinese tester said that he would love to be the first in his office to have a touch Ultrabook, saying it would make him look tech-savvy and cutting edge.

Changing Intel's Plans

Encouraged by the results, Loi went back to the field and ran the study in Brazil and China -- each with familiar results; the majority of focus group participants loved touch on a laptop.

Intel's Mooly Eden referenced the study in his keynote address at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

"People naturally use touch to swipe, expand and manipulate pictures and images directly on screen," said Eden, now president and general manager of Intel Israel. "And, so, touchscreen Ultrabooks will begin showing up in the market this year."

Armed with these new findings, Intel is now stressing that touch can actually be a competitive advantage on Ultrabook devices -- and the industry is listening.

Erik Reid, general manager of Intel's mobile client platforms said, "This research was very valuable to Intel's larger business objectives. It enabled us to talk to OEMs about a new compelling usage for Ultrabooks."

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Intel Goes Solar in Vietnam

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:43:28 GMT

Vietnam's Largest Solar Facility Joins Israel Installation as Second Intel Solar Array Outside U.S.

The solar array atop the Vietnam Assembly and Test Factory in Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest operating solar facility in Vietnam. (Flickr photo)

The largest operating solar power plant in Vietnam recently was installed at Intel's Saigon Hi-Tech Park facility in Ho Chi Minh City. The 1,092 high-efficiency photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Vietnam Assembly and Test Factory came online in April. The system is expected to generate about 321,000 kWh per year that will be consumed directly by the factory, reducing the flow from the local electrical grid.

The facility's opening coincided with the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) list of Top 50 Green-Powered Organizations, which ranks organizations that use clean, renewable electricity from a variety of sources including solar. Intel has topped the list every year since 2008. Other technology companies on the latest ranking include Microsoft (ranked 3rd), Cisco (16th), Dell (41st) and Google (48th). According to the EPA, Intel uses more than 2.5 billion kWh of green power annually, which comes from solar and other Green-e certified sources such as wind and geothermal.

The solar installation at Intel's Folsom, Calif. location is the company's largest, sprawling across 5.5 acres and generating more than 1,000 kWh annually. (Flickr)

"In the past 4 years, we've 'overdoubled' the [Green power] purchases we've made," said Marty Sedler, Intel's director of global utilities and infrastructure. "Currently, we are buying 2.8 billion kWh annually and that is estimated to be more than 88 percent of our U.S. energy use."

Solar sites converting sunlight to electricity are located at 15 Intel sites within four states, Israel and, now, Vietnam. Sunlight also heats nearly 100 percent of the water used in the Bangalore, India facilities. Intel estimates that the solar installations at its facilities generate 5.5 million kWh annually.

The lead position Intel has established in use of green power is strategic according to Sedler.

"Long term, our efforts are intended to help spur the renewable energy market, making them cheaper and more available," he said. "This will, in turn, result in lowering the cost of power and reducing the overall carbon emissions from electric generation."

Intel's use of green power has increased significantly since 2008 when it purchased 1.3 billion kWh of green energy. By 2010, 50 percent of the company's U.S. power was from green sources and that jumped to nearly 88 percent in 2011. By contrast, Microsoft, which made its first appearance on the EPA list in 2012 and recently pledged to go carbon neutral in 2013, draws 46 percent of its electricity from green sources.

Though solar power fulfills a modest percentage of Intel's total electricity needs, solar installations provide tangible evidence of the company's commitment to renewable energy, according to Sedler.

"Solar is something you can see, touch and feel," he said. "With energy, we're not trying to find one single approach to sustainability. We take a portfolio approach and solar is part of that. But there's also conservation and efficiency efforts at all sites worldwide, LEED buildings, investments in green tech and making our products more energy efficient. As times change, we'll make changes to our portfolio, continuing to optimize the opportunities. Diversifying our energy supplies across the world will continue to be a priority for Intel."

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Turkey Bets on Tech, Youth to Grow Economy

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:02:45 GMT

A Young, Internet-Savvy Population and Government Investment In Educational Technology Boost Economic Prospects

Two young Muslim women in Istanbul compute while having lunch. Photo courtesy of Chris Schuepp. (Flickr photo)

Turkey was Europe's fastest-growing economy last year, expanding by more than 8 percent for the second consecutive year. Although that brisk pace is projected to slow this year, by about 3 percent, the government has ambitions to become one of the world's top 10 economies by 2023 when the Republic of Turkey will celebrate its centennial. To get there, the government is betting big on technology to educate the country's youth. Today, 65 percent of the population is younger than 24, and the nation's leaders see this as a competitive advantage that will drive Turkey's growth.

"Turkey is a very young society, where adoption of new things can be quicker than other societies," said Anastasia Ashman, an author and Berkeley, Calif.-native who moved to Istanbul in 2003 and recently returned to the U.S. "One early adopter can get a group or whole family into a new thing almost overnight," she said, adding that this behavior is driving quick adoption of computers, smartphones and Facebook.

The average Internet user in Turkey spends more than 32 hours online each month. The nation ranks as the third-most Internet-engaged country in Europe according to ComScore, after the U.K. and the Netherlands. "In fact, Turkey has the 12th-highest Internet usage in the world with more than 27 million users," said Aydin Burak, Intel manager for Turkey.

Those users have a voracious appetite for Internet content, consuming an average of 3,706 Web pages per month, more than any other country in Europe, according to 2011 ComScore data. Many of those pages are on Facebook, which accounts for more than 28 percent of the entire time Turkey's populace is online -- more than threefold the time spent on either Google or Microsoft sites.

With more people able to afford a PC, sales grew from 1 million units in 2003 to 5.5 million units in 2011 and are projected to reach 13.8 million units in 2015. (Flickr photo)

People in Turkey "picked up Facebook to connect with others, to be part of the crowd and not miss out or get left behind," Ashman said, adding that's where they were seeing news and photos of what their friends and family did the night before." Facebook, she added, was the reason some people got their first PC. "Grandparents had to get on to Facebook because they value very deeply what's happening, and like staying up on things," she said. "Facebook keeps their finger on the pulse."

Although Facebook dominates, it's the not the only popular social platform in Turkey, which ComScore ranks as the world's fourth-most socially engaged nation. There are more than 7 million Twitter users in Turkey, including President Abdullah Gül who has nearly 2 million followers.

Facebook may be driving first-time PC purchases, but today the typical family in Turkey has multiple computers, according to Stefania Lorenz director of research at IDC. "The main use is for education, gaming, entertainment and social with more tech-savvy people moving to smartphones," she said.

"Awareness of new devices is very high and being connected is highly valued," said Ashman. She says that in the past few years, people have become more tolerant of others checking their smartphone or grabbing their laptop while in family or a social setting. "People used to complain, but not anymore," Ashman said. "They see the value in devices and are eager to get tips from people on how to get more out of their technologies."

Lorenz said that more than 70 percent of the PCs sold in Turkey are notebook computers. "Netbooks are still in place, but dropping from the amount sold in 2010, and tablets are not yet that popular," she said.

Turkey's growing middle class is finding technology to be more affordable and more essential in their daily lives. According to data from Intel, people living in Eastern Europe paid the equivalent of nearly 48 weeks of work for a new PC in 1995. In 2010, that dropped to 5 weeks and a new PC in 2014 is expected to cost just more than the equivalent of 2 weeks of work. With more people able to afford a PC in Turkey, sales have grown from 1 million units in 2003 to 5.5 million units in 2011, and Aydin expects to see 13.8 million units sell in 2015.

A crowd gathers at 5:00 a.m. for the opening of the first Media Markt electronics store in Istanbul, Turkey.(Flickr photo)

Familiar multinational brands such as HP, Asus, LG and Lenovo are popular in Turkey, but people also buy from local PC makers such as Kesfer, Achi and Expherf. Aydin said that most people purchase PCs directly from small channel stores, but that more are turning to relatively new electronics stores that include Electromart and Technolia.

The government's big bet on educational technology for Turkey's 18 million students gets underway this year. The so-called "Fatih" project is a 4-year program with a goal of training tens of thousands of teachers in schools across the county, equipping educators with laptops and providing tablet computers for students plus cloud computing infrastructure and interactive whiteboards for classrooms. The education initiative could bring 15 million tablet computers to the country, according to one forecast from Invest in Turkey.

Aydin believes Turkey's people -- the world's 17th largest population -- and its location at the crossroads between Europe and Asia will help turn it into a top 10 global economy.

"Our young population plus a growing middle class are keeping us in a favorable position, and our government policies are helping," he said. "But we will have to diversify our economy and diverge from depending too much on Europe."

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Intel CIO on the Business Value of IT

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:27:29 GMT

One on One with Kim Stevenson, the Leader of Intel's Information Technology Organization

As CIO, Kim Stevenson leads an IT organization of more than 6,500 employees located across 54 different sites. What's Stevenson's No. 1 job? Keeping Intel, and its more than 75,000 servers, almost 30,000 handhelds and over 100,000 PCs online and running.

Stevenson succeeded Diane Bryant as Intel's CIO in January, and like Bryant before her is one of only 24 women CIOs at Fortune 100 companies. Before taking on the role, Stevenson was vice president and general manager of Intel's global IT operations and services. Prior to joining the company in 2009, she spent 7 years at the former EDS, now HP enterprise services, and 18 years at IBM.

Recently, Stevenson discussed her role at Intel, including common misconceptions about IT, if employees should be permitted to stream content, the potential for voice-activated content services and the "unruly productivity" of the Intel culture.

As CIO, Kim Stevenson leads Intel's IT organization of more than 6,500 employees located across 54 different sites that is tasked with keeping more than 75,000 servers, almost 30,000 handhelds and over 100,000 PCs online and running. (Flickr photo)

What do you think is the biggest misperception about IT at Intel?

A lot of people think we just do PC refreshes. The reality is that IT is involved in every business process that gets executed at Intel. Employees wouldn't get their paychecks deposited electronically if it weren't for IT being able to develop and run those systems. We're in the backend making sure the factory automation systems run all the time, making sure intel.com is up for the world to see, making sure AppUp is available when customers want to download Angry Birds. We're here to support the entire business.

What do employees see in their daily lives that IT has the most impact on?

One of the most interesting things that many employees take advantage of is that we in IT allow you to stream in content. The No. 1 thing streamed in from the outside is Pandora.

A lot of companies block things like Facebook and Pandora. But we believe that if you need to listen to music to focus and do your job, you're probably going to be more productive. So we say bring it in, stream it in, listen to Pandora, do a better job for Intel.

At Intel, there's a goal for each IT employee to spend at least a day shadowing an Intel employee. How does that support better user experiences and boost productivity?

It ranges from calling the TAC [Technical Assistance Center, the primary support group within IT] to see what it's like to deal with a PC issue to shadowing one of our main users. I had this discussion recently with our iPass team. iPass is a network aggregator; people use it when they need to get a wireless connection at the airport or at a hotel. I had my people go out and actually use iPass in the real world -- the current version is slow and doesn't work so well -- and they got to experience that. Now we're going to implement a much more seamless new version.

It's intended to be a cultural change in the way IT delivers services -- that we have to walk in the shoes of the customer.

The world increasingly relies on social media to stay in touch and communicate. How is Intel staying ahead of the curve?

There are two types of social media. There's the type Intel uses to market Intel --what the Corporate Marketing Group is using -- and that has just taken off and is doing fantastic.

And then there's the internal side of social media -- what are we using within Intel to make ourselves more productive? Our platform is Planet Blue. When we launched that three years ago, I would say we were way ahead of the industry. But this industry is moving really quickly, so now some of the things we have on Planet Blue are not as good as what's out there now.

We're also looking at Siri-like services for the enterprise. Today, you can go on Circuit [the internal Intel employee site] and you can see your sabbatical and the weather in Santa Clara or find a campus. There's no reason why we can't take that content and make it voice activated. It's all available content. We'll probably pilot a couple instances this year -- I'm pushing the team to do that in India and China on the Intel Medfield phones.

Prior to joining Intel in 2009, CIO Kim Stevenson was at the former EDS, now HP enterprise services, for 7 years. Before that, she spent 18 years at IBM. (Flickr photo)

You worked at IBM and EDS for more than 20 years before joining Intel. Why Intel?

I knew a lot of Intel execs because I worked with Intel -- I was the executive sponsor for Intel at EDS. We had been very effective working together as two companies to launch and deploy vPro where EDS was the deployment engine.

I had been selling and delivering infrastructure services for customers and the job title for almost every customer that I had was the VP of IT operations. So for me it was an opportunity to come in and be the customer that I was selling to for the last seven years and live on the other side for awhile.

I liked the company, I liked the culture and I liked the opportunity to be the customer that I had been selling to.

What do you like most about Intel's culture?

There are two things to me that differentiate Intel's culture. One is the embedded notion that we're here to make employees productive. And we see it in IT all the time. Intel has a very employee-friendly culture and inherent in that is a respect for what people do.

The other side is the results orientation. Within my first month, I went to a strategic discussion on corporate security with various management committee members and I had this list of things that we were trying to get accomplished in the meeting.

It was the most unruly meeting I've ever seen. It was lots of ideas chiming in, lots of debate over the point and questioning what you mean by that. And very lively, very active, very high energy.

I left that meeting and I thought that was unruly. And then I went through my list of points that we were supposed to get accomplished and I said "Oh, we got that one done, we got that one done, we got that one done." And so I coined it "unruly productivity." There are a lot of meetings like that at Intel -- unruly, but productive.

Intel hasn't been known for bringing in many senior people from outside the company, so what's been the key to your success?

I think it's partly that I did know a bit about the company before I came in and had worked with some [Intel] people. But I also had a boss, Diane Bryant, who actively cloaked me with her credibility. She made a big effort to introduce me to different people in the company and give me the opportunity to attend meetings where I really didn't add a lot of value.

We often hire smart people and then we say "You're a smart person, go off and do your smart things." But I think it's really important that the hiring manager cloaks them with their personal credibility and help them get interjected into parts of the company.

Intel CIO Kim Stevenson, like her predecessor Diane Bryant, is one of only 24 women CIOs at Fortune 100 companies. (Flickr photo)

What are you most proud of accomplishing in your previous role as GM of global IT operations and services?

When I joined we didn't have a lot of baseline metrics and we didn't have a lot of standard process. So everybody was overworked and trying really, really hard to do a great job but had no insight. And one of the things people told me was we want a seat at the table, that we want our voice to be heard when new engineering capabilities are landing on us.

I thought that made complete sense. And I said in order to do that we have to look at why are we so busy and see if we could standardize some process and track our performance in a standardized way. For example, if you want to land a new server in Chandler, Ariz., we now land it the same way in [there] as we do in at the Israel Development Center in Haifa.

Over that 2-year period our performance improved significantly. The number of major incidents where data centers are down or networks are down went down by 75 percent. We were a lot more stable and reliable and we also took in almost twice the volume -- this was a period of time when Intel grew from 80,000 employees to almost 100,000 employees and we acquired 23 companies.

How would you describe your management style and how has it changed over the years?

The one thing that has not changed over the years is that I tend to be the pacesetter for the organization. I have a fairly large appetite for change and evolving and pushing the envelope. And so I'll be the pacesetter to the point that people might have to tell me to slow down on some things. What has changed over the years is I have become a lot more in tune to the dynamics in large groups and the individual aspect of every employee and how to really focus on getting the best out of the employees.

What do you think is the biggest mistake you've made in your career and what did you learn from it?

I've made a lot of mistakes. I would say missed opportunities are probably the biggest mistake. About 5 years ago I was with EDS and a couple of fellows came in to talk to me about cloud computing. I knew what our service delivery model was and I couldn't see the benefit of cloud computing.

We laughed when Amazon Web Services came out. We thought Amazon was in this business because they were financially strapped. We just didn't realize how important that inflection point was.

The reality is non-IT service providers invented the market then and that's the lesson. You can do it even if it's hard or you can wait and someone else will invent your market. We missed the whole market and EDS was bought [by HP]. It wasn't the entire reason we were bought, but it certainly would have helped to have a growth business.

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Intel Puts Jobs in Your Pocket

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:14:34 GMT

Apple iPhone and Google Android 'Jobs at Intel' Mobile Apps Allow Job Seekers to Search Employment Opportunities Worldwide Using Smartphones

Job seekers can search open positions and save search history and favorites using the Jobs at Intel mobile app for Apple iPhone. (Flickr photo)

Facing an ongoing battle to attract top-tier technology talent, Intel has extended employment opportunity discovery to the two dominant mobile platforms. Job seekers can now search open jobs at Intel, for any location worldwide, using an Android or iPhone mobile app.

Available from iTunes and Google Play, the "Jobs at Intel" mobile apps launched in April allow job seekers to search open jobs at the company by title, keyword or location, store search history, save searches and set up job alerts. Those interested in open positions can also interact with Intel employees via Facebook and Twitter and watch "Life at Intel" videos using the apps.

"It puts Intel jobs in your pocket so you can look at them anytime you want," said Teresa Chiappone, program manager for Intel. "The freedom of using a smart device is that it's on your time."

Intel expects that the mobile apps will make discovering opportunities at Intel more convenient, which is crucial in the tech industry where competition for talent is fierce. "There's such a war for talent that almost everyone we want to hire is probably employed right now," said Keith Molesworth, global staffing channels manager for Intel. "We want to be available for them everywhere on every platform they use."

Early in the development process, Intel looked at mobile apps used by other employers for job search and recruiting. Though offerings from technology companies that compete directly for the same employee talent were scant, several other corporations, including AT&T, PepsiCo and Sodexo, became important reference points.

"When we started developing the apps, there weren't any direct talent competitors, but we saw companies that were at the forefront and we wanted to be there as well," Molesworth said. Having a mobile application will soon "become an expectation," he said. "This is going to become standard."

Maintaining a leadership position in the tech industry is important to recruiting top talent, but greater awareness of job opportunities can also change legacy perceptions about the chipmaker, according to Molesworth.

"People think of Intel as a hardware company, but we're one of the larger software employers in the country," he said.

With the first generation now launched, the "Jobs at Intel" app will soon be coming to the iPad, and future versions may allow applicants to apply for jobs from a mobile device.

The Jobs at Intel mobile app for Android phones includes features such as job search and "Life at Intel" videos. (Flickr photo)

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Virtual Medicine Extends Care Anywhere

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:53:04 GMT

Telemedicine Carts Help Deliver Care to Patients in Rural and Remote Locations across Mexico.

A cardiologist at a hospital in Sonora, Mexico engages in a pre-op consultation with a patient and her doctor located 400 miles away in La Paz, Baja California. (Flickr photo)

A few weeks ago, a 70-year-old man showed up at the emergency room of a small Baja California hospital with a cardiac syncope, meaning he suffered a brief loss of consciousness. After performing an EKG and lab analysis, a young general practitioner found a complete blockage of the man's electric impulses to the heart. The patient was in trouble, and so was the doctor.

With no cardiologist on staff or anyone else to turn to, the doctor deployed a high-tech medicine cart loaded with a fast PC and A/V links and dialed up a doctor hundreds of miles away. Moments after the virtual consultation via high-definition video, the patient was put on an external pacemaker that allowed time for a specialist to arrive and install a permanent internal device.

The cart was designed and outfitted by the Mexico-based company Medicina a Distancia. There are now a dozen of the firm's telemedicine carts, called the Medikart, in Mexican hospitals. The carts are designed so that patients not only receive more thorough and immediate care, but also save time and money by being in the same room, so to speak, with medical specialists regardless of where they are actually located. Since the company rolled out its first Medikart in the Baja California town of La Paz in 2010, for example, heart patients of Hospital General de Zona No. 1, for example, only need to make a single trip across the Gulf of California to meet with cardiologists in the state of Sonora.

"We've reached a point where patients are only traveling one time for surgery," said Dr. Carlos Iglesias, CEO of Medicina a Distancia. "The rest is happening in that town."

Besides enabling doctors who are geographically separated to hear and see each other while consulting, patient information such as charts and scans can be shared in seconds. The carts, which run on second-generation Intel Core i7 processors, can be connected to equipment that collects vital patient data and runs medical diagnostic procedures. Information gathered by such devices as a heart monitor, blood pressure machine, thermometer, X-ray machine, CT scanner and ultrasound system can be transmitted as it is being measured, enabling the specialist to view both the patient and data in real time in order to make a fully informed diagnosis and prescribe a treatment plan on the spot. Graphics plays an obvious major role.

The Medikart, designed and outfitted by the Mexico-based company Medicina a Distancia, allows patients to receive more thorough and immediate care regardless of their location. (Flickr photo)

"The highest definition image possible is critical," Iglesias said. "The opinion of the expert depends on the quality of the information. If a clinic is asking if I see a fracture based on a badly pixilated image of an X-ray, I would probably say I see nothing. With a high-quality image, I could perform a diagnosis. I could see calcification."

Iglesias, who performed his last surgery in June 2011 to focus on his fledgling company, said he's now able to help more people than before by, as he puts it, "providing a way to stretch my arm electronically through telemedicine devices."

Iglesias said each successful patient outcome aided by the telemedicine cart reaffirms that he made the right career choice. One that continues to affect him deeply occurred shortly after the first carts made their way into small-town medical facilities in 2010.

On a typically hot Mexican summer day a woman about to give birth was in jeopardy along with her unborn child, Iglesias recalled. The expectant mother's placenta was very low in the uterus and covering her cervix, meaning the full-term baby could be prevented from entering the birth canal properly. The woman was bleeding heavily, and to make matters worse this was happening in a modest-sized clinic that lacked personnel trained for such emergencies. Making the hour's drive to a hospital in Durango was not an option, so with no time to spare the resource-strapped medical team put its trust in the telemedicine cart that had just arrived and was barely out of the box.

Using the Medikart the clinicians communicated with the emergency department at a Mexico City hospital some 550 miles away. The experts guided the clinic's staff through a delivery that could have been fatal without their assistance.

"I truly believe the mother and baby would have died without the cart," Iglesias said. "I'm so happy to say that the mother and the child, now a happy and healthy toddler, are doing well."

Iglesias sees a future beyond the telemedicine cart. Medicina a Distancia is working on a tablet version that, like the cart, will enable doctors in multiple locations to access medical records. The handheld unit, however, will also include such features as a telestrator that allows a doctor to draw a freehand sketch over a moving or still video image -- "like what you see during a football broadcast, only with medicine," Iglesias said. Expected to be in prototype stage soon, the tablet is based on the third-generation Intel Core processor.

"The portable version will consume less power and have enormous capabilities," Iglesias said. "We're building something that can be used in the far reaches of Mexico, Africa, the Amazon -- remote areas where the conditions are not what you would expect for a small clinic.

A cardiac patient and his doctor at a small hospital in Baja California, Mexico consult with a cardiologist at a hospital in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora using the Medikart telemedicine cart. (Flickr photo)

"You could even have a medical consultation under a tree," he added. "Of course, I'd prefer not to provide a consultation under a tree, but my point is it could be done anywhere."

With nearly half of Mexico's populace living in poverty, Iglesias sees a strong need for the products and services Medicina a Distancia provides. He acknowledges that growth has been slow in part to the economy and the fact that his company is new. Another factor is Mexico isn't mentioned in the same breath as other countries when it comes to telemedicine leadership.

"We have a long way to go in that area," said Iglesias, who in 1997 helped launch Mexico's telemedicine network while on the surgical staff at Mexico City's National Autonomous University.

Jonathan Linkous of the American Telemedicine Association said such ventures as Medicina a Distancia are helping Mexico "catch up" with the world's telemedicine leaders.

"The need is certainly there in Mexico," said Linkous, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based organization. "Need often accelerates growth, as we've seen in Brazil, Canada, China and parts of Europe. When it comes to use of a cart or other communications system that links a rural clinic or community health center to a larger facility with specialists, these countries and regions are way ahead of Mexico, and even the United States."

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Connecting with a Real Ivy Bridge

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:20:35 GMT

Chip Designer Searches for Meaning at a 13th Century Landmark

Located in its namesake town, the stone Ivybridge dates to the 13th century and spans the river Erme in southern England's Devon County. (Flickr photo)

Before it officially became the third-generation Core processor, Intel's newest chip was known only by its internal codename, Ivy Bridge. That name inspired Rob Milstrey, an Intel engineer who worked on the chip design, to visit a historic ivy-covered bridge in southern England.

The 13th century stone bridge arches over the river Erme in Devon. According to local legend, it's the first manmade landmark in the area and inspired the town name: Ivybridge.

"I walked across," said Milstrey, who is based in Folsom, Calif. "I looked for plaques or other documenting descriptions, but I didn't find anything."

He continued exploring the town of 12,000, visiting local churches and cemeteries, Ivybridge Community College and nearby Dartmoor National Park.

Milstrey, a lead uncore architect on the third-generation Intel Core processor, takes great pride in his contributions to the microprocessor though they are somewhat overshadowed by other features of the chip such as the 22-nanometer Tri-Gate transistors and integrated graphics engine.

"I focused on adding PCIe Gen 3 logic to the CPU," he said.

The third-generation chips are the first from Intel to integrate Peripheral Component Interconnect Express or PCIe. The addition, which allows faster data transfer than previous generations, was a key aspect of the uncore development. Uncore refers to microprocessor functions that are not in the core, but are essential for core performance.

Although Ivy Bridge and other internal Intel codenames derive from geographic locations in North America, Milstrey was eager to discover an Ivy Bridge-Ivybridge connection in England. Such a connection eluded him until he came upon a bus stop sign that read, "The four corners of the 'Ivy Bridge' originally laid in the parishes of Harford, Ugborough, Ermington and Cornwood."

"There are four big elements of the new processor, too," he said. "The Intel architecture cores, the graphics cores, memory accesses and I/O accesses for which the uncore provides a logical bridge."

Milstrey says that PCIe Gen 3 may not be the most remarkable aspect of the new Intel technology, but it will always be the most memorable and meaningful to him.

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Origin of a Codename: Ivy Bridge

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:38:39 GMT

Selecting Codename for Intel's Next-Generation Core Processors Harder Than Naming Children

What's in a name? Not much if you're talking about the codename for the world's first 22-nanometer processors that use Intel's revolutionary Tri-Gate transistors.

Intel design teams often create their own internal logos on major projects like this one for Ivy Bridge. (Flickr photo)

Groundbreaking as the "Ivy Bridge" chips may be, their codename isn't, according to the man who came up with the initial moniker for Intel's next Core processor family. Ivy Bridge is the internal codename for Intel's third-generation Core processors, the first of which will be unveiled in April.

"You might think there's a lot of meaning behind the name, but the reality is I just tried to find a nice name that could pass the legal test," said Arie Harsat, the strategic planning manager behind several of Intel's prominent codenames including "Yonah," "Merom" and "Sandy Bridge."

Internal Intel codenames derive from existing geographic places in North America. A rare exception is "Sandy Bridge," the codename for Intel's second-generation Core processor. In Intel's so-called "tick-tock" model, "Ivy Bridge" is a "tick," an advance in manufacturing process technology, to the 'tock" that was the "Sandy Bridge" microarchitecture.

To understand how "Ivy Bridge" got its name, it's helpful to look back at how the company came up with "Sandy Bridge." Harsat, who is based in Haifa, Israel, originally named the "Sandy Bridge" microarchitecture "Gesher," the Hebrew word for "bridge." The rationale, which he admits bypassed the geographical criteria for codenames, was that his team was responsible for defining a new generation of microarchitecture, or as Harsat saw it, "a bridge into the future."

However, when an industry analyst pointed out that Gesher is also a former political party in Israel, the codename was changed to the English translation of "Gesher" preceded by "Sandy." Harsat doesn't recall the origin of "Sandy," so it may or may not be a nod to beach sand, the prime ingredient of silicon wafers.

Tasked with naming the successor to "Sandy Bridge," Harsat wanted consistency and a smooth approval process. "Naming products is much harder than it was naming my three kids," he said. Working off "Bridge," Harsat searched for a purely American appellation. He bypassed names that are both Hebraic and a North American geographic location, such as "Dothan" (a city in Alabama), "Yonah" (a mountain in Georgia) and "Merom" (a town in Indiana), all former codenames for Intel mobile chips.

"There are so many places in the U.S. named something Bridge or Bridge something," Harsat said. "I found 'Ivy Bridge' and I said to myself, 'that's a nice name and ivy is a nice plant.'"

Despite the existence of an Ivy Bridge College in Toledo, Ohio and the Ivy Bridge Café in Bedford, Va., the name was approved. That OK initiated the approximately 5-year lifespan of the Ivy Bridge codename, which has since been officially renamed as Intel's "3rd generation Intel Core processor."

Ironically, the amount of equity that builds up around Intel codenames remains a source of frustration for the company's marketing and branding organization. Even though Intel has talked publically about third-generation Core processors, it's "Ivy Bridge" that seems to get more attention and use among press and analysts. Even after the official launch of a chip, internal codenames can live on for some time.

"I suspect the press and analysts do it partially out of habit because they have been using the codenames for months before we announce the brand names," said Brian Fravel, director of brand strategy at Intel.

Though the codename may fade into memory, the technology world may never know which "Ivy Bridge" Intel's "Ivy Bridge" is named after.

"I really don't remember," Harsat confessed. "It may have been that several 'Ivy Bridges' came up in the search and since I found one I didn't care about which."

Unless Harsat has an "aha moment," bragging rights can be shared by a few roads in California, Maryland and Virginia, and a span across a creek in southwest Missouri.

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Putting a Low-Cost Smartphone in Every Pocket

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:38:52 GMT

Computing Features are Trickling Down to So-Called Value Smartphones and Sales Are Expected to Reach 300 Million Units in 2012

The Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone running Windows Phone, a so-called value smartphone, is expected to be priced at $99.99 from AT&T. Photo courtesy of Nokia.(Flickr photo)

Design and feature-rich smartphones may be the sweet spot for innovation and profits, but the mobile phone industry is shifting to bring more affordable smartphones to market.

According to John Jackson, vice president of research at CCS Insights, "smartphones moving down the value chain" has been a reoccurring theme in the industry for years, but at the Mobile World Congress event last month this theme grew louder and more forceful. He said that Warren East, CEO of ARM, talked about taking smartphones down to the sub-$100 range, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt talked about putting an Android in every pocket.

"It's a race to enable aspiring users just as it was a race to connect them in the first place with their first mobile phones," said Jackson.

Deloitte predicts that more than 300 million low-priced, or so-called "dumber" smartphones will be sold in 2012. That could reach up to 500 million units by 2015, according to Strategy Analytics.

There's "an opportunity to really put a truer, higher-fidelity computing experience into the hands of first-time users," said Jackson, who sees value smartphones getting quality cameras and video capabilities for creating and consuming content. "These features don't exist in robust fashion today," he added.

Jackson believes that although those who can bring quality, low-cost smartphones first and fastest will be well positioned, he warns that profit margins will get squeezed, potentially impeding success for smaller smartphone makers.

In the U.S., wireless carriers are selling into the value segment with new LTE, or so-called 4G-ready smartphones. Verizon Wireless is selling a LG Lucid smartphone for $79.99 after rebate and with a 2-year agreement. AT&T is poised to release the Nokia Lumia 900 running Windows Phone.

In addition to first-time smartphone buyers in the U.S., Jackson sees emerging markets presenting big sales opportunities for value-segment smartphones. "It's an order of magnitude big," he said.

"We're still at the beginning of seeing what it will take for the broader and perhaps more established ecosystem to enable those next billion smartphones," Jackson said.

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From the Farm to the Fab

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:30:47 GMT

One on One with Steve Megli, Co-General Manager of Intel's Assembly Test Manufacturing

There's little room for error when you are in charge of factory startups, thousands of engineers and technicians, and millions of dollars' worth of tools that must work 24/7 so products can get in the hands of customers. Since 2008, Steve Megli has overseen thousands of Intel Assembly Test Manufacturing employees running factories in China, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Vietnam.

Megli grew up on a farm in Rock Falls, Ill., where he learned all about hard work. It was good preparation for a 25-year career with Intel's Technology & Manufacturing Group, where today he's a vice president and co-general manager of Assembly Test Manufacturing. Recently, Megli took a moment to talk about the need for so-called "possibility thinking" and how farming prepared him for Intel.

"Time-to-market is everything. You could have the best product in the world, but if you miss the window, you miss the window." --Steve Megli (Flickr photo)

Can you give us a plain-English definition of what Assembly Test Manufacturing (ATM) does?

We take all of those wafers that we make in our fabs, test them to make sure they work, and then ship units to our customers. So when we're done, the units are fully assembled and in the form factor that goes into whatever OEM build there is. We are the last stop before the customer.

What are your main priorities for ATM?

When you're in manufacturing and there's an "M" in your acronym, you have to go make all of that stuff. Job one is supporting that business and doing it safely and with high-quality, high-delivery, the right kind of supply chain and cycle times.

Time-to-market is everything. You could have the best product in the world, but if you miss the window, you miss the window.

What exactly is "possibility thinking?"

The phrase has been coined in the last 2 years, but possibility thinking is not new. [Intel co-founder] Robert Noyce said, "Don't be encumbered by the past. Go out and do something wonderful." That is the definition of what we call today "possibility thinking."

It's been in Intel's DNA for a long time. To me, it's the combination of thinking possibility and then using a strong discipline like Lean Manufacturing and good engineering. To me, that's what drives the breakthrough.

Why the focus on possibility thinking?

[In 2011] the core business did extremely well. We should be so proud of what we've done in the server area, the cloud. Having said all of that, we have to think differently about new businesses. It's a completely different cadence that you have to operate on, and it's a completely different customer base.

We've got a tremendous opportunity because Intel architecture is fantastic. It gives you possibilities and capabilities way beyond any ARM tablet that's shipping today.

How would you describe your management style?

For the most part it's "tell me what help you need," and I will try to be a helper and enabler to that. I'm also very quick to call out a performance issue and I'll have a discussion with someone about it.

I have to think at a high level about our strategy. Factories in ATM are running great. I'm thinking about, "How do we run the technologies 5 years from now? What are the skill sets we will need?"

Is there one manager that you learned most from during the 25 years?

I've been exposed to a lot of great managers. I don't just learn from managers. I learn from peers and people I've worked with. I've worked with [Chief Operating Officer] Brian Krzanich since the day I started at Intel.

Steve Megli, co-general manager of Intel's Assembly Test Manufacturing (Flickr photo)

Is there one key learning you've had recently as a leader?

Since I moved into the ATM position, my world view has changed completely.

All of my jobs before were kind of U.S.-centric and in the fab. I really have developed a huge appreciation for the geographies and the fact that the policies that sometimes get made in California aren't necessarily applicable around the world.

How do you manage work/life balance?

When I take a day off, I take a day off. If you don't do that, you won't ever regenerate and you'll get burned out. If I take a week's vacation, I'm not calling into meetings. There are some people who can do that. I can't.

So you were raised on a farm?

Yep. People ask me, "What did you do on the farm?" We planted the crops in the spring, and nurtured them through the summer, and harvested them in the fall. And that was pretty much how it worked. The farm life is a great life. It's a lot of hard work, but those are the kinds of values you take through life.

I used to think at Intel the scale of our job is huge, but when you're on the farm and it doesn't rain, you don't eat.

Anything at Intel remind you of a farm?

I think it's this idea of something tangible. I would struggle in a job where you didn't have a tangible result. I think that comes from farming.

When we were building a fab in Arizona, I was talking to someone outside of Intel and said, "When I was young, we used to try to figure out how many acres we were going to put in corn, and how many acres in soybeans."

With the fab it was how many acres we're going to put in this process, and how many acres we're going to put in that. [Laughs] The fabs have gotten that big.

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Do People Want Touch on Laptop Screens?

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:41:01 GMT

Consumer Tests Reveal Users Want Single Device with a Keyboard that Opens, Closes and Is Touch Enabled

In user experience testing conducted by Intel, researchers observed people tilting back the laptop screen and using their thumbs to touch both sides of the screen, similar to how people hold a tablet or smartphone. (Flickr photo)

Recent user testing shows that people want touch as part of their laptop computing experience. These research findings from Intel counter longstanding notions about touch-enabled displays on clamshell computers.

Touch on vertical screens, such as laptops, has been thought to result in so-called "gorilla arm," a term engineers have coined to describe what happens when people use touch interfaces for lengthy periods.

"Touchscreen on the display is ergonomically terrible for longer interactions," Avi Greengart of Current Analysis said to Wired in 2010. In user testing conducted by Intel in Brazil, China, Italy and the United States, however, people embraced touch on laptop displays.

"People told me that touch on the laptop was intuitive, fun, immersive and freed them from the mouse and trackpad, especially when they discovered actions like flicking the screen to scroll up or down and navigate between tasks," said Daria Loi, a user experience manager at Intel.

In testing Loi found that people spent 77 percent of the time touching the laptop screen while running through a variety of tasks such as surfing the Web, watching online video, viewing and editing photos and adjusting the laptop's setting.

"Many people found touch on a laptop screen intuitive," she said.

For tests with consumers, Loi used an off-the-shelf touchscreen laptop running a simulated Windows 8 Metro-style operating system and applications such as PowerPoint. Although the prototype was not fully optimized with a touch operating system, many users said the touch experience transformed the notebook from a work to a play device.

"One person even compared the addition of touch as like having a laptop with an extra gear," she said.

Loi says that the study results debunked another industry concern. "Many thought that hinges holding screens in place wouldn't withstand the forcible pokes and pinches for very long," she said. "But we saw people very gently touching, even caressing the screen."

In her testing, she observed people tilting back the laptop screen and using their thumbs to touch both sides of the screen, similar to how people hold a tablet or smartphone. She also noticed a range of additional informal postures, such as resting one elbow on the table or armrest while touching the screen with the other hand or fluidly switching between right and left hand to navigate via touch.

Loi said that participants strongly expressed that they did not want the keyboard to go away. "Many gave practical or emotional reasons for liking the physical keyboard, such as the way it feels or sounds when pressing down on the different keys. Most participants did not like interacting with the virtual keyboard, even when touch was their favorite input modality."

Strong Desires, High Expectations for Touch

Multi-touch screens are prevalent today on tablet and smartphone devices, and they're even available on desktop computers. But Loi said that with the advent of Windows 8, Microsoft's touch-optimized operating system, she wanted to know if people really did or did not want touch on their laptop.

Loi noted that in her testing people didn't see touch on a vertical surface as a challenge or novelty. "Instead," she said, "they described touch as something that enriched their experience, and something they believed would inevitably come to laptops."

To participants who said they'd like to have touch and the keyboard on one device, Loi asked if they would consider replacing their laptop with a powerful tablet and wireless keyboard. "People said, 'no way, the tablet has its purpose but I still need a laptop. I just want you to add touch,'" Loi said.

Daria Loi uses an Intel reference design Ultrabook with multi-touchscreen functionality. Loi conducted user tests and found that people spent 77 percent of the time touching the laptop screen while running through a variety of tasks such as surfing the Web, watching online video, viewing and editing photos and adjusting the laptop's setting. (Flickr photo)

Testing occurred before Loi's team revealed the first touchscreen Ultrabook systems this year at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and CeBIT in Germany.

"While Windows 8 will help convince consumers to buy a touch-enabled laptop, it will come down to software and apps that use touch in a real way -- a way that feels natural and simplifies the interaction," said Josh Smith, a reviewer at Notebooks.com.

Hundreds of millions of people have become accustomed to responsive touch experiences they're getting on smartphones and tablets. Smith said this has created high expectations for fast and smooth experiences on any touchscreen device. He points to recent Microsoft research aimed at improving average touchscreen reaction time of a 100-millisecond delay down to 1 millisecond over the next decade.

"I think that once this delay issue is overcome, we will see a better user experience and faster adoption," Smith said.

"If I did this study 8 or 10 years ago, I don't think I'd get the same results," Loi said. "In the past few years, people have been exposed to touch through new personal devices and public interactions with ATMs or airport check-in machines. Overall, touchscreens are increasingly becoming smoother and more responsive than ever before. The user interfaces are now optimized for touch."

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Computing Power Speeds Safer CT Scans

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:32:50 GMT

Algorithm Slashes Compute Time for Low Radiation Dose Scans from 100 Hours per Image to Less Than an Hour

GE's "Veo" scanner technology helps lower patients' radiation exposure. Courtesy of GE Health (Flickr photo)

One of the tools doctors rely on to diagnose conditions such as cancer, kidney tumors and spinal trauma is an imposing machine called a computed tomography scanner, or CT scanner.

In a hospital emergency room, standard CT scanners can quickly look over the affected area, and in less than 5 minutes generate images of the inside of a patient's body, helping doctors make life-saving decisions.

But there's a catch, says Dr. Ella Kazerooni, a professor of radiology at the University of Michigan Medical School: "The radiation dose for a standard chest CT scan is equal to about 70 chest X-rays."

That may be OK when it's a desperate life-or-death emergency, but what about when doctors need to take regular CT scans of a small child with a long-term disease such as lymphoma, or an adult with a brain tumor? The amounts of total X-ray radiation such patients may be exposed to could quickly reach levels that could elevate their risk of cancer.

In those cases, doctors can use CT scans with very low doses of X-ray radiation that dramatically reduce the patient's cancer risk.

But when they do that, there's yet another catch: It takes lots of time, and huge amounts of computing power, to turn the smaller dataset from a low-dose scan into a usable medical image. We're talking not hours but four to five days of computing time on mainframe-equivalent computers to come up with a workable image. For many doctors and hospitals, both the computer power needed and the long delay to get an image have made low-dose scans impractical.

One leading CT scanner vendor, General Electric, was determined to crack that challenge. "It was one of the grand challenges of medicine: How could we crack this problem to yield better images at dramatically lower X-ray power settings, and in less time?" said David Baker, an Intel engineer who worked on the problem.

Cracking the Code

The answer to the question Baker posed lay in a set of mathematical rules called an algorithm.

A human bran viewed with GE "Veo" scanner technology. Courtesy of GE Health (Flickr photo)

"For scanners, the secret sauce is in the algorithm that generates the images," said Intel's Steven Johnson. The problem was that a promising algorithm for creating an image -- known as Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction -- was enormously complex and carrying it out could bog down even the most modern computers.

In 2006, Johnson said, GE approached Intel: "They said, 'We have this algorithm, but we can't get it to a point where we can get an image in the amount of time that anyone would find useful.'"

That was the beginning of a years-long struggle by Intel and GE to achieve an audacious goal: to bring the compute time to get an image from a low-dose CT scan down from 100 hours per image to less than 1 hour -- an improvement of 100x.

Intel application engineers Terry Sych, Kirk Dunsavage and Kerry Evans formed a small team that pursued ways to optimize the algorithm for processing.

Fine-Tuning Software to Save Lives

"It was a multi-year effort," Sych recalled. "There was a lot of fine tuning. It got down to counting individual clock cycles for each step of the algorithm." It was difficult, for example, to change the algorithm, which worked best in a single-threaded environment, into one that could take advantage of multi-core processors.

It also helped that while this effort was going on, Intel's "tick-tock" processor strategy went through two generations. By 2010, Intel had a whole new generation of Xeon processors, which were still socket- compatible with previous Xeon processors.

"That was important," Johnson said. "GE wanted a solution that they knew they could count on for at least 7 years."

As Baker described the breakthrough, "The joint team ultimately developed an accelerator based on 28 Xeon processors totaling 112 cores and a dramatically improved algorithm. We reduced the compute time to around an hour, delivering superior medical images and reducing the X-ray power by up to 90 percent."

Dramatic Reduction in X-Ray Exposure

GE calls the new scanning technology "Veo." Part of the company's line of Discovery Scanners, it was introduced in Europe last year and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We have been able to reduce X-ray doses to previously unthinkable levels," said Professor Johan de Mey, head of the radiology department of University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. That is opening up the benefits of CT scans to a wider variety of patients.

Evgeny Drapkin, a principal engineer at GE Health, said that exposure levels for scans done with the Veo machines have been reduced by 4x.

Baker declared, "Kids who have long-term diseases, who have to get regular CT scans to check the progress of the disease, can often approach their lifetime limit of exposure to X-rays. With the Veo scanner they can dial down the X-ray power and dramatically extend the number of times they can get a scan."

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Brazil Offering a Model for U.S. Elections?

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:44:31 GMT

Centralized E-Voting Process that Almost Instantly Records the Ballots of Brazil's 140 Million Voters has Drawn Interest from Election Officials in Other Countries, Including the U.S.

Delivering voting machines to locations in the Amazon rainforest can take up to 2 weeks by vehicle, boat and on foot, but votes are transmitted instantly via a secure satellite network. (Flickr photo)

Brazil, which has about 20 million fewer registered voters than the United States, is providing a model for other nations with its use of electronic voting machines.

The Latin American country uses compact, portable voting devices and a centralized process to tabulate even close elections within hours. Adding to the system's efficiency, Brazil's approximately 140 million voters cast their ballot on the same model of voting machine whether they live in Sao Paulo, Campo Grande or villages deep in the Amazon.

The result is quick and reliable results, according to Brazil's elections agency. Speed and logistical solutions are part of the reason many countries, including the United States, are looking to Brazil for how to run reliable, secure and efficient balloting.

Brazil implemented an all-electronic voting system more than a decade ago and has made improvements since. The municipal elections in October, for example, will employ an upgraded version of an Intel Atom-based voting machine that incorporates advanced fingerprint identification capacity.

"I know in the United States it's different," said Giuseppe Janino, secretary of technology for Brazil's Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), or in English, Superior Electoral Court. "I realize with so many states it's difficult to find a way to have a central, single system."

In Brazil, the move to its present-day method was in response to an outcry from angry and frustrated citizens, according to Janino.

"We had to do something to make the process reliable," he said. "It took 1 or 2 weeks to show results and outcomes were in doubt through the manual process. It was slow, had a lot of errors -- the electoral process was totally untrustworthy."

Reflecting on similar complaints registered about the 2000 U.S. general election, Janino noted the improbability of his country suffering through a controversy like when George W. Bush and Al Gore battled over hanging chad on Florida ballots.

"That wouldn't have happened in Brazil because we eliminate the human interaction at all voting sections," he said. The election secretary added that the absence of paper ballots eliminates the tedious task of recounts, done by hand in the past.

The TSE also hasn't seen cases of mechanical malfunctions that surface from time to time in the U.S., including the DS200 optical ballot scanner used in Florida, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. Among other "substantial anomalies," the scanner is prone to freezes and misreads ballots, according to a recent U.S. Elections Assistance Commission report. The device built by Election Systems & Software was not decertified by the EAC, but the Omaha-based manufacturer is working to remediate the problems.

Brazil's Nuts and Bolts

Brazil's machines, or urnas, are designed by the government and manufactured by Sao Paulo-based Diebold Procom, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Diebold Inc. that has had the TSE contract since 1999.

Candidates' photos are displayed on the screens of Brazil's electronic voting machines. Source: Brazil TSE (Flickr photo)

Roughly the size of a small toaster oven, the voting machines have a screen activated by a built-in numerical keypad. Voters punch numbers that correspond to the measures or candidates, the latter often displayed with a headshot. Votes are transmitted via a secure satellite network. Battery life is 9-10 hours, which comes in handy at polling places lacking electrical power. A 2-week delivery by vehicle, boat and on foot is typical for locations hundreds of miles into the Amazon, "no easy task," Janino said, as about 15 percent of voters live in rural areas, including rainforest that blankets more than half of Brazil.

The voting machine, which weighs 8.8 pounds, is designed so that even people who do not read or those speaking different languages can successfully make their selections. The visually impaired have an option to hear their votes cast through headphones. Voters can identify themselves with only three fingerprints, a feature piloted in 2008 with 60,000 voters and has since grown significantly.

"We are currently in Phase 2 of the biometric identification program and have around 10 million voters who can identify themselves through their fingerprints in this year's municipal elections," Janino said. "By 2018 we will have 100 percent of the voters biometrically registered."

Although the government has not seen any evidence of fraud since e-voting was first employed, Janino and his department aren't resting on laurels. Hackers are being hired to do their worst to the latest generation of voting system.

"In 2009 we invited hackers to try to get into the system and no one could, so in advance of the next election in October we're inviting more hackers to try again," Janino said. "But they won't be successful."

Mixed Global Acceptance

Workers prepare for the 2010 Brazilian general election at an urban polling location. Source: Brazil TSE (Flickr photo)

Brazil began weaning itself off paper ballots with the 1996 municipal election. One-third of the sections, or what the United States calls precincts, blazed the paperless trail that year. Reports of citizens having trouble adjusting to the new equipment were minimal, according to the TSE. Another third made the transition with the 1998 general election, and when the remainder came on board with the 2000 municipal balloting, top vote-getting candidates weren't the only winners.

"That made Brazil the first country to hold a completely automated election," Janino said.

The second was India. When 380 million Indians cast votes on more than 1 million machines in May 2004, their country's election wasn't the first to be all-electronic, but it was the world's biggest. India, the globe's largest democracy, has used e-voting machines exclusively for national and local elections.

Belgium and the Philippines also use technology in either the voting or counting process for all of their national elections. Countries at various stages of piloting or partially using forms of electronic balloting include the United States, Estonia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan and Russia, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

Some countries are moving in the opposite direction. Germany banned e-voting in 2009 after a court ruled that the automated process used for the previous 10 years was unconstitutional. Citing issues over adequate privacy and security safeguards, the Netherlands in 2008 decertified its e-voting machines and moved back to paper balloting. Machines still tabulate results, but the sentiment, as stated by the government, is "as long as there is no good alternative, Netherlands agrees with pencil and paper."

Janino shrugs his shoulders when he hears such things. "There are countries that use paper, and people trust that process even if it is manual and slow," he said.

For countries open to the idea of computerized elections, Brazil is happy to share its knowledge, success and even hardware. Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico have signed agreements to rent the TSE's voting machines for their own elections.

America also has knocked on Brazil's door -- not for equipment, but know-how.

"Delegations from the U.S. have come to Brazil," Janino said. "We help them learn about our process, how we implement, what our experiences have been and advise them to find a way to have a central system."

The latest American delegation to visit was from California, the state with the most registered voters and the greatest number of delegates up for grabs in its June 5 presidential primary.

Recent advancements in Brazil's standardized electronic voting machine include biometric identification. Source: Brazil TSE (Flickr photo)

Secretary of State Debra Bowen, whose job includes serving as California's chief elections officer, has looked closely at electronic voting since 2007 when she commissioned a complete review of software, hardware, source code and documents of voting systems used throughout the state. With the resulting independent scientific analysis as her guide, Bowen supported a system that, as she described, "offers the best of both worlds."

"I chose to favor the transparency of voter-marked paper ballots, which can readily be recounted, coupled with the accuracy and speed of the computer to do the tedious work of counting multiple races," Bowen said.

On all the voting systems she recertified following the audit, Bowen placed tighter use conditions on the components of voting systems that the researchers found were the most fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to security breaches. Those concerns are a big reason the secretary of state doesn't see California being fully automated anytime soon.

"Because of proven technological insecurities and highly publicized government-hacking successes, I don't see any big push toward all-electronic voting in the near future," Bowen said. "Right now, with proprietary closed-source voting systems, entire institutions have to hope that unethical people don't get their hands on source code or software. Our democracy is not built on trust alone; there are checks and balances, and course corrections after lessons are learned."

While an automated election model mirroring Brazil's doesn't seem to be on the horizon for California, all of its 58 county election offices are required by law to provide at least one electronic ballot-marking machine in every polling place. Although generally used by voters with disabilities, the machine may be used by any registrant.

The U.S. agency charged with testing, certifying and overseeing voting systems across the country takes no position on the electronic vs. manual debate.

"The EAC does not endorse any particular type of voting system and state participation in EAC's program is voluntary," said agency spokesman Bryan Whitener. "States determine the type of voting system they use according to individual state laws and procedures."

The EAC, which was created in the wake of the 2000 presidential election turmoil, is established by the Help America Vote Act that sets functional standards for voting systems used in federal elections. These standards will be followed for the third time when America votes for a president in November, be it by human or machine.

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Tuskegee Airman Looks Back on Lifetime in Engineering

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:43:58 GMT

One of the Famed African-American Military Aviators Featured in the Movie "Red Tails" Went on to Earn an Aerospace Engineering Degree and Work on the Design of NASA's Apollo Spacecraft

Ben Berry served as a bomber pilot in WWII, one of 33 in a class that was the largest to complete advanced flight training at Tuskegee Air Field in Alabama. Source: Ben Berry (Flickr photo)

Riding a resurgence of recognition thanks to the Hollywood movie "Red Tails," Ben Berry spoke with Intel Free Press following his presentation and book signing at Intel's Hillsboro, Ore. facility Wednesday. He discussed not only his days as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II, but also his work on NASA's Apollo spacecraft and his current project designing a vertical takeoff and landing craft with his son.

As one of the first African-American aviators in the U.S. armed forces, "Flaps" Berry said he overcame adversity and racial bigotry during training and air combat to become what he is today. The 87-year-old received the Unit Citation of the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and pursued a career in mechanical and aerospace engineering after devoting years of service to his country.

Berry's historic military career began when he was drafted at age 18, but his passion for engineering can be traced to childhood.

"When I was about 12 years old my aunt gave me a dog-eared engineering handbook and I saw all these formulas in it I couldn't understand," he said in an exclusive interview. "Over the years as I advanced in school, I'd look at the book often, trying to know everything that was in it, but it wasn't until I graduated from USC when I understood the entire book. It was a personal accomplishment that began when I was a child."

Some of what he learned in that engineering manual came in handy when he worked on U.S. Army airplanes, particularly on the B-25 bomber. Preferring to fly planes instead of fixing them, Berry asked for a change of duty and got his wish.

"I always wanted to fly planes, even as a child, and I was so excited when given the chance," Berry said.

Many of the Milwaukie, Ore. hero's war stories are captured in his book, "Tuskegee Airmen: To the Moon, Mars and Beyond (Secrets Revealed)." One secret he shared wasn't from his days as a B-25 bomber pilot, but a tragic event that occurred during his post-war career.

After graduating from USC with an aerospace engineering degree, he worked on the design of the Apollo spacecraft for North American Aviation, which later became part of Rockwell International and now Boeing. Berry claims that his team had discovered a flaw of potentially catastrophic proportions involving old airplane switches used in the space cabin of Apollo 1.

"One spark from one switch would blow the thing up," said Berry, concerned that the cabin was a 100 percent oxygen environment. "I told top NASA management in Houston, 'You're talking about sending three men to the Moon. They're not going anywhere. They're going to be blown up right here on the launch pad. You've got to get rid of all those [old] switches and put in electronic switches.'"

Now living in Milwaukie, Ore., Ben Berry, 87, speaks frequently about his service, for which he received a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. (Flickr photo)

Berry said he was told the upgrade would be made despite NASA's race "to beat the Russians to the Moon," but the switch of switches never was done.

"Somebody didn't get the message," Berry said, recalling his first thoughts when he read in the newspaper that three astronauts were killed on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. "Just like I told them was going to happen."

When Berry went to the office the next day, all his locked cabinets were gone. "I thought they took them to investigate the disaster. I never saw those cabinets again. I never heard of any investigation. Those men didn't have to die," he said.

Berry went on to share an earlier, happy memory from the night WWII ended. He and seven of his army buddies talked about their career aspirations for when they returned home. Airline captain, medical doctor, scientist, attorney, judge and test pilot are what six of the men said before getting to Berry and his bunkmate.

"My friend said he planned on being the first black governor of a state," Berry recalled. "I said I was going to design the first manned spaceship. Through conventions every year around the country I was able to maintain relationships with all these people for many years, and every last one of these guys did exactly what they said they were going to do -- even my roommate."

His bunkmate, George Brown, was lieutenant governor of Colorado, though never a governor. However, when he and California's Mervyn Dymally were elected on the same day in 1974, they became the first African-Americans to serve in that post since Reconstruction.

"I'm so proud that each of us turned down our commissions to go back to school, realize our dreams and make contributions to our country after the war," Berry said.

Berry has been working with his son on versions of the "AirShip," a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft designed for military and civilian use. His son, Ben Jr., is CEO of Oregon-based AirShip Technologies Group, which is currently seeking funding for a prototype of the craft. Source: AirShip Technologies Group (Flickr photo)

Revisiting the bigotry he saw during his military service, Berry recalled that black fighter pilots were required to fly the slowest planes in air combat and though 66 Tuskegee Airmen were killed during the war, not one was shot down by enemy fighters while they were protecting the bombers. He said there were no aces among the Tuskegee Airman because once a black aviator shot down four enemy fighters -- one away from ace status -- he would be sent back to the States to become an instructor.

As for "Red Tails," the George Lucas movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Berry said he's seen it four times and will likely make it five soon as yet another friend wants to go with an actual Tuskegee Airman. Berry gives the movie a thumbs up, but is it accurate?

"No," he said. "It's a great movie, but there was some dialogue in there I took very strong exception to. One [scene] has two fighter pilots talking and one of them said, 'You know, every time I close my cockpit I feel like I'm closing my casket.' I know a hundred Tuskegee Airmen and not one would ever say that."

Even though he's 20 years past what many consider retirement age, Berry hasn't stopped being an engineer. He and his son, Ben Jr., have spent the 10 years working on a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. His son is CEO of AirShip Technologies Group, a Lake Oswego, Ore. company that is developing three versions of the "AirShip" craft. Still in the design stage, Ben Sr. said $5 million is needed for a prototype, adding that there's been worldwide military and corporate interest.

"It's designed to be used by military and civilians," he said. "It's going to be the vehicle that replaces the Humvee. It's the car of the future."

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How to Predict the Future of Technology

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:46:53 GMT

Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow Requires Developing a Vision of How People Will Interact with Computing Power in 10 to 15 Years

Brian David Johnson, Intel's Futurist (Flickr photo)

Brian David Johnson is Intel's "futurist," which means his job is to look out 10 to 15 years ahead and develop plans that Intel engineers can use to create technology for, well, the future. His job is a complicated mix of sociology and research, looking deeply into how people interact with computers and computation today to anticipate how it will evolve over time.

In a recent interview with Adrenaline, a glossy magazine for software developers published by Intel's Software and Services Group, Johnson talked about his job, his role as a social scientist and the human element of design.

How do you go about projecting 10 to 15 years into the future?

Brian David Johnson: We start with social science. We have, in our lab, ethnographers and anthropologists who go all over the world to study people and give us insights into human behavior -- how humans communicate with each other, how humans live, how people interact with their governments, how they buy things and what their cars are like. Whatever you can think of, they are looking at it.

That gives us a basis -- we have to remember that we are building products for us, for people. From there, I look at the computer science side of things: the people who are doing the innovative hardware and software development that goes on at Intel.

Next we ask, "What is possible with technology?" We look back at those human insights and ask, "OK, how do we make people's lives better?"

Then I like to look at trends, what I call the math of the future. Most people start with population growth and the projections of where we are going. Although those are important to me, they aren't as important as the first two steps -- social science and computer science -- because, again, we have to understand the people we are building for, and then we have to understand the technology that we are building.

In terms of computing, what do you see the future looking like in 20 years?

Johnson: I am an incredible optimist for a number of reasons. Everything I do is based upon social science research. Usually when you talk to people about computers, devices and gadgets, they're generally very optimistic. They think it is cool.

That is one of the things we can't forget -- for most people, the future is going to be pretty awesome. We can't let ourselves forget that we will be surprised, and we can't discount that when we pick up an Ultrabook for the first time, we'll say, "Wow, that feels really cool." I think when we talk about the future of economies and the future of Intel, we can't forget that in the future that wow is still going to happen -- and that is pretty cool.

What is your history in the tech industry?

Johnson: My first job was at the computer lab at the local university in Virginia. That was back when every printer room had one printer, and that printer was in a soundproof box. And there was an entire room of Wang word-processing machines and a room full of mainframe terminals. I was there when they carted in the first personal computer. The joke was that it was called a personal computer because you could lift it by yourself.

So we have come a long way since then?

Johnson: Oh, yeah! I always laugh about the computers that I learned to program on; today, we carry around more computational power in our pockets.

How has your work as a futurist informed your view of the industry as a whole?

Johnson: Well, it has made me very boring, to be quite honest. I am a very pragmatic futurist. The work I do is for the specifications of processors, so I have to make sure that whatever visions I come up with are really grounded and that we can build them. If I tell Intel that we're all going to have rocket cars and jet packs and come 2020 we don't have rocket cars and jet packs, then this futurist won't have a job.

Everything we do is based in social science first and foremost. We are designing processors, platforms and multiple products, and even the software and the algorithms that go into those products from a human standpoint. The futures we are looking at … need to be very accomplishable.

What affect do you see smaller screens and portable form factors having on the industry going forward?

Johnson: Computation power has spread and found its way into our living rooms and pockets, and is finding its way into our cars, walls and hospitals. For the longest time people asked, "Will the PC kill the TV?" Now you hear them ask, "Will the smartphone kill the laptop?" or "Will the tablet kill the laptop?"

One device isn't going to rule them all; it is about whatever device people have handy. People really like choice. People will watch "Inception," a big blockbuster movie, on their big-screen TV at home, but if they happen to be stuck in an airport or on a bus, they will watch it on their smartphone. With that type of power on those small screens, computation fits more elegantly into people's lives.

You have a smartphone, a tablet, an Ultrabook, a television -- all these things begin to fit quite nicely together, becoming more about the consumer and the consumer's choice about the kind of screen they would like to interact with.

As these high-powered mobile screens become more and more ubiquitous how do you see them affecting daily life?

Johnson: They allow us to have access. With a lot of the research that I was doing in the more near-term, looking out to 2015, you have all these different screens and the computational power, input and output, battery life, computation and electricity which allow those screens to become windows that give you access to the people and the entertainment you love. That is what drives most people.

All of these mobile form factors and screens really give us a myriad of ways to make that connection in different places, in different areas and in different spaces, and I think that will only continue.

Are the differences between platforms becoming less important to the public at large?

Johnson: It's not just about processor speed or the type of processor. We have multi-core, many-core and single-chip cluster computers. There are different ways of bringing computational power and coming up with solutions to different problems -- whether you want a tablet or a smartphone that lasts all day or you need a high-performance computer that needs to calculate particle physics for the large hadron collider. These are very different types of computation.

Inside Intel, it isn't just about making it smaller, faster and less expensive, although this is important and it's what we will continue to do -- we live in the house of Moore's Law. That is necessary but not sufficient. We have a significant shift where the way that people understand computational power has less to do with the guts and more to do with the experience.

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Networks Strain to Keep Pace with Data Explosion

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:12:17 GMT

In One Minute, Facebook Logs 6 Million Pages Views, Google Handles 2 Million-Plus Search Queries, Twitter Adds More Than 320 Accounts and the Data Deluge Threatens to Overwhelm Network Infrastructure

Network infrastructure as a topic lacks the sex appeal of slick mobile devices, cool social and location apps, streaming music or viral videos. Yet without the fast-flow of data a robust network infrastructure supports, they all come to a grinding halt. We've looked before at the strain our collective appetite for mobile devices and video places on networks (Tech Companies Tackle Wireless Traffic Jam). This infographic demonstrates the enormity of the need for network capacity beyond just mobile and video uses and forecasts a future that assures that network providers will be scrambling to keep pace.

Source: Intel (Flickr image)

Right now, almost 640 Terabytes of data move across global IP networks in a single minute. Smartphone and social networking application usage comprise much of that data tidal wave.

In one minute...

204 million emails are sent
20 million photos are viewed on Flickr
6 million views of Facebook occur
2 million-plus search queries are initiated on Google
1.3 million videos are viewed on YouTube
277,000 people login to Facebook
100,000 Tweets are sent
$83,000 in sales are racked up at Amazon
61,141 hours of music are streamed from Pandora
47,000 apps are downloaded
3,000 photos are uploaded to Flickr
1,300 people start using a mobile device
320-plus Twitter accounts are added
135 botnet infections occur
100-plus LinkedIn accounts are added
30 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube
20 people are victims of identity theft
6 new Wikipedia articles are published

Today's data volume challenges network providers to keep pace with an insatiable hunger for bandwidth, yet the future promises to make the demand more acute. The number of networked devices now approximately equals the global population, but by 2015 it's projected to double. Just 3 years from now, it will take 5 years to view all the video crossing IP networks in one second.

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Mad Men and Microprocessors: PC Design Goes High-Concept

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:33:17 GMT

PC Case Modder Takes Computer Design Beyond the Dull Gray Box

Jeffrey Stephenson surrounded by several of his computer designs. He is a fan of the Mid-Century Modern designs depicted in the AMC television series "Mad Men" -- he is working on a project to tie into the season premiere of the cable series. (Flickr photo)

By day, Jeffrey Stephenson works as an information technology professional, but in his free time, he's better known as "slipperyskip." That's his Twitter handle and the name he uses on computer hardware forums where he posts about how he transforms retro furniture and antique appliances -- he once turned an Elvis microphone into a fully functioning PC. His handcrafted designs have made him a celebrity in many computer hardware circles and a living legend among PC modders.

"Sometimes an idea hits me that I just can't shake," he said. "It starts to dominate my every thought until the only way to get rid of it is to act on it. The Shure 55 microphone is an example. The idea of using it in a computer design ran in the back of my head for nearly a year. One day it all clicked and I just started building what became the Unidyne PC."

He believes that most people like their technology to look like technology. But that's not his audience. "I speak to those who like to express their style in everything they come in contact with," he said.

Stephenson built his first homemade PC when he was a teenager. "It was a Digicomp mechanical 3-bit computer, an educational toy designed to teach about binary numbers," said Stephenson.

Since then he's created 30 unique computers, each a masterpiece blending modern technology and design styles ranging from Art Deco to Mission to Mid-Century Modern. He has never sold any of them, but he did enter his Decomatic living room entertainment PC in the 2007 Intel PC Design Challenge. One of his biggest joys is when his wife uses his creations to decorate their Live Oak, Florida area home.

"My wife says the Mid Century Madness and G-metric Nano are a couple of her 'techno-integration' favorites," said Stephenson.

Unlike computer chips produced by huge teams and fleets of robots in a fab, Stephenson works alone using little more than a Dremel rotary tool and a cordless drill. "I do most of my work from my burgundy leather Laz-E-Boy recliner," he said. "On a nice day I'll work at a table on my deck."

He designs and builds two to three new pieces a year. Each new project relies on equipment donated by companies such as VIA, which provided mini-ITX motherboards, and Microsoft, which shared a pre-beta version of Windows 8 to run on Stephenson's most recent design. "Projects can take from 100 to 300 hours to finish," he said.

Stephenson bought one of the first mini-ITX form factor motherboards by VIA Technologies in 2003. He liked the idea of having a small, high performing computer. He had trouble finding a case that wasn't expensive or boring. "Then I stumbled across a site that sold wooden desktop cigar humidors, which had perfect dimensions and a stylish exterior," he said.

Stephenson discovered a 1938 Breakfaster made by Calkins Appliance Co. on eBay. It had no controls, just a power plug. The size, shape and simplistic design inspired him to transform the antique toaster into a machine-age PC powered by an Intel Pentium M processor that he named DECOmputer. (Flickr photo)

At the time, Tim Handley, CPU platforms marketing manager at VIA Technologies, was looking for designers who could build PCs in interesting cases that would show how Mini-ITX boards were suitable for small form factor PCs.

"Jeffery approached us with an idea to build a PC in a cigar humidor," said Handley in an interview for this story. "We were so impressed with the workmanship and attention to detail that we invited him to our CES event, where his humidor PC got a lot of media coverage."

The wireless router-equipped Humidor CL Server ended up on CBS-TV and in Popular Science magazine. Handley began donating components and even inviting Stephenson to attend industry events.

"Many of the comments from top management professionals about how good a humidor PC would look on their desk made us consider new product categories and market segments for our Mini-ITX products, which were initially targeted for industrial PCs more than office PCs," said Handley.

For many computer hardware geeks, he is considered the godfather of Mini-ITX modding, according to Sascha Pallenberg, a long-time computer hardware reviewer and founder of Netbooknew.com.

"Jeffrey is a true inspiration for the global modding and design community," said Pallenberg. "He is such a humble guy, but his designs have been the best for the last decade, and it seems that he will never run out of ideas."

Art Deco to Mid-Century Modern

"Art Deco is in my DNA," said Stephenson, who lived in San Francisco in the '60s and New York in the '70s. "It inspires me and I want to be surrounded by it."

Occasionally he experiments with other styles beyond Art Deco. He once transformed a 1936 antique toaster into DECOmputer, a machine age PC. Another time, after seeing a 1964 Danish desk on eBay, he took to building Mid-Century Modern. Design site Core 77 dubbed it "Don Draper's PC," referring to the lead character of the AMC TV series "Mad Men," which prominently features Mid-Century Modern design.

Slide show

His compact design called Level Eleven uses a solid-state drive, which is compact and quiet as it has no moving parts. "The improved energy efficiency of each new CPU generation helps me to pack more and more computer power into smaller and smaller packages," he said. "This also allows me to concentrate more on a design's style instead of hiding massive air ducts involved in moving quantities of air."

Stephenson says he has learned to call a project complete and walk away from it, although at times he's had to cannibalize equipment from an old design to finish a new project.

"I still have every computer I have ever built," he said. "I have every component ever given to me by equipment sponsors."

Handley, now at GIGABYTE Technology, says that Stephenson has made a significant impact on the computer industry.

"He showed the world that a PC can be a statement about oneself in the same way that a haircut or fashion accessory can be," said Handley. "His designs showed the world that with low-power components you are free to explore more design options than with standard desktop PC parts."

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Russia's Middle Class Drives Thriving PC Market

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:36:36 GMT

Improved Living Standards, Computer Literacy and Internet Access Combined with a Significant Drop in Prices, Are Making PCs Attractive and Accessible to More People

Laptop and Ultrabook computers in Moscow retail store. The cost of buying a PC has dropped dramatically: in 1995, the worldwide price for an average priced notebook PC was equal to 47.7 workweeks. By 2010, the price had declined to 5 workweeks.. (Flickr photo)

A rapid rebound from the 2008 global economic crisis, distribution of wealth across a growing middle class and more affordable prices are driving Russia to become the biggest PC market in Europe.

Russia will become the fourth-largest PC market in the world in 2012, according to IDC research director Stefania Lorenz.This means that for the first time more PCs will be sold in Russia than in Germany, Europe's decades-long epicenter of PC demand.

"Certainly Russia is a driving force in PC growth in Europe, and consumers are driving the growing volume of sales," Lorenz said in an interview for this story. "Between the first quarter of 2010 and the third quarter of 2011, consumer notebook sales in Russia grew from a staggering 241 percent [growing from a relatively small base of 273K units first quarter 2009 to 932K units first quarter 2010] to 21 percent in third quarter of 2011," she said. "And if you look at just the third quarter of 2011, of the 2.6 million PC units sold, 2.2 million of those were sold to consumers."

Improved living standards, computer literacy and Internet access across Russia, combined with a significant drop in prices, are making PCs attractive and accessible to more people, according to Lorenz.

"Russian consumers are spending more time each month on social networks, more than anyone in the world," Dmitri Konash, Intel's general manager of Russia, said in an interview for this story.

"Technology has also become legitimate business in Russia," said Lorenz, referring to the shift away from the black market toward buying computers at large national retail chains and small stores. "The notebook market is nearly 100 percent legal now, although a few years ago 50 percent of laptops were imported into the country illegally," she said.

While developed countries in Western Europe and the United States are experiencing slight PC sales slumps, several emerging markets are growing and changing the PC marketplace. Russia dominates PC sales in a market region that includes Turkey, the Middle East and Africa, and the Russian economy "is more unified than Western Europe as a whole," said Loren Loverde, vice president of IDC research in an interview for this story.

IDC expects to see PC sales in Russia climb from 12.3 million units shipped in 2011 to 13.5 units in 2012. Konash, however, believes it's possible for Russia to ship 16 million PCs in 2012. "That would mean 20 percent growth," he said.

"Unless there is a global meltdown, the Russian economy will do fairly well for the next few years."

Quick Recovery from Global Crisis, but No More Triple-Digital Growth

Years of steady economic growth before and after the banking crisis of 2008, together with a growing middle class, have helped stabilize the Russian economy, according to Konash.

Source: IDC 2011 (Flickr photo)

"When the economy tanked and global demand for oil dropped, we saw a 50 percent contraction of PC shipments during the second half of 2008, but the recovery was like a hockey stick," said Konash, describing how the recovery looked plotted on a graph.

Prior to the 2008 crisis, Russia experienced 9 consecutive years of growth, averaging 7 percent annually between 2000 and 2008. According to Lorenz, PC sales in the country grew steadily during that time. "By Q3 2008, PC sales growth was above 100 percent, but when Europe began suffering from the 2008 crisis, Russia suffered, too," she said. "Between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, PC sales dropped by about 50 percent in Russia," she said.

"By the fourth quarter of 2009, Russia was out of the crisis, credit was back and vendors were selling new PC models," said Lorenz. "By the third quarter of 2011, consumers were buying, the government started making technology purchases, but the corporate market was still not showing significant uptick compared to years when Russia was experiencing triple-digit growth rates."

Easier to Get a PC

"The Russian population is very educated and incomes have been going up significantly for years," said Konash.

According to some estimates, Russia's middle class grew nearly sevenfold between 2000 and 2006, and average monthly salaries climbed from the equivalent of USD$80 in 2000 to USD$750 by the end of 2010.

A growing middle class and declining prices is driving demand for PCs in Russia, which will become the fourth largest PC market in the world in 2012. (Flickr photo)

At the same time, the cost of buying a PC has dropped dramatically across the globe. According to data from Intel, the worldwide price for an average-priced notebook PC was equal to 47.7 working weeks in 1995, which dropped to 5 working weeks by 2010.

Eastern Europe saw prices drop from 25.7 workweeks in 1995 down to 4.2 in 2010. By 2014, the price of an average notebook PC is estimated to equal 2.2 workworks in Eastern Europe, which will be slightly below the worldwide average of 2.3.

"Today many people are walking out of stores with a new laptop and the equivalent of a hundred or so U.S. dollars left in their pocket," said Konash. "That's money they expected to spend but didn't have to. Laptops and smartphones are becoming symbols of productivity and fashion, and this is compelling consumers to consider new or premium products." He said that in late 2011, 20,000 Ultrabook computers shipped to the three main retail networks in Russia sold out after two weeks.

Technology Spreading Across Russia

Tech companies from Taiwan are playing a big role in the diffusion of PCs across Russia, according to Lorenz. "Companies such as Acer and Asus can ship their products to China and through Mongolia to reach Russia," she said. "Acer became very successful between 2006-2007 as they aggressively pushed down prices on their notebooks, and today they have a strong retail presence."

While consumers continue to buy new computers through indirect sales channels, or smaller local shops, momentum is shifting toward large retail chain stores such as Eldorado and Media Markt, according to Konash. He said that the top two computer brands, Acer and Asus, account for 50 percent of consumer PC sales, followed by Samsung and HP.

Inside Russia there are large concentrations of people living and working in cities, and they adopt technology differently than those in more rural locations, according to Lorenz.

"In large cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, one person could own three or more devices, including a work and home PC, mini notebook, smartphone, eReader and possibly a media tablet," she said. "However, in other regions of the country the situation is quite different. We typically see one PC per family in smaller cities and no additional devices."

Like many other emerging markets, Russia's large population has adopted consumer technologies later than many developed economies. But in recent years, Brazil, Russia, India and China have been moving up the ranks, leapfrogging long-time PC market leaders such as the United States, Japan and Germany.

"It will be China, U.S., Brazil and Russia as the world's top four PC markets by the end of 2012," said Konash. That's a dramatic change since 2010 when the biggest PC markets were the U.S. followed by China, Germany and Japan.

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Great Shot: Mother Earth in High-Def

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:21:54 GMT

NASA's High-Res 'Blue Marble' Image is Sharpest Ever

U.S. space agency NASA has released the highest-resolution images ever taken of Earth, capturing in a single view everything from vast deserts to swirling weather systems to polar icecaps.

The images, one of East Africa and Asia, and the other of North and Central America, are eye-popping.

Not since 1972, when the Apollo 17 astronauts snapped the first famous "Blue Marble" photo, has an image of Earth from space created such buzz. NASA recently posted the images on the photo-sharing site Flickr, where they've gone viral.

Data for the images was beamed down from the mini-van-sized Suomi NPP satellite, which is whipping around the planet in a polar orbit once every 102 minutes at an altitude of 512 miles. That's not tree-top level, but for a satellite it's considered low and fast. Telecommunications satellites, typically parked in geostationary orbits, look down from a lofty 22,236 miles. The Apollo shot was snagged from 28,000 miles away.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist Norman Kuring, who created the images, said that he did his data crunching on a custom-built 64-bit Linux desktop system powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU. "It's just a grey box by my desk," he said.

Kuring says his Intel-based machine began chewing through the tens of gigabytes of raw satellite data for each image when he went home to eat dinner. About 4 hours later the job was done.

Using GIMP and other open-source image processing software, Kuring used his system to stitch together multiple bands of color and infrared data from satellite images shot during 6 separate Earth orbits. The result is an utterly seamless mosaic of Earth, floating in the black void of space.

Gaze down at the Nile, snaking north toward the Mediterranean, the green jungles belting equatorial Africa, the Indian subcontinent with Sri Lanka, swaddled in clouds off its southern tip. That image was taken less than 3 weeks ago.

NASA officials say more images may be on the way.

The latest NASA "Blue Marble" images have struck a deep chord with earth inhabitants everywhere. The Americas image has now been viewed 3.5 million times, a new record for a single shot on Flickr.

Officials at NASA have been flooded with press inquiries. As Kuring told Wired, "My guess is that people know that this is the only place we have to live. When they see an image showing these beautiful blues and greens, it speaks to them. This is our home."

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What's an Ultrabook?

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:52:43 GMT

The Sleek Laptops are Now Reaching Store Shelves, but What do Retailers and Consumers Know About Them?

Ultrabooks from Samsung, Asus, Toshiba and other OEMs are now on store shelves. (Flickr photo)

In the wake of the on-going buzz around Ultrabooks, we went looking for the new category of laptop computers in the Sacramento, Calif. area. Visiting retail stores where computers are sold, we asked sales associates to show what they had to offer. Despite all the news and attention Ultrabooks got at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show, we found mixed results in terms of knowledge and awareness:

"Ultrabook. That's a new term for me," said Westin at the Staples in Citrus Heights. "I don't think we have any. [They didn't.] If you want a whiz-bang-fizz laptop I'd go with this HP Pavilion dv7."

Standing in front of an end-cap display featuring the Samsung Series 9, Asus Zenbook and Toshiba Portege Z835, Scott at the Best Buy in Folsom said, "I really like these. Intel has guidelines that have to be met for an Ultrabook to be an Ultrabook. Ultrabooks have mobility, speed and turn on in about 18 seconds."

"We have these," said Jon, pointing out five Ultrabook systems at the Fry's Electronics in Roseville. "If you want mobility and power, the Ultrabook is the way to go," he said before walking through features of the Acer Aspire S3, Asus Zenbook, HP Folio 13, Lenovo Ideapad U300s and Sony Vaio Z series.

Office Max in Natomas had no Ultrabooks among six notebooks on display, but Claudia, who admitted she didn't know what Ultrabooks were, offered to look on the online catalog and found one, the Toshiba Portege Z835. "I checked availability and there's not one available anywhere," she said.

Staples in Roseville had one Ultrabook in the store, the Acer Aspire S3, and Ernest was limited to citing only what was written on the manufacturer's display.

Also with a single Ultrabook was Office Depot in Foothill Farms. Brandon said about the Asus Zenbook UX31E on display, "It's small, great for gaming."

Haylee at the Staples in Folsom said she had never heard of "Ultrabook." The store had zero Ultrabooks on display.

"Ultrabooks, yes," said Nicholas at the Fry's Electronics in Sacramento. "We have these four from Toshiba, Acer, Asus and HP. You'll find that they're lighter, have better battery life and I really like that they have solid-state drives." The store carried three of the same models -- Acer Aspire S3, Asus Zenbook and HP Folio 13 -- as its sister store in Roseville, didn't have the Sony Vaio Z series, but did have the Toshiba Portege on display.

To be fair, Intel's Ultrabook definition may not be widely known as the first systems went to market in the October-November timeframe, with more expected later this year. For the record, an Ultrabook is defined as a security-enabled mobile device with a thin and light design that's less than 21 millimeters thick with ultra-fast startup and extended battery life of 5 to 8 hours.

Ultrabooks must be less than 21mm thick and have extended battery life of 5 to 8 hours. (Flickr photo)

Intel acknowledges that widespread awareness of the Ultrabook among retailers at this early stage may not be strong.

"It will probably be hit-and-miss at retailers until [Ultrabooks] start to get critical mass on shelves," said Brian Fravel, the director of brand strategy at Intel.

Sales associates where Ultrabooks are presently sold should know the basic selling points, according to Jeffrey Maguire, CEO of Pulse LTD, an Ohio-based consulting firm that works with such clients as Best Buy and Intel to help drive consumer experiences through the retail workforce.

For Best Buy's part, the company has been priming its associates since fall, according to Charlie Feidt, category sales manager for Best Buy.

"We started providing information about this new category and its benefits to customers well before Ultrabooks went on sale in-store," he said. "We've teased it through our internal news channels since November and provided extensive online training. We've had a couple of live national conference calls with field leaders and store employees."

As for a computer salesperson who still regards "Ultrabook" as a foreign word, Feidt had this to say:

"I would be disappointed if a sales associate at a store carrying laptops wasn't at least familiar with the term 'Ultrabook'," he said. "That name has been sort of branded over the past few months so they should at least know it's in the thin-and-light category. Just based on all the reports out of CES they should have heard of it."

And what about consumers? What level of brand recognition should they have several months after Ultrabooks debuted in the marketplace? Intel's Fravel said he wouldn't expect more than half of "average people on the street" to have heard of Ultrabooks within the first year of the category's availability.

That may change starting this spring when Intel is scheduled to launch an aggressive marketing campaign for Ultrabooks. At present, Fravel's forecast is in line with the results of a random survey of Sacramento, Calif. area shoppers, albeit taken after only a few months of the new laptop category arriving in retail. Less than a quarter of those asked had heard of Ultrabook.

Consumer awareness is expected to rise as more shelf space is given to Ultrabooks.

"With Christmas inventory just about out, we should see more Ultrabooks in retail in the coming months, which will mean RSPs [retail salespeople] will need to be more up to speed," Fravel said.

The marketing campaign Intel will launch in April, called "A New Era of Computing," may help get customers interested in Ultrabooks in the first place.

"There definitely will be a lot of media in Q2 through Q4," Fravel said, "so if people look for Ultrabook they'll see it."

The TV, print and outdoor ads and online and in-store retail components work both ways, according to Maguire of Pulse.

"Obviously, retail associates are also consumers and come into contact with the totality of the marketing push," he said. "I would expect a very high level of awareness in the associate population, which will translate directly to shoppers on retail sales floors."

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China Mobile Market by the Numbers

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:54:04 GMT

China is the World's Largest Mobile Market with Almost 1 Billion Mobile Internet Users

As we enter the Year of the Dragon, which began Monday with the Chinese New Year, the huge China mobile market is growing at breakneck speed. In 2011, mobile connections increased almost 17 percent and soon will top 1 billion.

Drawn by the both the sheer size of the opportunity and the rapid growth trajectory, mobile handset makers are introducing new phones in an effort to grab a share of the market. This infographic presents the numbers that have major vendors targeting China mobile users in general and smartphone users in particular.

Data sources: IDC and CNNIC

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A Peek Inside Facebook's Oregon Data Center

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:38:02 GMT

Tens of Thousands of Energy-Efficient Servers Handle the Deluge of Data Generated by More Than 800 Million Users

Call it the heart of Facebook. Take an unusual peek inside one of the world's largest data centers, Facebook's monster server farm that opened in April 2011 in the remote desert town of Prineville, Ore., 150 miles east of Portland.

A torrent of data from Facebook's 800 million-plus customers worldwide flows through the servers inside this critical piece of the world's computing infrastructure. And like Facebook itself, the place is expanding like crazy.

Like kids in a candy shop: Facebook invited a team from Intel's server group to take an inside look at Facebook's first built-from-scratch data center. (Facebook had previously leased space from others.) For 18 months, Intel engineers worked with Facebook to design super-efficient custom server board designs for the new facility.

"The collaborative effort pushed Intel to deliver technology for greater efficiency, which will ultimately benefit … data centers across the globe," said Jason Waxman, a general manager of Intel's Data Center Group.

Like! Facebook engineer Joshua Crass holds up a server board he and his team installed at the new data center. The exact number of dual-socket boards is proprietary, but it's "many tens of thousands."

Facebook has another center under construction in North Carolina and has announced plans for a second data center building on the 127-acre Prineville campus. The company has also started construction on a new facility in Lulea, Sweden, that will be powered primarily by renewable energy sources.

Intel's Ray Sardo worked closely with engineers at Facebook to help custom design the server boards and server racks that arrived in Prineville by the truckload every day as the data center was starting up.

"This is the future of data centers," Ray said, adding that a key reason is the efficiency of Intel processors. "There's no need for expensive raised floors to accommodate sophisticated cross-ventilation systems," he said as an example. "Build a large retail box-store kind of building with a concrete pad and you're good to go."

For Facebook, energy efficiency and operational efficiency are extremely important. An Intel server unloaded from a truck can be online within just a few hours. If there happens to be any issues later, Facebook engineers can swap in a new motherboard in just 8 minutes. And they can replace a memory stick in precisely 38 seconds.

Inside Facebook's Prineville data center, you can literally feel the energy efficiency of the processors with your hands. Intel's Sven Haugan (right) and Ritchie Rice are standing inside what is sometimes called the "hot aisle" of a server room -- the back of the racks where fans vent warm (or even hot) air from inside each server.

Facebook officials estimate that by using energy-efficient processors -- and by adopting a variety of other energy-conservation steps -- this data center uses 38 percent less energy than its leased facilities.

Facebook's Prineville data center covers a sprawling 150,000 square feet, and is projected to double in size to 300,000 square feet -- big enough to house five American football fields.

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Cloud Computing Democratizes Digital Animation

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:33:35 GMT

Pay-As-You-Go Datacenter Processing Power Creates Opportunity for Smaller Business

Origami Animation
"To make things move like paper ... is a big challenge. And it required lots of computer crunching power to render graphic images into motion." -- J. Walton (Flickr photo)

While cloud computing may be nothing more than pie in the sky to some, a smaller creative agency in Berkeley, Calif., believes it is driving a real renaissance in digital arts.

John McNeil Studio recently began using on-demand datacenter processing power to help it make computer-generated animations. The agency discovered that it could create high-quality animations in less time at a reasonable price if it offloaded the rendering process to a cloud computing service.

"I could never compete or be able to deliver something at the level of a Pixar or a Disney, given what I have at my disposal inside the walls of the studio," said John McNeil, the chief creative officer and founder of the digital arts and communication company.

"But if I factor in the cloud, all of a sudden I can go there," he said. "And then the limitations of whether or not I can deliver something great will be on my own talent and the talent of the people that are part of the studio."

In September, John McNeil Studio was asked to create an immersive, 3-D animation using origami art to illustrate how a laptop unleashes human creativity. J. Walton, co-director of image and motion at McNeil, knew that the studio's eight MacBook Pros wouldn't allow it to meet the 2-month deadline.

"To make things move like paper, to model characters in 3-D that look like they could've been made from paper and then have the whole thing come together in a way that's natural and tells a story is a big challenge," said Walton. "And it required lots of computer-crunching power to render graphic images into motion."

The need for compute horsepower led Walton and co-director Brandon Kuchta to try Amazon's EC2, or Elastic Compute Cloud. The Amazon service allowed the McNeil team to access the processing power of hundreds of computers to simultaneously render several phases of the animation project and dial up or down the amount of processing power and storage space used for each phase.

"Cloud computing is the first truly democratic, accessible technology that potentially gives everyone a supercomputer ... it's a game changer." -- John McNeil (Flickr photo)

"With Amazon, it's pay as you go, so we can fire up 300 machines at once," said Kuchta. "If we needed them just for a few hours, that's all we would pay for and then we would spin them down until we needed them again."

In contrast, the upfront cost of building an in-house render farm can seem astronomical. "With just eight machines, you could be looking at $50,000," said Kuchta. With only four big projects a year, he said that kind of investment might not be fully utilized.

"The cloud helped us finish in a timely manner," said Walton. "We had 9,000 hours of rendering that had to take place. On one machine, that takes a year and yet we had a week to do the rendering phase of this particular project. If we were to try and render this project on our internal render farm, we're talking more like 6 weeks to render everything."

"We now realize that we have a big behemoth behind us that can render just about anything we throw at it," said Walton. "We don't have to lower quality or spend so much time fine tuning how long something is going to render; we actually can just get it going and move on to the next scene."

From Big to Tiny Screens and in Between

"We're seeing more and more artistic expressions that are borne out of the technology," said McNeil. "There's a much closer relationship between how you're creating the art at the onset and how it's going to be deployed digitally as an interactive program."

Rebecca Lieb, a digital advertising and media analyst at Altimeter, isn't seeing a rise in demand for high- production animations by advertisers. "End users don't have the latest browser or hardware required to play cutting-edge experiences," she said. But she says that Immersive Lab's interactive retail billboard, Intel's Museum of Me and even Burger King's Subservient Chicken are just a few examples of companies creating engaging digital experiences, which are often designed for TV or the Internet, and sometimes both.

"With Amazon, it's pay as you go, so we can fire up 300 machines at once. If we needed them just for a few hours, that's all we would pay for." -- Brandon Kuchta (Flickr photo)

Hype or Game Changer

According to the Cisco Cloud Index, there will be 12 times more cloud computing traffic processed inside datacenters by 2015 compared with the amount of traffic in 2010. Yet Jon Peddie, a technology analyst and president of JPR research, doesn't see cloud services as a major disruptor to the digital arts industry. Rather, he says it has more to do with Moore's Law, which generally states that computing performance continues to increase over time while the cost drops.

"Using servers on a demand basis is certainly more economical than having your own rendering farm and the incumbent support and overhead associated with it," Peddie said. "But there is no free lunch," he warned. "All potentially faster and cheaper rendering does is move the problem to another part of the pipeline."

Peddie points to Blinn's Law, which states that as technology advances, rendering time remains constant because rather than using improvements in hardware to save time, artists tend to employ it to render more complex graphics. The axiom is named for Jim Blinn, a computer scientist who created animations for NASA's Voyager project and worked on the Carl Sagan "Cosmos" documentaries.

"So the 'cloud' raises the quality level, and may reduce some of the overhead and costs for smaller firms, but not much else changes."

McNeil says that the business model for his studio simply would not work without affordable technologies like cloud clouding, and the common, almost consumer-level software and hardware available today.

"This allows me to have designers working next to motion graphics people, working next to people doing web development, working next to people finishing video, working next to people editing video, working next to people writing scripts," McNeil said. "And that creates a really interesting opportunity for us."

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CES 2012: Measuring Social Conversations Amid the Noise

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:08:57 GMT

A Look Inside the Social Cockpit Intel is Using to Discover and Analyze What's Getting the Most Buzz on Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and YouTube

The online heartbeat of the Consumer Electronics Show is being monitored in real time by a team of data analysts and algorithm coders.

In a small private room above Intel's booth on the trade show floor, members of the company's social media team and a small group from WCG, a Texas-based communications agency, are monitoring the mass of conversations happening around CES. They are using a proprietary Adobe Air-based desktop application to collect and make sense of the buzz generated online by people either attending or following CES on blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Social media activity about CES shared in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is tracked, then analyzed hour-by-hour using software created by Texas-based firm WCG. (Flickr photo)

The goal: measure the pulse and meaningful movements of the social Web, something akin to how the Bloomberg Terminal gives minute-by-minute information about stock markets and financial news.

"We can see live 'the share of voice' for companies like Apple, Google, Intel, HP and Microsoft and see how it changes during news announcements or keynotes," said Aaron Strout, a group director at WCG.

Strout's team is tracking much more than just CES Twitter hashtags. They have crafted a complete "social cockpit" based on the agency's proprietary search and analytic software that tracks and collects data such as Facebook Newsfeed posts and Likes, Tweets that mention leading tech brands, Fan Page and Twitter follower growth, popularity of YouTube videos as well as posts from top technology blogs and forums. The cockpit serves as a constantly updating dashboard that fills several large monitors so the teams can track in real time who is getting share of voice, and generally, what people are saying and about what products and what companies.

The so-called "social cockpit," a social dashboard, displays online buzz about companies making Ultrabooks, a hot new item at CES this year. (Flickr photo)

"We can identify who is talking online about a company or a product at CES," said Strout. "Are they from the general public? Are they influencers? Are they company representatives? And from this we look at what company and product they're talking about and what hashtags they are using."

"There seems to still be high expectation around tablets," said Strout about 6 hours into the first official day of CES. "But we're seeing more mentions of mobile in general and about Android specifically and Ultrabooks, shifting the weight away from the specific topic of tablets."

Strout says he's taking an even deeper dive into buzz around Ultrabooks to see how CES is impacting a handful of Ultrabook makers. Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba were all showing up as of late Tuesday afternoon before Dell announced its new XPS13 Ultrabook during [Intel President and CEO] Paul Otellini's keynote later that day.

Acknowledging that others may be using competitive monitoring technology such as Radian6, Strout still believes his team is collecting and presenting analyses swiftly and perhaps more actionable than anyone else at CES.

"The way of the future is to collect data then apply logic and algorithms to create an easily digestible story that you can act upon," he said.

Intel Smartphone Reference Design Shortens Development Time

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:38:06 GMT

The Android Phone Features a High-Resolution 4.03-Inch LCD Screen; Battery Life Is Expected to Be up to 8 Hours for 3G Voice Calls

Intel's Smartphone Reference design was getting a lot of attention at CES and may have finally put Intel firmly in the phone game.

The Intel Smartphone Reference Design was developed to help reduce development time and costs for phone OEMs and carriers. (Flickr photo)

The idea behind the reference design is to speed development time for phone manufacturers that, in turn, can focus on adding additional features and software. The phone features a high-resolution 4.03-inch LCD screen and is running Android Gingerbread OS on the company's Medfield phone platform. A company representative said versions of the phone are also running Ice Cream Sandwich but none were being shown publicly at CES.

Battery life on the reference phone, according to Intel, is expected to be up to 8 hours for a standard 3G voice call with standby power lasting up to 14 days. The phone also features a paparazzi-like "burst mode" that allows users to fire off 15 photos (from either one of two cameras on board) in about a second with 8-megapixel resolution.

Mike Bell, general manager of Intel's Mobile and Communications Group, joined Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini onstage at the CES keynote Tuesday afternoon to show the phone more broadly, but it was already getting the lion's share of attention earlier in the day at Intel's booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Otellini announced two new customers (Lenovo and Motorola) but it wasn't clear whether either of these customers would be using the reference design as part of their go-to-market strategy. At a Credit Suisse conference last month, Otellini did say customers would be using the "guts" of the reference design in phones coming out later this year.

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CES 2012: Celebrities Abound at Vegas Tech Event

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:34:28 GMT

Justin Bieber, Snooki, Eliza Dushku and 50 Cent Are Among the Household Names and Cult Favorites That Will Make the Scene at the Consumer Electronics Show

With a galaxy of stars from all walks of entertainment committed to appear at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the giant Las Vegas trade event could seem more like a Hollywood awards show than a worldwide showcase of gadgets and gizmos.

On what could be perceived as one long 1.8 million-square-foot red carpet, CES once again will be a "Who's Who" of celebritydom headlined by A-listers who historically make unannounced cameos during keynotes at the invitation of major corporations. Past years have seen Yahoo welcome Tom Cruise, Intel salute Robert Redford and Sony delighting the audience with Tom Hanks, to name a recent few.

Canadian pop phenom Justin Bieber will appear at CES on behalf of TOSY Robotics, which is unveiling an "entertainment robot." (Flickr photo)

Sports legends are also getting in on the annual act, signed on to sign autographs for those among the expected 140,000 attendees with patience to stand in lines and toil for a quality celebrity sighting.

Arguably the biggest name announced is Canadian pop phenom Justin Bieber, who will stump for Vietnamese firm TOSY Robotics, which is rolling out an "entertainment robot."

More marketing-driven music will be made by rapper 50 Cent on behalf of SMS Audio, his own brand of headphones and accessories. Not to be outdone, rapper-actor LL Cool J is mashing up with Dolby Laboratories to promote Boomdizzle, a record label and social networking website he founded. Enduring rock band Chicago will no doubt draw a different crowd for Monster at its annual Retailer Awards and Concert. Popular DJ Tiesto will appear at Intel's booth and perform at a concert to promote a Web series that debuts later this month on his YouTube channel.

Nicole Polizzi, aka "Snooki" of "Jersey Shore" will be at CES to promote Zeikos USA's new line of iHip audio accessories. (Flickr photo)

TV stars and stars made on TV also will abound. Nicole Polizzi, aka "Snooki" of "Jersey Shore" fame, will promote Zeikos USA's new line of iHip audio accessories. Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, will saunter on the show floor to remind folks that her successor will be crowned live on ABC TV on Jan. 14, not uncoincidentally in Las Vegas.

Another reigning titleholder, 2011 "Project Runway" winner Anya Ayoung-Chee, will discuss at Intel's booth how technology plays an important role in her life as a fashion designer. Former Miss America host and Emmy Award-winning talk show host Wayne Brady will join "Heroes" star Greg Grunberg for OnStar's Tweet House sessions, the official social media track for CES.

Eliza Dushku from "Dollhouse" and "Angel" will contribute to Spike TV's "CES All Access Live" broadcast coverage and host the network's private CES party. (Flickr photo)

As ambassador of CES' Entertainment Matters program, geared to the film, TV and digital communities, actress Eliza Dushku from "Dollhouse" and "Angel" will contribute to Spike TV's "CES All Access Live" broadcast coverage and host the network's private CES party.

It will be a wide world of sports at CES with such retired greats as Dennis Rodman. The provocative NBA Hall of Famer will help Paltalk launch its FireTalk calling and texting product. Rodman's former Los Angeles Laker teammates Robert Horry and John Salley will make appearances at Haier America's booth. Retired New York Giants linebacker Carl Banks will be at the iHip booth and Alistair Overeem, current Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder, will add brawn to Qualcomm's space.

Others scheduled to appear at CES include celebrity chef Allison Fishman; TV fitness guru Jillian Michaels; hip-hop dance troupe Jabbawockeez; three directors of James Bond films and former "Bond Girls" Olga Kurylenko ("Quantum of Solace") and Caterina Murino ("Casino Royale"); and Gary Dell'Abate and Jon Hein from SiriusXM Radio's Howard Stern channels.

And, oh yeah, there might also be Windows 8 tablets, Ultrabooks, quad-core smartphones and new Android handsets. Good luck to these upcoming tech stars on not being upstaged at a consumer electronics show.

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CES: Intel Demos Translucent Touchpad Concept PC

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:37:57 GMT

The Nikiski's See-Through Touchpad with a Translucent Screen Allows Users to See Status Updates, News Feeds, Messages and Calendar Items without Opening the Lid

Intel showed off an "Ivy Bridge" laptop concept that featured a large see-through touchpad with a translucent screen. The demo product created quite a stir at the company's Ultrabook press conference Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

That's right, a concept laptop that wasn't even an Ultrabook almost stole the Ultrabook show.

Intel software engineer Peter Adamson said the concept system, codenamed "Nikiski" with the second "k" reversed, was really designed to show "a usage model that we think people might use" and was clearly designed to show potential Ultrabook usages as well.

The "Nikiski" concept laptop has a large touchpad that runs the length of the keypad. Translucency allows it to serve as a see-through window when the lid is closed. (Flickr photo)

The laptop was running Intel's "Chief River" platform using the next-generation Intel Core processors coming later this year. It featured a relatively standard (by Ultrabook standards) 20mm chassis, but judging by the crowds that rushed the stage after the press conference to get a closer look, the idea might be a winner. Ivy Bridge processors will play a key role in Ultrabooks this year, as the company seeks further enhancements in power efficiency and performance.

The "Nikiski" system featured a large touchpad that runs the length of the keypad. Translucency allows it to serve as a see-through window when the lid was closed. When open, the touchpad will recognize the difference between finger-tip scrolling and the palm of your hand resting on it while typing. When closed, a see- through window/tablet concept allows you to view news feeds, messages and calendar items without opening the lid.

The demo system was running Windows 7, but when closed the see-thru window had a very familiar tile-based user interface reminiscent of the Windows 8 Metro look and feel. Adamson said that was a coincidence; the tiles had been demonstrated before Microsoft showed its new Metro UI. The company had only recently begun to show it off more broadly to customers, however, and Adamson said he was anxious to show it to more OEMs. Oh yeah, and Nikiski? "I think it's the name of a valley in North Korea but don't hold me to that," said Adamson, who added, "we're not always that good on our geographic naming."

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Stephen Hawking's New PC

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:04:02 GMT

The Acclaimed Physicist and Author of "A Brief History of Time" Uses a Custom-Built PC That's Hand Delivered and Set Up for His Use

For a man who was diagnosed with a devastating motor neuron disease at age 21 and given just 3 years to live, brilliant British scientist Stephen Hawking, who celebrated his 70th birthday Sunday, continues to amaze.

Despite his severe physical disabilities, the University of Cambridge professor has advanced the theories of physics and cosmology, including the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation.

His 1988 bestseller, "A Brief History of Time," sold 9 million copies and made him one of the world's most famous and popular scientists (complete with a guest role on "The Simpsons" TV show).

Intel application engineer Travis Bonifield has been working closely with Hawking to communicate with the world for a decade. He's traveled from the United States to England every few years to hand-deliver Hawking a customized PC.

Here, Bonifield talks about the unique project, the technology that powers the customized system and how Intel co-founder Gordon Moore got Hawking to switch from AMD to Intel.

Travis Bonifield (from left to right), Rob Weatherly, an Intel employee who provides IT support for Hawking, Sam Blackburn, graduate assistant for Hawking, and Stephen Hawking. (Flickr photo)

How did you come to be the guy who helps Stephen Hawking?

Another engineer who was already working on this project transitioned it over to me back in 2001, and I've been running with it ever since. It's not my full-time job. I'm an application engineer supporting mobile and desktop chipsets.

What technology does Stephen use?

The computer is made up of three parts: a Lenovo X220 tablet PC, a custom black box containing various peripherals and the hardware voice itself. The computer features an Intel Core i7 processor along with a forward-facing webcam, which Stephen uses to place phone calls using Skype.

Underneath the wheelchair is the black box, which contains an audio amplifier, voltage regulators and a USB hardware key that receives the input from the IR sensor on Stephen's eyeglasses. The hardware voice synthesizer sits in another black box on the back of the chair and receives commands from the computer via a USB-based serial port.

How does Stephen control what comes out of his voice synthesizer?

When I first met Stephen, he still had some use in his thumbs. In fact, he'd still attempt to drive his own wheelchair. He pinned me against the wall once [laughs]. He had basically a clicker, a binary switch that he held in his hand. He'd press it with his thumb to highlight the words or commands on the computer screen. He was typing at about one word per minute when I first met him. He was actually pretty snappy with it.

Over time the nerve that allowed him to move his thumbs degraded, and he had to find another way to communicate. They originally talked about using one of his pectoral muscles and putting a sensor there. He wasn't too thrilled with that idea.

What he's got now is an infrared sensor hanging off of his glasses. It basically detects the changes in light as he twitches his cheek. They call it the "cheek switch."

Could technology help speed up his word output?

Stephen sent a letter to [Intel co-founder] Gordon Moore several months ago in which he said, "My speech input is very, very slow these days. Is there any way Intel could help?"

Since that time, we've gotten a couple of groups at Intel involved with looking at what can be done to help Stephen. This is still very early on. XTL, the Experience Technology Lab, is looking at facial recognition software to try to come up with some sort of a new input method for Stephen that would be quicker than what he's currently using.

Did Intel's involvement result directly from conversations between Gordon Moore and Stephen Hawking?

Stephen and Gordon met at a conference around 1997. Gordon noted that Stephen was using an AMD machine. Gordon asked Stephen, "Would you like to use an Intel computer moving forward? We'd be happy to build that for you and support it."

Stephen said yes, and we've been building these custom PCs for him ever since. We've done an average of one every 2 years or so.

Intel engineer Travis Bonifield holds a replica of the custom PC he recently created for Stephen Hawking. (Flickr photo)

When you take it to Stephen, do you fly commercial holding the customized PC on your lap?

I actually take two systems out to Stephen [one is a backup]. One year I packed them in cases, checked them in as luggage and the airlines lost them for three days. The year after that I thought I'd ship them ahead of time. They got held up in customs for 3 days. This time I got lucky. My luggage showed up with me [laughs].

Was this year's deployment a success?

The interesting thing around this time is all the hardware work was finished within a few hours on the first day. It's configuring all the software that really took a long time. I think that's due to some customizations that Stephen's assistant has made in recent years.

This is also the fastest computer we've ever deployed to Stephen. We found out that when you turn on the computer, it's supposed to basically come up with all his applications and programs and his Words+ speech synthesizer software right from the get-go. But what we were finding out is that it would start all those applications so fast that it didn't have time to initialize the hardware devices yet.

So his voice application would be started, but the security key for the voice application wouldn't be initialized yet. We actually had to put some startup delays in and make it wait 5 seconds so that the hardware devices could finish being initialized by the time the CPU started running all those applications.

Who provides tech support if his computer has problems?

Robert Weatherly in the Intel Swindon [U.K.] office. He's the feet on the ground, a couple hours' drive away.

What does your family think about you working with Stephen Hawking?

My wife's stepmother is a teacher. She shares what I'm doing with her middle school students [laughs]. Personally, it's interesting to build something that no one else is building. I debug things for a living and it's a job I enjoy.

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CES: Smaller Exhibitors Gamble on Show Floor Location

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:38:33 GMT

Being Beside Big Brands Can Mean Added Attention for Smaller Exhibitors, but Trade Show Veterans Know It Can Yield Mixed Results

How does a "little fish" exhibitor attract attention in the enormous pond that is the gigantic International Consumer Electronics Show?

It's a challenge for companies of more modest stature. But when smaller trade show booths are placed nearby well-known brands that command thousands of square feet of valuable Las Vegas real estate it's a Catch 22 situation -- the same household names that dwarf the smaller exhibitors can also bring in a bonanza of business.

Looking to capitalize on the halo effect of being neighbors with Sony, one of the largest CES exhibitors at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is Se-Kure Controls, a security solutions provider that has no problem playing David to someone else's Goliath.

"When you're right next to a monster trade show booth you're going to get some exposure just by fact that so many people come to visit the larger players in the industry," said Mike Briggs, an executive vice president with the Illinois-based manufacturer. "You can't help but have someone notice your existence."

That's no easy task for a 150-employee company vying for attention next to Sony, which last year wowed passersby with a 90-foot-wide, HD 3-D LED display and the bullet-riddled Black Beauty car from the "Green Hornet" movie.

"The question is how do we make it appealing for people to come across the aisle?" said Briggs, who will be conducting business in a 20x40 space. "That's a challenge with attendees not coming by specifically to see anti-shoplifting devices. We hope that people who come to Sony will peek across the aisle."

Models (or "booth babes") intended to rev up the engines of attendees are commonplace among car audio exhibitors. (Flickr photo)

As added bait, Se-Kure Controls isn't going with provocatively attired ladies -- that's for the car audio section in another exhibit hall -- but instead giving away convex mirrors with "Welcome to Las Vegas" printed on them to anyone who stops by and registers on its website. The company understands that with a consumer technology show like CES the freebie won't always fall in the hands of security purchase decision makers; but plans to use more targeted promotions expected at the other nine trade shows on Se-Kure Controls' 2012 calendar, all dedicated to retail, hardware and security.

Near Canon, Monster and Samsung Electronics, another small exhibitor understands the need for a giveaway to lure attendees from its grander next-door neighbors, but Hatzlachh Supply may not know what that is until the first day of the show.

"It might depend on how the owners wake up in the morning," said Boaz Nagar, IT director of the New York-based home electronics manufacturer. "We always have something."

Thirty-plus years of CES exhibiting experience tell the manufacturer of Broksonic TVs that gimmicks such as prize draws help increase foot traffic, but they also jack up expenses and work only to a certain extent.

"We've gone as small as giving away pens and key chains and as large as having people win TVs and VCRs, but there's no guarantee of a return on investment," Nagar said. "One of the reasons is that being next to a giant isn't always good. [It] depends on what they're selling. If the giants are selling the same thing as you are, it's not good."

Samsung's 25,000-square-foot booth is on one side of Hatzlachh and has some overlap of product lines, but that's not the case with Casio and its 10,000 square feet on the other side.

"Overall, I prefer being next to the giants," said Nagar, whose company's 30x40-foot booth last year was in the shadow of not only Samsung and Casio, but Sharp Electronics as well.

Moving several feet closer to a hall entrance should improve visibility for Hatzlachh's 1,200-square-foot booth this year, Nagar said, noting that the new location reduces the chance of his company's booth being throttled by large walls of a major exhibitor. "That," he said, "can be a big, big problem."

Designed with no barricade-type walls other than on the backside, Intel's 10,000-square-foot booth will not be a problem for any of its neighbors. Its only direct neighbors, in fact, are Microsoft and Dolby Laboratories, which sport large digs.

Still, Harald Wilhelm of the Intel's corporate events group does have empathy for the smallest players on the vast field.

"It's not a given that you benefit positively from being next to a big fish," he said. "It really depends on where you are located next to that big fish and who the big fish is. It doesn't help if you are on the back wall of another company's live stage where nobody has a tendency to go, nor does it necessarily help you to market your product if the big guys have noisy activity 8 hours a day."

Live music is a favorite attention-getter for exhibitors at CES.(Flickr photo)

The promise of a steady hullabaloo from two NBA legends and a celebrity chef next door has Toronto-based Curtis International experiencing mixed emotions leading into CES. The home electronics manufacturer and distributor said it welcomes the added traffic retired NBA stars Robert Horry and John Salley and celebrity chef Allison Fishman may attract across the aisle at the Haier America booth, but not the company isn't sure about the type of attendee they will draw.

"It's a business show for us so we like to attract business decision makers," said Alex Herzog, a sales manager with Curtis. "A couple of years ago we were next to Lady Gaga [at the Polaroid booth] and it didn't bring in purchasers and other decision makers from each retail organization."

Herzog does see a silver lining to the expected hordes that will visit the Haier booth to watch cooking demonstrations and seek autographs from sports legends.

"The upside is we're able to draw additional attendees and connect with them from the ground up," he said. "Lady Gaga attracted people walking the show for enjoyment, but it was still valuable to talk to them. I think it will be the same for those coming to see the celebrity chef. At the very least we could get some samples."

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6 WiDi Questions, Answered

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:42:40 GMT

Wireless Display Connection Technology Lets People Connect a Laptop to a TV without a Tangle of Cables

1. What is WiDi?

WiDi, the popular name for Intel Wireless Display, is a display connection technology that allows people to extend their laptop screen to their TV -- no cable required.

Introduced in 2010, Intel WiDi now supports up to 1080p high-def resolution, 5.1 multi-channel audio and HDCP, which means you can now beam DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and movies over the air.

WiDi has drawn praise in media reviews from its launch. Engadget was "bowled over from the start" and PC Magazine called it "the hottest sleeper technology" of 2010. Laptop Magazine included WiDi among its 25 most innovative products of 2010 and Popular Science named it one of the best new computing products of the year.

2. What can I do with WiDi?

WiDi works like an HDMI cable connected to your TV, allowing you to multi-task on the laptop screen while another application or media player runs on the TV screen, except you can keep your laptop on your lap -- no cable. Imagine watching on TV the video you made of your kid's birthday party while telling your friends on Facebook how glad you are that it's over.

While some set-top boxes, game consoles and Blu-ray players offer internet services, they're usually limited to a vendor-chosen subset of services enabled on the device. With WiDi, no such limitation exists. Tour Google Earth, explore massive photo mashups, play the latest pre-beta music service -- if it's on your computer, and you can beam it to your big screen (and big speakers if you have a receiver that takes HDMI).

3. How does WiDi work?

Processor graphics render a second virtual display, which is broadcast via WiFi through a feature in Intel Centrino wireless chipsets called My WiFi. On the TV side, a receiver converts the signal and passes it to the TV. The receiver is available as an add-on adapter and a growing number of multifunction TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes are coming to market with WiDi receiver adapters built in.

The connection between the laptop and the adapter is managed by Intel WiDi software that runs on the laptop -- the wireless driver, graphics driver and wireless display software are available for download from Intel. An additional app called Intel WiDi Widget simplifies the task of configuring the Windows settings to achieve the correct resolution and displays the active window on the TV with a single click.

4. Where can I find WiDi devices?

WiDi is available in more than 100 laptop designs in virtually every major market around the world. Belkin, Netgear, D-Link and other OEMs offer display adapters.

Online, several retailers and OEMs allow you to search for laptops that have "wireless display." Best Buy, for instance, has a page with details about WiDi and dozens of compatible machines.

In stores, look for the Intel WiDi logo.

5. What offerings compete with WiDi?

Imation and Veebeam both sell adapters based on wireless USB that include a base that connects to the TV and a USB dongle for the laptop.

6. What's next for WiDi?

In 2012, look for WiDi to spread beyond laptops to other Intel powered devices. It's already cropping up on all-in-one desktops such as the Dell Inspiron One.

Consumers can expect to see WiDi receiver adapters integrated into selected consumer electronics devices, running as an application on Blu-ray players or even directly on TVs (LG has announced plans to incorporate WiDi into its TVs). And Intel has been supporting the new industry standard for a wireless display protocol called Wi-Fi Display, which will be supported in future versions of WiDi.

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Behind the Scenes with Intel's Tom Kilroy

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:02:48 GMT

An Inside Look At How the Leader of Intel's Sales and Marketing Group Spends His Day

As head of Intel's sales and marketing, Tom Kilroy believes that "selling" is only a small portion of what his organization accomplishes every day.

While selling products is the end goal, a mind-boggling number of things must occur before a laptop designer decides to use Intel chips or a customer brings home his or her shiny new Ultrabook. As one of the top executives, Kilroy is deeply engaged in the business of Intel, from smartphones to servers. He and his team either own or engage in everything from market forecasting and customer relationships to brainstorming the next ad campaign and chasing design wins with an increasingly diverse set of products.

Kilroy began his career at Intel as a regional sales manager and rose through the ranks to run the Reseller Channel Organization and the Americas Sales and Marketing Organization. He also was co-manager of Intel's largest business, the former Digital Enterprise Group, at a time when Intel was facing stiff competition in servers from AMD several years ago. From there Kilroy took over the reins of sales and marketing in 2009 from Executive Vice President Sean Maloney.

For a glimpse at an average day, follow Kilroy through his day at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara.

10:12 a.m. -- Kilroy and his technical assistant (TA), Brent Young, quickly walk through a presentation for Intel's board of directors the next day. The two men make rapid-fire tweaks and decisions. Young, who was an open source software strategist for 4 years before becoming his TA, characterizes Kilroy as a "non-power-oriented dude," a leader who is strong but even-keeled.

10:38 a.m. -- In front of an audience of employees in Santa Clara, with hundreds more attending via webcast, Kilroy presents a quarterly business update.

11:46 a.m. -- Most of the questions in the business update are about Intel's Ultrabook efforts. "This happens once in a decade," he says. "We had the opportunity with Centrino to change the game -- we need to do that again." He says that unlike Centrino, which took a while to get partners on board, Intel's Ultrabook customers are excited about refreshing the PC. We've been able to turn the idea of an Ultrabook -- which was first publicly mentioned at Computex in May -- into reality in less than 6 months.

12:02 p.m. -- Young and Kilroy discuss their trip to Mexico City as they walk back to the Robert Noyce Building on Intel's Santa Clara campus. World travel is a huge part of his job -- Kilroy usually heads out on an international trip two to three times a quarter to meet with customers, employees, partners and press. This road warrior's secret? "Staying in reasonable shape," he says. "I have always been an early riser and when I can, I try to get a run in before heading to work." He ran four miles this morning -- and was extra-energized from watching his favorite football team, the Chicago Bears, win last night.

12:05 p.m. -- On the way to lunch, Kilroy pauses to shake hands and chat with Intel China Chairman Sean Maloney, who himself ran the Sales and Marketing organization and now heads up Intel's efforts in China. They have a long relationship, dating back to the early 1990s when Kilroy was Intel's regional sales manager in Chicago. Since then, their roles have crisscrossed many times. "Sean is the ultimate role model when it comes to creating a sense of urgency to drive results," says Kilroy. "Over the years I've learned so much from him as a boss, a business partner and a friend."

12:10 p.m. -- In the Intel cafeteria, Kilroy makes his usual lunch -- a simple turkey flatbread sandwich with light mayo, a bag of chips and a Granny Smith apple. He takes his lunch back up to his conference room in the Robert Noyce Building to eat during a meeting with one of his top sales managers.

1:32 p.m. -- Kilroy joins another packed conference room with other top executives for a briefing on market supply and demand.

2:16 p.m. -- Kilroy considers fun and offbeat ideas for his keynote address at Intel's upcoming sales and marketing conference.

3:05 p.m. -- Kilroy sits down with Phillip Davis from employee communications to talk about the development of the Ultrabook for a story in an internal employee publication. Kilroy meets regularly with members of the external press and often conducts sit-down interviews on each of his international trips to talk about what he's up to and what the business trends are.

3:41 p.m. -- Across a long conference room table, Kilroy and Young lay out printed PowerPoint slides for an upcoming presentation. Starting from the beginning, Kilroy makes adjustments and shuffles slides around. "It's important to always tell a story when you are presenting," he says. "I like being able to lay out the slides, step back and see how the story flows and comes together."

4:31 p.m. -- Kilroy peeks out of the conference room where he takes many of his regular meetings after talking to one of several employees whom he informally mentors. "He likes to grow talent," says Young, who also calls Kilroy his mentor. "He has a real eye for people who can excel and thinks it's important to invest time coaching Intel's future leaders."

5:02 p.m. -- Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president, Mooly Eden, vice president, and others attend a quarterly meeting with Kilroy designed to review expected demand and revenue in the coming quarters.

7:15 p.m. -- Kilroy meets a customer for dinner at a steakhouse in Palo Alto. He has a regular beat of customer meetings each week and thinks discussions over drinks and a meal are the most valuable. "They tend to be more open and allow for relationship building."

6:30 a.m. -- Barely 8 hours after his customer meeting wrapped up the previous night, Kilroy walks back into the Robert Noyce Building, looking forward to getting some work done before the drumbeat of meetings begins.

7:15 a.m. -- Sitting at his desk on the 5^{th floor of the Robert Noyce Building, just a few cubes away from President and CEO Paul Otellini, Kilroy goes over his calendar for the day and wades through overnight email.}

7:34 a.m. -- In a one-on-one meeting with Tara Kalavade, a regional sales director, Kilroy listens to her thoughts on first-time buyers. "There is no one-voice of the first-time buyer," she says.

10:15 a.m. -- Kilroy walks into the Intel board of directors meeting. In these bi-monthly meetings he frequently presents the state of the business.

Kilroy finishes off yet another busy day with a series of meetings: a brainstorm session, a management review committee and a few more coaching one-on-ones. That evening, he heads home to kick back and relax. "This snapshot of time with me captured a diversity of work," he says, "that hopefully conveys why I'm so energized and inspired and really love my job."

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CES Remains Biggest Stage for Tech Industry

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:30:50 GMT

Despite Microsoft's announcement that 2012 will be its last CES, the technology trade show is poised for the biggest turnout in years.

Riding a wave that has seen launches of tablets, Android devices and connected TVs over the past couple of years, the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas looks for another booster shot of relevance despite Apple's continued absence and Microsoft's recently announced swan song.

Momentum carried by recent years of increased key announcements and positive trade show numbers may have taken a hit with Microsoft announcing that the 2012 show will be its last as an exhibitor and keynoter. In a blog post, Frank Shaw, Microsoft's corporate communications vice president, wrote that the company's product news milestones "generally don't align" with the January timing of CES.

"As we look at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories -- from product momentum disclosures, to exciting events like our Big Windows Phone, to a range of consumer connection points like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft.com and our retail stores -- it feels like the right time to make this transition," Shaw wrote.

Time will tell whether another tech event will benefit from Microsoft pulling out of the show. CES, however, has been on the positive end of another trade show's demise. The collapse of COMDEX in 2004 -- which some industry observers attribute, in part, to IBM abandoning the show in 1997 – laid out the welcome mat for non-traditional companies to make major announcements in Las Vegas each January. A recent example is Ford Motor Co. launching its Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 CES instead of the North American International Auto Show.

COMDEX's fall also opened the door for CES to become the No. 1 trade show in the United States by attendance. CES registration jumped the first 3 years there wasn't a COMDEX, including 2006 when a record 152,203 attended. The economic downturn saw numbers drop until 2010, and in 2011 CES was just 471 registrants shy of again reaching the 150,000 milestone.

By show floor size alone, CES is the world's largest consumer tech show. The 2012 CES trade show will sprawl across 1.8 million square feet, larger than the 1.6 million square feet of space in 2011. That figure, along with 2,700 exhibitors the hosting Consumer Electronics Association said will be at the show, will equal the 2007 event, held 11 months before what economists peg as the start of the most recent global financial crisis.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivers his keynote address at CES 2011, where he provided updates on Kinect for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, and also previewed several new Windows PC devices coming to market. Microsoft has said the 2012 CES will be its last. (Flickr photo)

Long-time CES attendee Danielle Levitas, an IDC analyst, has seen the show's ups and downs first-hand.

"It felt like CES was about to explode in 2006, when attendance hit astonishing numbers," Levitas said. "Then the global crisis hit and understandably, attendance dropped. But it has rebounded and seems to be going strong."

For the worldwide media and analysts covering CES, the number of attendees and square footage pale in importance compared to the show-and-tell over four busy days. The CEA expects more than 20,000 new products to be launched at the show, which has one veteran product reviewer upbeat.

"A few years ago there was a sentiment that CES was becoming less relevant because of certain companies dropping out and other reasons, but you don't hear that lately," said Steve Kruschen, better known as "Mr. Gadget" to television and radio audiences.

"What's helped is adding new things," said Kruschen, who is about to attend his 29^{th CES. "I've long been an advocate that the CEA expand in housewares, which I call kitchen electronics, and consumer-type medical equipment. They were missing the boat by not including those types of products for so many years. By doing so they've kept CES more relevant than ever."}

As for the 20,000 product launches organizers said will be made at CES, Kruschen said exhibitors can actually help the show maintain its significance by taking a less is more approach.

"From tablets with usability issues, interface issues and other issues to products that don't fill a need or have an audience -- we journalists are constantly amused, and not in a good way, when we ask ourselves, 'Why on Earth did they introduce that at CES?'"

Ironically, the same company that Kruschen cited as doing a good job in that department is also absent from the long scroll of 2012 CES exhibitors.

"Apple focuses its stuff at a time and place of its choosing, only introducing a product when it's ready," he said. "Too bad others don't do the same."

Attendees rush into the Central Hall from the Grand Lobby at the 2011 CES, which came 471 registrants shy of reaching 150,000 in attendance for the first time since 2006. (Flickr photo)

Apple, which in the past said that coming up with a dazzling show and mind-blowing new products every January was "unsustainable," may still be the biggest elephant in the room, but it won't be invisible at CES. Apple will be represented by several attendees, according to the CEA, and it will have strong presence at the expanded iLounge pavilion for companies in the business of Apple hardware and accessories.

The CES Effect

Just as CES draws attendees and exhibitors from many walks of commerce, so does the city that has hosted the event since 1978. Las Vegas is expected to be named North America's No. 1 trade show destination for the 18^{th straight year when Trade Show News Network's 2011 list is announced.}

"CES was one of the first to come here on an annual basis, and it's been great to watch it grow along with Las Vegas as a destination," said Jeremy Handel of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

For the local hospitality scene, CES kicks off the convention season in a big way. MGM Resorts International, whose portfolio includes some of the biggest names on the Strip, said that CES is the highest-grossing trade show for the company annually, even in less than stellar years.

"CES delegates fill our restaurants, shows, retail stores and, of course, our guest rooms, generating nearly 25 percent of our annual room revenue for the month in one week," said Richard Harper, an executive vice president for the company behind
Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, MGM Grand and other major Las Vegas properties.

By the time the last Teamster clocks out, CES 2012 is expected to bring in over $153 million to the Las Vegas area, according to the convention authority, and that doesn't include what attendees will drop in the casinos.

"That's a lot of relevance," Handel said.

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CES 2012: Analysts Pick Top Tech to Watch

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:21:33 GMT

Tablets, Big TVs, Home Automation Technologies, Ultrabooks and Win8 Will Be Buzzworthy, but Analysts Aren't Expecting Any Blockbusters at the Upcoming Consumer Electronics Show

It may be little things with limited sales potential, such as the intelligent Nest digital home thermostat, that will generate the biggest buzz at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Technology analysts expect that most new consumer products revealed at the Las Vegas trade show will merely be iterations of things that are already on the market. Despite that outlook, there's hope for innovation in home automation, car technology, Ultrabooks, Win8 and new user experiences (UI).

"We're talking plenty about voice these days because of Siri, and we're talking a lot about gesture because of things like Kinect, but I want to see where UI is going," said Danielle Levitas, vice president of consumer technology at IDC Research."Are we going to see voice integration with remote controls? Are we going to start seeing gesture getting to into the UI experience?"

"Whether Win 8 is on PC or tablets it's going to be a huge buzz category." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC Research (Flickr photo)

More specifically, Levitas wants to see if there will be any new visual interfaces for connected TVs. "To me, that's where we need to see some significant innovation," she said.

Stepping back, she believes there will be two predominant themes at the 2012 show: connected living room and mobile. "I think where the real innovation is going to be is around home automation and in-car entertainment," she said.

Levitas expects to see news media focus on the latest tablets and large OLED televisions. "The fact of the matter is those two segments are going to be an evolution of where we are today," she said. "The difference this year is that there will be a lot of attention not just around Ultrabooks but Win 8. Whether Win 8 is on PC or tablets it's going to be a huge buzz category."

According to Sara Rottman Epps, a senior research at Forrester Research, several strategists in the computing industry are gearing up for 2012 to be the year of the "Ultrabook" -- new ultrathin and light laptops, often with solid-state drives, such as the Asus Zenbook UX31 and Lenovo IdeaPad U300s.

"As we get to the latter half of 2012, Ultrabooks will be making a big push and there will be a lot of innovation in the PC market." -- Mike Feibus, TechKnowledge Strategies (Flickr photo)

"We agree that Ultrabooks' lighter, thinner form will appeal to many consumers," Epps wrote recently at All Things D. According to a Forrester Research survey in September, 21 percent of U.S. online consumers say they're interested in owning one.

Mike Feibus, founder of TechKnowledge Strategies, calls this a "tweener" year for CES.

"In 2011 there was a lot of excitement around smartphones, tablets, the rise of Android and even some 3-D TVs," said Feibus. But he foresees the 2012 show not being as exciting as 2011 and won't have as much to see and talk about as he expects in 2013.

"As we get to the 2013 CES, that's going to be real exciting," he said. "As we get to the latter half of 2012, Ultrabooks will be making a big push and there will be a lot of innovation in the PC market."

Levitas said that people attending CES will see "that a PC can be an "aspirational' product versus just another new PC with a new OS on it."

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User Experience Key to Differentiation?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:39:30 GMT

Wireless Industry Veteran Leading Intel's Efforts to Deliver a Better Smartphone Experience

Mike Bell holds up an Intel smartphone reference design. (Flickr photo)

Midway through his keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum last fall, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini demoed slick new software called Pair & Share, easily moving photos from a mysterious Android smartphone to a Windows 7 PC.

Twenty minutes later, Google's Andy Rubin joined Otellini on stage to announce a partnership to ensure that future versions of Android will be optimized for Intel architecture.

Somewhere in the audience Mike Bell was beaming.

This energetic, fast-talking wireless industry veteran only recently took a leadership role on Intel's mobile efforts, promising "that we'll work creatively and tirelessly to make our smartphone strategy a reality."

Last week, Bell was promoted to co-general manager of Intel's new Mobile and Communications Group, which combined four separate business groups into one large mobile division where he will work side by side with Herman Eul, formerly president of Infineon's communication group prior to the company's acquisition by Intel last year. Bell and Eul are now responsible for all of Intel's mobile wireless, handheld and tablet initiatives.

Bell himself only came to Intel in 2010 after leading product development at Palm for 3 years, and before that spent 16 years at Apple as a vice president involved with the iMac, Apple TV and iPhone programs.

Read on for an edited version of a lively, candid conversation with Bell about how the first Intel smartphone will stand apart from the Android crowd.

Last year, you said, "We must significantly accelerate our progress in phones." Has that happened?

Bell: [Holding up a phone, nodding] It's a "Medfield" phone. It's about as thin as an iPhone. It has HDMI and it actually works. You can make phone calls.

It can take 10 eight-megapixel pictures in 1 second, at full resolution. Theoretically, it could take up to 20 16-megapixel pictures in a second -- it has bandwidth to do that -- but I have an eight-megapixel sensor on here.

We've shown that Medfield has as much potential as we've been telling people it has -- which is good, always, to validate what you've been saying.

"People confuse clever and cluttered -- very different concepts. We want to make the applications and the experience smarter." -- Mike Bell (Flickr photo)

The next step, then, is to ship an Android phone?

Bell: Android phones, yes.

How does that change direction for Intel?

Bell: That's what Apple did, right? Apple reinvented itself. It went from a computer company to a media player and handheld device phone company. If you don't reinvent, you die. It's what you have to do.

How will an Intel phone stand apart from the army of Android phones?

Bell: Well, I'll tell you what we don't want to do. What we don't want to do is something tacky, like spinning 3-D cube interfaces.

My tagline has always been that people confuse clever and cluttered -- very different concepts. We want to make the applications and the experience smarter.

We don't want to make the user experience look too much different, but we want to make the applications better by embedding Intel technology underneath them so that the mapping is better, that the contact management is better, that the calendar is able to do things for you based upon it knowing where you are, what meeting you're supposed to be in. Why can't it make some intelligent decisions for you?

So we want to add technologies underneath the hood that make the experience smarter, more personalized, and more secure as opposed to just tacky.

Is that more difficult to do with Android? Do you end up with your own special version of Android because you have all that extra stuff? Or do you just build layers underneath that Android hooks into?

Mike Bell came to Intel in 2010 from Palm where he led product development. Prior to that Bell spent 16 years at Apple. (Flickr photo)

Bell: In most cases, I think we can be smart about it and build layers. Our challenge is to make our version of the API better than everyone else's.

So we add functionality so that when the app runs on our platform, it gets better and smarter transparently and doesn't have to be recompiled.

In some cases, we may supply our own application that has its own intelligence, but if we do this right, we can probably just make all the applications better on our platform. That's the goal.

Has the new reference design helped change the conversation with OEMs?

Bell: I think they were pretty surprised, because of what we'd been showing them up until then. Some of the feedback we got is they really appreciated our approach. They said, "Oh, you guys get it. You understand that this is what you need to do to be in this space."

Frankly, if we can't prove what you can do with the chipset, why should they believe us? So I think it was really refreshing for them to see not only are we doing slideware but we're actually backing it up with technology that works.

Do the carriers, the service providers, all have different features and things they want for the phone?

Bell: Every one.

Shifting the subject, what brought you to Intel?

Bell: It was the challenge -- similar to having been part of the team that brought Apple back and trying to do the same thing with Palm.

Intel is one of those iconic Silicon Valley companies. It's the chance to help Intel break into a new business and grow the company, to really fundamentally help make that change. I mean, I build gadgets -- how can you not want to build gadgets?

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Pushing the Limits of Solid-State Technology

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:01:34 GMT

SSDs Absorb Punishment in Series of Outrageous Torture Tests

Alan Frost, host of "Adventures with Intel Solid-State Drives," finds creative ways of imperiling SSDs. (Flickr photo)

If Alan Frost loves solid-state drives so much, why does he relish throwing them, smashing them and, yes, even cooking them?

"Awareness," said Frost, and he doesn't mean for himself. Although these solid-state drive (SSD) beatings are available on YouTube for the world to see, he doesn't want star billing.

"It's all about the SSD," said Frost of Intel's NAND Solutions Group.

For the uninitiated, solid-state drives are a storage device without moving parts, making them significantly less susceptible to damage from impact than traditional hard disk drives.

Manufacturers such as Kingston and OCZ tout myriad benefits of solid-state drives, and a Forrester Research report hailed the decreased power consumption and seek time, but it's the sturdiness of SSDs that drives the "Adventures with Intel Solid-State Drives" video series.

Guided by a formula of taking working SSDs from a laptop, torturing them with fervor and then seeing if they still work, the demonstrations test the drives' brawn in a number of far-out ways, including a stunt that had a sedan nearly side-swiping Frost.

"The car came 5 feet away from me going 82 miles an hour," Frost said. "Wasn't the smartest move I've ever done."

Perhaps not, but that video got more than 100,000 views on YouTube in the first few months.

The debut episode of "Adventures with Intel Solid-State Drives" did show that an SSD could withstand extreme heat, but host Alan Frost standing outside in the heat of Nevada's Black Rock Desert with a frying pan and an egg was actually a ruse for a more daring demonstration. As Frost describes the attributes of the drive, out of nowhere a sedan zooms by, just missing the host but hitting the SSD. Despite being run over and left in a cloud of dust, the SSD worked like a charm when plopped back into the laptop. (Flickr photo)

That was the first of six segments shot in Northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert, a place not unfamiliar with the bizarre, being home of the annual Burning Man event.

In one test, an SSD is run over by a wheel of the 13,000-pound North American Eagle, a converted jet fighter that had its wings lopped off and wheels added to challenge for the land speed record. In another demonstration, an SSD is strapped to the Eagle's frame for a 2 1/2 -mile test run, and survives -- something Frost said a hard drive could not due to the tremendous vibration alone.

In the final ordeal at Black Rock, an Intel SSD and a hard drive were loaded side-by-side in the Eagle's parachute launcher, and after being shot out after the craft reached about 700 mph, both drives were tested and only the SSD, to borrow a line from the classic Timex commercials, took a licking and kept on ticking.

After the success of the Black Rock series, Frost went to Japan to film martial arts experts doing their best to inflict harm on SSDs and hard drives. Karate chops of a 20-year-plus martial arts expert and strikes by sword-wielding men dressed as samurai proved fatal only for the hard drives.

Frost, co-creator Bryce Sanders and other team members are planning even more ways to test SSDs in 2012. Frost is hesitant to divulge what's on the horizon, but he's hoping stars align for Tom Dickson and his Blendtec line of blenders to use an SSD in a future "Will It Blend?" video.

"We contacted him and he asked for too much money, of course. People ask all the time for us to go on that program. I don't see it happening, but we'll keep trying," said Frost, adding that he doubts an SSD will blend. "SSDs can't get wet, so there's nothing wet in them [to blend]."

If the avid sports fan gets his wish, one of Frost's next videos will involve the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League.

Alan Frost directs a test demonstration at an ice rink. The hockey players each fired a drive (one SSD and one HDD) into goal net with a slap shot. (Flickr photo)

"The one I really want to do is go to a Sharks practice and have players hit an SSD with a slap shot like they do with a hockey puck," Frost said. "We tried to make this happen a few years ago but the financials never worked out. The Sharks wanted more money than we wanted to spend."

So far, Frost has had to make do with two amateur hockey players shooting an SSD and a HDD into a goal net at a public ice skating rink. The SSD won.

SSDs may be victorious on the ice, but they still have a way to go before they eclipse HDDs in the marketplace. According to market research firm iSuppli, second-quarter 2011 shipments of SSDs climbed "a hefty" 21.4 percent to 3.4 million units, but the market "faces the challenge of a crowded manufacturer base" and "teething pains on the way to becoming a stable market with healthy revenues and margins."

For comparison, HDD shipments in the second quarter totaled 167.1 million units, according to iSuppli. Still, the firm noted, "SSDs continue to deepen their penetration into the market, and the technology is expected to pick up more steam with the recent debut of consumer NAND caching technology from Intel."

For his part, Frost will continue to produce videos guided by a mission to educate and entertain audiences on the ruggedness of SSDs.

"Anyone who looks at the videos will at least be aware of them," he said. "They are a fun way to raise awareness. If half never heard of SSDs before we're serving our point."

Related stories

Silicon Valley Women: The Duchess of Tech Startups

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:36:21 GMT

A Serial Entrepreneur Shares Her Secrets for Technology Startup Success and How She Wooed Guy Kawasaki Away From Apple

Outside it looks like a cabin in the woods, but on any given day inside Buck's Restaurant Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are striking funding deals over breakfast, including such startups as Hotmail, PayPal and Tesla, according to legend. (Flickr photo)

Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif. is the epicenter of Silicon Valley's venture capital scene, but it's 15 minutes up the road at a diner nestled in the woods where many startup funding deals get hashed out over plates of pancakes and eggs.

Buck's Restaurant in Woodside is where startup veteran Marylene Delbourg-Delphis took time recently to reflect on her legacy as one of the first European women to start a tech company in Silicon Valley.

Decades before organizations such as Women 2.0 and One Million by One Million helped women start their own businesses, Delbourg-Delphis dove in headfirst, developing her own business philosophy defined by friendships and intuition but rooted in a bootstrapping approach aimed at generating revenue before reaching for venture funding.

"Lots of VCs come to Buck's. I really like the energy I find here," Delbourg-Delphis said with a smile.

Legend has it that Hotmail and Tesla were founded at Buck's. Netscape had early-stage meetings at the roadside diner and it's where PayPal secured initial funding. Over a bowl of mixed fruit and a mug of Buck's house coffee, the self-professed serial entrepreneur talked about her early-morning meeting at TalentCircles, a job-recruitment company where she is CEO. It's the most recent of more than 30 companies she has worked on over the years, including Brixlogic, Exemplary and Objective Marketer, all of which were eventually acquired.

"Startups have been my passion, my exclusive passion for the past 25 years," she said.

First Startup

In the mid-1980s, Delbourg-Delphis was studying at l'Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris when she first used an Apple III.

"I was working on the history of fragrance, and I needed a database to manage my research," she said. "I looked at dBASE and thought it was so anachronistic. There was really nothing simple, visual and easy to use."

Her need turned into an idea that became a business in France. She named the database 4^{th Dimension, and claims it was the first relational graphical database.}

"I was not approaching this from a point of view of a computer scientist, but from a point of view that this is what I really need," she said, underscoring that this simple, humanistic approach is the essence of most successful startups today.

The French-based database business became profitable after 2 years, according to Delbourg-Delphis. During an Apple Expo in France in 1985, she met Apple software evangelist Alain Rossmann, who strongly encouraged her to visit leaders at Apple headquarters in California -- she arranged to arrive in Cupertino post-haste.

Silicon Valley: Florence of the 1980s

When she first set foot in Silicon Valley in 1985, she was fascinated by the sheer concentration of companies all in one place.

"I would not go in front of time looking for what I already know. Instead I always look at time as the opportunity to learn something new that can challenge me," said veteran entrepreneur Marylene Delbourg-Delphis. (Flickr photo)

"I looked at this as a renaissance world," she said. "I thought of places like Florence, Rome or Paris, where all of the great minds got together to create things, making these places like the center of the Universe. There is a map of Silicon Valley with names of all of the companies in the area, and I remember looking at this map and saying, this is Florence, only several centuries later."

"This is when I figured that the market was here," she said, and quickly decided to start a U.S. subsidiary of her growing French company, and she named it ACIUS 4th Dimension.

"Being one of the very first European women to start a high-tech company in Silicon Valley, it was out of the question that any VC would fund me," said Delbourg-Delphis. "When I did my startup, VCs would not relate to somebody like me. I had a heavy-duty background in philosophy, was a woman and I was French."

"I believe VCs were willing to fund women entrepreneurs in the early days, but we just did not have many approach us for capital," said DuBose Montgomery, who co-founded Menlo Ventures in 1976. He remembers Sandra Kurtzig as being one of the first women entrepreneurs to convince VCs to back her technology startup ASK Computers, which later became a very successful manufacturing software company acquired by Computer Associates in 1994.

This environment didn't dissuade Delbourg-Delphis. She focused on product development and networking with developers and potential customers, which she says led her privately held startup to generate more than $45 million in revenue in 6 years.

Getting Guy Kawasaki

If there is a line between business and real life, it is blurry if not invisible to Delbourg-Delphis. She believes that the best business relationships develop into true friendships like the one she has with Guy Kawasaki, who today is a top-selling author and successful Internet entrepreneur.

"Silicon Valley is still where you can be genuinely unrealistic and make something real," said veteran entrepreneur Marylene Delbourg-Delphis. "It's still a place where you realize that the future is today." (Flickr photo)

She first met Kawasaki during her early visits to Apple headquarters in 1985. Kawasaki was the company's chief software evangelist, and Delbourg-Delphis described him as someone who always had his hands on products, and the 4^{th Dimension database was one product he knew well. That same year, Delbourg-Delphis asked Kawasaki if he would join her startup as CEO.}

"What's the likelihood of a man coming to work for a woman in the 1980s?" asked Delbourg-Delphis. "But he did. I think he liked how I asked him directly without dramatizing my invitation."

Guy helped me understand American idioms," she added. "I could speak Shakespeare, but I couldn't read the Mercury News."

Kawasaki left ACIUS in 1987 to become an author and speaker, leaving the CEO role to Delbourg-Delphis. Rossmann, who had become a board member at ACIUS, acknowledged that Delbourg-Delphis had built "one of the leading PC databases software companies in the world," capturing a major share of the Apple market.

Delbourg-Delphis left ACIUS in early 1997 at the request of her then 9-year-old daughter Sophie, who wanted to stop traveling back and forth to France and live exclusively in America. After moving permanently to Silicon Valley, she set up Cilantro Productions, her consulting firm where she uses her knowledge and business process management skills to help entrepreneurs.

Democratizing Magic, Intuition over Experience

Silicon Valley has remained a hotbed of innovation for decades because it is continually "democratizing magic," Delbourg-Delphis wrote in a recent article for the French publication Atlantico.

She has never followed a career roadmap, structuring her life instead around interaction with people and her intuition. "I have had a lot of experience, but in a way, I always see experience as something that you must forget," she said. "Experience only helps for routine tasks. I don't use experience as a filter to evaluate new opportunities. I plan when I see and I don't plan to see."

Delbourg-Delphis paused to look around Buck's, turning an ear to nearby chatter about Google, Facebook, Apple, social networking apps and possibly even a deal or two, before offering a parting comment.

"Silicon Valley is a place where you can just do anything, but geography matters less," she said. "With the addition of all sorts of nationalities, far more than anything we saw here 30 years ago, it's a true melting pot for geographies and times. You have people coming from very different backgrounds with completely different histories. It's truly phenomenal. Here people have been used to inventing and innovation for two generations."

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Augmented Reality Brings 3-D to Retail

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:17:29 GMT

Lego's Familiar Building Bricks Come Alive Using In-Store Technology the Danish Construction Toy Maker Hopes will Enhance the Customer Experience

Using augmented reality, a customer in the Sacramento, Calif. Lego Store gets a better look at the Millennium Falcon set from Lego's Star Wars collection. (Flickr photo)

As brick-and-mortar stores compete not only with themselves, but the convenience of e-commerce, a company whose core product is bricks without the mortar is set on improving an already unique shopping experience.

Digital Box, an interactive kiosk jazzing up branded Lego stores that allows customers to see fully assembled Lego products come alive on screen, was one of the first examples of augmented reality in the retail sector when it debuted in 2008. In a refresh for all Lego stores, older systems are now being replaced with a second-generation model geared to improve the in-store experience for consumers and net sales for the company.

"The Lego Digital Box is unique in that it was one of the first massively implemented in-store AR experiences," said Dr. Thomas Alt, CEO and co-founder of Munich-based Metaio, software provider for both generations. "The initial trial period was so successful in increasing important benchmarks, like customer satisfaction and product sales, that now there is an in-store kiosk in every Lego-branded store in the world."

Augmented reality is the technique of overlaying graphics on a real-world image so the graphics enhance and recontextualize the scene. With Digital Box, customers can see how the Lego products, some with thousands of pieces, will come together without ever opening an actual box. It's not streaming video, but a real-time visual controlled by the individual. When a customer holds up a product to the screen what pops up is a 3-D animation that changes as the box is moved around. Hold up the City Corner set to the camera and the box comes alive with a scene of Lego Minifigures getting on a public bus, patronizing a pizzeria and skateboarding on the sidewalk, just as it might be played when built.

Besides the fun factor, Digital Box can help assess potential return on investment. Is the $240 Lego London Tower Bridge worth the money? What about the investment of time to build from a whopping 4,287 pieces? A 3-D rendering of one of the most ambitious and priciest of Lego's projects, as opposed to just the 2-D box photo, might win over a shopper.

Spending more than $200 on a Lego set wasn't what Shawn Anbiah had in mind when he shopped at the Sacramento, Calif. Lego store on Black Friday, but the high school senior, an admitted technology fan, recognized the value of Digital Box.

"I was just browsing today, but if I was looking for toys to buy as a gift it would definitely help me make a decision," said Anbiah, 17, of Folsom.

Second-Generation Improvements

The most noticeable difference between the first and second generations is capacity. The 3-D experience that has been limited to 24 Lego products as powered by an Intel Xeon Core processor will accommodate 200 with the upgrade to Intel's second-generation Core processor.

"We will now be able to include virtually all of our products, meaning that a consumer will be able to pick products up from pretty much anywhere in the store and have a fun experience with the virtual contents of the box," said Justin Tripp, vice president of Lego retail stores.

One of the first examples of augmented reality in the retail space, Digital Box (along the right-side wall) is a standard feature in Lego brand stores worldwide, including this Denmark location. (Flickr photo)

The latest rev of Digital Box, planned for integration in all 80 Lego brand stores as early as mid- 2012, also improves performance while shrinking the unit's size, according to the Denmark-based company.

"We've increased content and at the same time created an improved customer experience," said Olav Gjerlufsen, digital director of Lego 3-D Flow. "You don't need the huge case with the new design."

Gjerlufsen said he no longer will use "bulky" and "limiting" to describe Digital Box.

"Working closely with Intel's developers helps us create the augmented reality system of the future," said the Lego director. "The built-in graphics of the 'Sandy Bridge' platform improves the overall performance and overcomes some of the bottlenecks we had with the first generation."

For the near-10-fold increase in showcased product, Gjerlufsen said, digital 3-D graphics from Lego Digital, software from Metaio and the multi-threaded Intel chipset have to work in parallel. Doing so overcomes such challenges as recognizing and tracking hundreds of boxes and rendering the multimedia animations smoothly and fast. "Tracking," in this instance, means using the image of the packaging as optical reference for true-to-scale and true-to-position display of the referenced information.

The Bottom Line

Cool as the technology is, it's more important for the international toy giant to keep customers interested in the bricks and plates inside a Lego box than the nuts and bolts inside Digital Box. If the common sight of customers clustered in front of the interactive kiosks is any indication, the Lego Group's foray into augmented reality is a hit.

"Research within stores indicates that customers love the technology and confess that it definitely influences their purchase," Tripp said, adding that the company hasn't taken specific measures to learn if Digital Box drives sales on particular product lines.

Research conducted by Intel in the early stage of development of the second-generation Digital Box found that it's more a marketing tool than a sales tool.

"Digital Box gives a different experience in the store. It's branding, it's more interaction with the public," said Adrian Whelan, Intel's embedded new business director in Europe. "Kids have fun with it, parents can physically see what the product looks like before buying, and sales people are able to get customers of all ages more excited about the products."

No argument from Alt, who said interactive, camera-based experiences have some of the most potent stopping power in the industry.

"Consumers spend up to seven times longer engaged with AR than a poster or print ad," he said. "Also, initial studies show that people are 64 percent more likely to purchase a product after engaging in an AR retail experience."

Growth in the Retail Space

The ink on the final specs of the second-generation Digital Box is barely dry, yet discussion is already underway for a third version that can augment reality for yet another 100 Lego products, according to Whelan. For now, at least as far as the customer-facing side of the Lego Group is concerned, it's all about rolling out Digital Box II.

"Depending on the five-store trial and the budget, I would hope to have [the second generation] in all of our stores by mid-year 2012," Tripp said. "As fast a rollout as possible is desired as our objective at Lego is to innovate and capture children's imagination with both our stores and our products, the Digital Box helps us on this journey."

Lego is hardly alone in using technology to develop engaging retail experiences. Augmented reality is also a reality at Macy's stores this holiday season. As a twist to its 3-year-old "Believe" campaign that invites children to send letters to Santa using special mailboxes in stores, customers with iOS and select Android smartphones can download a mobile app from Metaio that allows them to interact with characters from the animated TV special, "Yes, Virginia." Customers can step in the frame and take a 3-D photo, which can also be uploaded onto a holiday card template to share via email or Facebook.

An example of augmented reality in eRetail is Ray-Ban's Virtual Mirror, which allows online shoppers to virtually try on and sample eyewear while sitting in front of a computer.

Whether augmented reality will become ubiquitous in the retail space is debatable, but its growth is less so, according to Alt, adding that he sees the industry's use of the technology as more of a paradigm than a trend.

"AR is an interface for retail, a visual platform to display information about any given retail product," Alt said. "It's no more of a trend than digital signs, online shopping or even mannequins. Retailers are always looking for efficient, useful ways of displaying their products whether it's in-store, online or mobile. Augmented reality provides a new, engaging way of positioning merchandise in all three venues."

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6 SSD Questions, Answered

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:22:23 GMT

Solid-State Drives Can Boost Performance, Improve Reliability and More, but at a Cost

(Flickr photo)

1. What is an SSD?

Forget file cabinets, photo albums and record collections -- increasingly, our personal computers are where we store life's important documents and memories. For years, the classic PC hard drive was the data-storage device of choice -- but now SSDs are rising fast in popularity.

SSDs use the same type of memory -- NAND flash -- found in USB "jump drives" and SD camera cards. But they're faster and have much higher capacities -- from 40 gigabytes up to 600 gigabytes.

2. Why are they so popular?

SSDs' biggest advantage is that they don't have any moving parts. Regular hard drives store data on magnetized platters spun by an electric motor at thousands of revolutions per minute. SSDs access and store memory in ways more similar to a microprocessor than a hard drive. And because they have no moving parts to break down or to misalign, SSDs are up to 10x as reliable as hard drives.

They're rugged: The lack of moving parts makes SSDs much more rugged than regular hard drives. You can drop an SSD onto a concrete floor, watch it bounce and then plug it back into your computer with no problem. Don't even think of trying that with a regular hard-disk drive.
They're fast: Because SSDs don't have to search for data over the entire surface of a spinning disk, they can access data much faster than hard drives. In fact, SSDs can access and transfer data twice as fast as even the fastest hard drives.

3. How do they improve your computing experience?

In many ways. Here are a few examples:

Faster boot-up times: In one test (which can be seen on this YouTube video) two identical computers, one with an SSD and the other with a modern hard drive, are turned on at the same time. The SSD-equipped computer has Windows opened and running in 21 seconds. The hard drive-equipped computer takes 101 seconds to boot up -- five times longer!
(Flickr photo)
Faster responsiveness to apps: Opening up a number of programs at once? SSDs can access and open programs up to 66 percent faster than conventional hard drives.
No noise: As hard drives get older, their moving parts tend to wear and they can get noisy. That's not a problem with SSDs -- because they have no moving parts, they make absolutely no sound to distract the computer user from his or her task or entertainment.
Better battery life: SSDs are at least 20 percent more energy efficient than typical hard drives, thanks again to their lack of moving parts and efficient circuit design, meaning users' computer batteries should last longer between charges.
Lower laptop temperatures: Notebooks with SSDs run about 12 degrees cooler than hard drive-equipped laptops. Because they can access data more quickly, SSDs help the CPU and chipset do their job faster and go back to a "sleep" state, keeping the computer cooler.

4. What makes them so fast?

A modern, 7,200-rpm hard drive can access data at a rate of about 150 MB/second. SSDs that use advanced multi-level cell technology, which crams more bits of information onto each transistor, can retrieve data at 500MB/second.

5. Why are SSDs so expensive?

In a nutshell, they cost more to make. SSDs are basically chips made with cutting-edge semiconductor process technology. Right now they're being made with the 25nm process by Intel and will soon transition to an even smaller, 20nm process.

6. When will the price come down?

All that performance does not come cheap. 120GB SSDs are available online starting around $150. For about the same amount, you can get a 3-terabyte hard drive -- 25 times more storage for less money.

While SSD prices are falling by about 50 percent per year, it will be quite some time -- if ever -- before SSDs are as cheap as hard drives, which store data on inexpensive magnetized platters.

But SSDs' sales growth shows that many computer users find the increased performance, energy savings and reliability worth the price premium.

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Intel: A Look Back on the Early Years

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:12:10 GMT

On the 40^{th Anniversary of the Microprocessor, a Tour of the Company Photo Archive Offers a Glimpse of Intel as it was in the Early 1970s}

(Flickr photo)

Intel employees gather outside the new Santa Clara, Calif. facility in 1971. It was here, in a small fab located at the center of the building, that the 4004 was initially manufactured. The building was needed as the company had outgrown the original facility in nearby Mountain View. The so-called "Bowers" campus was located on the site of an old pear orchard and eventually grew to include several buildings. Originally, the address was Coffin Road, but the street was renamed.

(Flickr photo)

Intel launched its first microprocessor, the 4004, with an ad in the Nov. 15, 1971 issue of Electronic News. Andy Grove often posted many of the early advertisements on the wall in his office as the company was growing and getting more attention for its products (see below).

(Flickr photo)

An early photo of Andy Grove and his staff circa 1969 which included (back row left to right) Des Fitzgerald, Keith Thomson, Grove and (front row left to right) Skip Fehr, Dick Bohn and Les Vadasz.

(Flickr photo)

Andy Grove in his office at the Bowers campus in Santa Clara. While Grove himself did not smoke, Robert Noyce and others did and it was a far more common to see ashtrays in the building, according to Keith Thomson, one of the first 110 employees. Grove also liked to post the growing number of Intel ads that he spearheaded as the company was growing.

(Flickr photo)

In the early days, there were no "bunny suits" or gowns and masks that today's fab technicians wear in state-of-the-art chip factories. Here, a fab technician in her official Intel smock operates what was known at the time as a Veeco Leak Detector. Semiconductors were placed in water and then a vacuum was drawn on them. If a semiconductor had a leak, the water would destroy the integrated circuit and then it would be identified at testing as a non-functioning unit.

(Flickr photo)

A quality control inspector reviews product using a microscope.

(Flickr photo)

A technician operates a furnace in an assembly and test plant. Sealed DIP packages were brought to a certain temperature in a nitrogen atmosphere so that the ceramic was melded and sealed.

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Holiday Gift Guide: Tech Experts' Top Picks

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:13:41 GMT

The Most In-Demand Consumer Technology of the Season Selected by Leading Industry Experts

When it comes to predicting the hottest tech gifts this holiday shopping season, top retail analysts have the inside scoop on the latest and greatest. That expert insight is crucial to not only picking the perfect gift, but also dodging gadgets that may seem appealing today, but have already been -- or soon will be -- rendered obsolete by the lighting quick pace of product innovation. From tablets to cameras, game consoles to hard drives, a panel of leading consumer technology researchers makes their picks for what will top many "most wanted" lists this year and point to a few you may want to skip.

(Flickr photo)

Amazon Kindle Fire

"Looks to be the perfect integration of eBook reader and video device. Is it an iPad killer? No, but it is a single platform that combines Amazon video and [the ability to] purchase the latest bestseller, and has recently added the ability to borrow library books. Now, if the FAA would just approve eBook readers to remain turned on during take-off and landings." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

"Will this become iPad's primary competitor or will it follow the same fate as other tablets?" -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

"Fire is an interesting proposition for three reasons: aggressive price, built-in content availability and open Web browsing, a feature heretofore unavailable on a proprietary reader/tablet device." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr photo)

24-Inch, 1920x1200 Monitor

"The more you can see the more you can do. Prices have come down, but you have to get more lines than just 1080." -- Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research

(Flickr photo)

EVGA GeForce GTX 590 Graphics Chip

"Simply one of the fastest, best graphics cards you can buy." -- Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research

(Flickr photo)

GoPro HD Camera

"Options from $180 to $300. These cameras are great for the extreme sports enthusiast or the weekend warrior." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

(Flickr photo)

Apple iPad 2

"Now improved with iOS 5. Apple's iPad remains the predominant player in a growing tablet market by offering a great selection of applications and media content." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

"Still the standard for tablet PCs." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr photo)

Looxcie Wearable Video Cameras

"Options from $120 to $180 allow you to share every moment of your life with family and friends. These cameras stream video over Bluetooth to your handset and double as a Bluetooth earpiece." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

(Flickr photo)

Barnes & Noble Nook

"For avid readers, lovers of periodicals – skewing toward females." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

"eReaders should hot sellers for the holidays." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

(Flickr photo)

Big Screen Smartphone

"Any advanced, large-screen (4.3-inch-plus) smartphone hitting the market for the holidays. Higher resolutions, improved legibility, increased speed and better cameras all combine to create a better all-purpose device for you to carry with you every day for messaging, multimedia, photography, reading eBooks and yes, even making phone calls." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr photo)

Sony Nex-3K 14MP Digital Camera

"Great for someone thinking about buying an SLR but is intimidated and doesn't want the size and weight, and for lovers of SLRs that want a more portable camera but not a point-and-shoot." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr photo)

Apple iPod Nano

"Do you really need one when your cell phone does everything? Yes, if you value something that won't get in the way, weigh you down and interrupt you. Stores a ton of music, has a radio, light as a feather and counts your steps as well." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

(Flickr photo)

Solid-State Drive

"No better way to speed up your PC. Just about everything is faster with one of these and your laptop will run longer on the battery as well." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

(Flickr photo)

Sony Vaio Z21C5e

"It's very cool looking, light (2.3 pounds) and has a high-res 1920x1080 screen. You can get [an Intel Core] i7 in it and SSD (I bought one)." -- Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research

(Flickr photo)

Thin and Light Laptops

"As the netbook market declines and tablets surge, consumers may enjoy this intermediate form factor offering the utility and port availability of laptops while whittling down traditional laptop pain points in terms of bulk, weight and battery life." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

"We will lust after Airbooks and Ultrabooks." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr photo)

Kinect for Xbox 360

"Ain't just for games anymore. Your pay TV content will soon be joining major Web video providers on the box. Oh, yes, you can play games, too!" -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

"With a solid gaming portfolio, the industry's most popular motion-control solution and Microsoft's aggressive expansion into TV delivery to the platform (with playback that can be controlled with a wave of your hand thanks to Kinect), the Xbox 360 seems poised to be the most versatile home entertainment-capable game console." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr image)

Roku

"Lower prices and increased content availability -- now with HBO Go -- keep making these devices very interesting." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

"Forget the smart TV. All the Web video content you could want will find its way onto this little box. The eco-friendly way to do Web on your TV." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

"Roku and WD TV Live streaming media players … represent an easier, more streamlined way to enjoy streaming video and connected services with broader content options than the Apple-content-ecosystem-limited Apple TV." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr image)

Wi-Fi-Enabled Blu-ray Disc Player

"Brand-name players with wireless networking capability are expected to hit the sub-$100 price level this holiday, combined with a slimmer, lighter form factor with faster navigation and a broader set of connected capabilities compared to the Blu-ray players of 2010." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

"An LG networked Blu-ray player, not necessarily for Blu-ray, but if you or someone you are buying for doesn't have a connected TV, console or media adapter, this device gets your existing TV access to Netflix, CinemaNow, Vudu and YouTube." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr image)

Apple TV

"With AirPlay, this is a killer combination to bring content from the tablet to the TV." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

(Flickr image)

Canon PowerShot 12 MP Camera

"Can find it online for $99 now, great for someone whose point-and-shoot is a few years old or a great gift for a younger person who won't be getting an iPhone 4S or another smartphone with 8MP." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr image)

Gaming Mouse

"Go faster, kill more." -- Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research

(Flickr image)

Griffin Beacon

"Make your iPhone a universal remote control for under $100." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

(Flickr image)

Amazon Kindle or Kindle Touch

"The new lower price for these eReaders will make them hot sellers." -- Jason Blackwell, ABI Research

"The new ad-supported Kindle brings the industry-standard eBook reader to its lowest price ever." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

"For readers in your life, the $79 Kindle is a no-brainer gift." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr image)

MIMO Wireless-N Router

"As the popularity of watching streaming video over-the-top or via a pay TV operator's TV-anywhere client increases, so too will the needs for bandwidth and quality of service within the wirelessly connected household." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(MIMO, pronounced "my-mo," is an acronym for Multiple Input Multiple Output. It is a technology used in broadband routers and cell phones. These routers improve data rate by sending multiple data streams in parallel.)

(Flickr image)

Portable Speaker Dock

"[Some] can easily go over $100, but for volume: Logitech rechargeable speaker ($99) … lots of options with iHome having an option that also supports the iPad for about $20." -- Danielle Levitas, IDC

(Flickr image)

Powerstick USB Portable Charger

"With all the devices we carry, having a little extra juice available is a must. And you can store your files on it, too." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

(Flickr image)

Wireless Keyboard

"The thin and light models are cool-looking, comfortable and quiet." -- Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research

(Flickr Photo)

Standalone Digital Video Recorder

"Between digital cameras and advanced smartphones, most of which take better video, is there a need for this product anymore?" -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr Photo)

Apple iPod

"As people are moving toward the smartphone, only justification for an iPod (except for the Shuffle or Nano) would be an inexpensively replaced, tiny, non-bothersome form factor for active folks." -- Paul Erickson and Bill Morelli, IMS Research

(Flickr Photo)

Apple iPhone 4S

"Small screen, no 4G, same boxy shape. Could be time for a Nexus S." -- Colin Dixon, TDG Research

The Touch Generation: The Evolution of Digital Natives

High Tech Workers Embrace Technology Relics

American Innovation Losing its Shine?

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:29:54 GMT

MIT President Warns Silicon Valley that a Lack of Ambition, Investment in Education, Research and Manufacturing Will Cut America's Lead, Stifle Future Job Growth

Susan Hockfield, President of MIT, speaks about the innovation economy at the Commonwealth Club. (Flickr image)

American ingenuity and innovation, the twin engine of the country's economy since World War II, is in danger of losing steam and job growth potential if federal legislators allow "automatic" spending cuts to kick in next year rather than earmarking federal funds to advance education, research and manufacturing, according Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield.

Hockfield sounded the economic alarm bell Wednesday at the Commonwealth Club of California in Silicon Valley.

"The big question is: Where will our much needed jobs come from?" she asked. "Will we let other nations lead or will we seize the lead?"

Spending cuts may help solve America's immediate budget deficit woes, but Hockfield warned of dire consequences to not making critical, long-term investments that will drive the innovation economy that has generated more than half the new jobs in the last 50 years.

Hockfield's scolding wasn't limited to Beltway legislators. She also had stern words for Silicon Valley's startup culture.

Hockfield says the early transistor radios fascinated her. "I use and love technology. It's hard to imagine how we got to where we are today. I got my first Macintosh computer in 1984 and fell in love. Now it's all Mac, all the time. I have an iPhone, and use an iPad to read eBooks." (Flickr image)

"Don't just create ideas, also make products here," she said. "Buying back technologies that we invented changed our surplus into deficit. We need to have a substantial fraction of technologies that are made in America."

Despite the stinging criticism, Hockfield praised Silicon Valley for being one of the industrial wonders of the world and integral to maintaining America's innovation lead.

"It's where big, new ideas get transformed into products that create new markets and put people to work," she said.

She highlighted Silicon Valley's role in making the country a global leader in semiconductors after serious threats from a fast rising memory chip industry in Japan during the 1980s. Hockfield extolled how industry and government leaders worked together during that time to create SEMATECH, a consortium that helped America recapture the tech lead with semiconductors.

"The entire computer industry came out of basic investments in research," she said. "We have to engage with government leaders and help them understand what we do. There are very intelligent people in Washington, but political forces trump all.

She claims there has been a "lackadaisical approach to education" and many government leaders "don't understand the pipeline, the engine of economic growth."

The 1990s were the most successful decade for the innovation economy, according to Hockfield, who noted that between 1995 and 2000 America sustained 4.2 percent GDP growth and 22 million jobs were created each year.

The United States remains a leading producer of advanced technology products, but its dominance has eroded in the past 10 years ago. Hockfield wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed, "We enjoyed a trade surplus in advanced technology manufactured goods; today, that category accounts for an $81 billion annual trade deficit."

Hockfield, the first woman to lead MIT, sees a future shaped by engineers collaborating with physical and life scientists to bring new discoveries that benefit industries and lasting economic growth. Recently, she was appointed to the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a group of industry, academic and government leaders looking for ways to speed research in advanced materials and processes.

Editor's Note: An audio podcast of Hockfield's appearance at the Commonwealth Club is now available.

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Astronomer Captures Enormous True-Color Photo of Night Sky

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:47:09 GMT

Armed with a Laptop and Six Digital Cameras, an Amateur Astronomer Created a 5,000-Megapixel Panorama of the Universe from Tens of Thousands of Digital Images

The Milky Way Galaxy. Image courtesy Nick Risinger. (Flickr image)

On his way to snapping 37,440 digital photos, Nick Risinger never once asked anyone to look at his camera and smile.

Risinger's subjects were the millions upon millions of stars and solar systems and galaxies filling the night sky. The single astounding panoramic image he has created -- stitched together into a seamless 5,000-megapixel shot -- is riveting astronomers and sky watchers worldwide.

And it's online. With the click of a mouse, you can zoom through the eons to peer into pale yellow gas clouds, past purple nebulae, across vast belts of stars and then into the dim light of the distant universe fading gradually to infinity.

The image contains a staggering 20 million stars, Risinger said, "floating on a stage of unimaginable proportions."

Nick Risinger with his 6-camera setup, at work in Colorado. Image courtesy Nick Risinger. (Flickr image)

The largest-ever survey of the heavens rendered in true color, Risinger's image is a feat of equal parts of astrophotography and computing.

"I'd often set it up and just let it run overnight," said Risinger, describing how he would batch-feed his laptop with hundreds of new sky images at a time.

He estimates that his quad-core Intel-based system chalked up "several weeks of actual processor time" over the yearlong project. Would even more processing oomph have helped? "Not really," Risinger said. The limiting factors were human -- taking the photos, and writing the software scripts that performed the electronic image stitching.

A bank of six digital cameras captured the shots. Risinger bolted them together and had them tracking on a clock drive to the rotation of the Earth.

After quitting his job as director of marketing for a countertop company in Seattle, Risinger, 28, began a journey with his retired father that saw them log some 60,000 miles over the course of almost a year.

"Astronomy has always been a personal fascination of mine ... it was just a matter of finally going out and doing it," he said.

One small portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image courtesy Nick Risinger. (Flickr image)

Risinger hunted for night skies free of light pollution across remote stretches of the American West, in such places as the high desert ghost town of Brothers, Ore. In South Africa, with springboks and zebras eyeing him from a distance in the dark, he aimed his cameras skyward to capture the glittering night of the Southern Hemisphere.

He was dazzled. On one dark ultra-clear evening -- far below the equator and nowhere near any city -- our own Milky Way Galaxy was so bright and high above the horizon that it actually cast a shadow on Risinger as he set to work.

Risinger said he is unsure what project he'll next pursue. It's hard to imagine, though, what could possibly surpass the one he just finished.

"The click-clack of the shutters opening and closing became a staccato soundtrack for the many nights spent under the stars," he related at his website. "Occasionally, the routine would be pierced by a bright meteor or the cry of a jackal, each compelling a feeling of eerie beauty that seemed to hang in the air. It was an experience that will stay with me a lifetime."

The tools Risinger used for the Sky Survey:

Hardware:

Cameras -- Finger Lakes ML-8300 monochrome
Lenses -- Zeiss Sonnar 85mm f2.8
Filters -- Astronomik LRGB, Astrodon Ha
Mount -- Takahashi EM-11 Temma 2 w/ custom armature
Generator -- Yamaha EF1000iS for U.S. trips
Laptop -- Intel Core i7-820QM running Linux Fedora, 8GB RAM w/ 4TB external storage

Software:

MaximDL -- mount control, image capture, and creation of calibration frames (dark, bias, flat)
IRAF -- many scripted tasks such as up-scaling, registration, saturated pixel replacements with scaled exposures, stacking, and median background modeling
SExtractor -- building each frames list of objects
SCAMP -- cross referencing to create position and distortion headers
Swarp -- reprojection and stitching of frames
PixInsight -- generate final LRGBHa color composite, midtones transfer function, noise reduction
GIMP -- final assembly, curve and saturation tweaks

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Computers Still No Match for Human Intelligence

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:15:23 GMT

Quantum Computing Could Define the Future and Extend the Reach of Human Brainpower to Unimaginable Limits, but One Silicon Valley Legend Gives the Edge to Our Gray Matter

Designer Delves into Complexities of World's First Microprocessor
Federico Faggin points out the intricacies on an enlarged blueprint of the Intel 4004, which he designed and became the world's first microprocessor in 1971. (Flickr photo)

If you could ask only one person about the limits of computers past, present and future, the right person might be Federico Faggin. Forty years ago Faggin meticulously sketched the blueprint that brought to life the world's first microprocessor, which later sparked the personal computer revolution.

After a career dedicated to creating evermore intelligent computer chips, he has turned his attention to what a computer, even quantum computers, may never be able to do: reach the potential of human conciousness. Quantum computers, which handle information radically different and theoretically much faster than today's mechanical, transistor-powered computers, have largely remained science fiction until recently when Lockheed Martin and University of Southern California researchers introduced their quantum computing center in California. Even so, Faggin believes computers, in their current and future quantum states, are the key that will unlock a true understanding of how human consciousness works.

Faggin spoke about his role designing the 4004 microprocessor, a single integrated chip conceived by Intel's Ted Hoff and Stan Mazur.. It was considered the world's first microprocessor when it hit the market in 1971, and for four decades Faggin has witnessed its immense impact on society.

The 4004, which was about the size of a small fingernail, delivered the same computing power as the ENIAC, the first electronic computer built in 1946 that filled an entire room.

Just as engines powered the industrial revolution, Faggin sees the microprocessor as the core element that continues to drive the information age.

"The engine extended the muscular power of human beings, thus enabling the industrial revolution," said Faggin. "The microprocessor extends the intellectual capacities, the brain power of human beings, thus extending the human reach into areas that an engine cannot."

Faggin says the microprocessor allowed the creation of thousands of different types of products, all powered by what he calls "a speck of intelligence." And these devices are now connecting with one another and connecting people through the Internet.

Sketch of Transistor Gate Circa 1968
Federico Faggin, designer the world's first microprocessor in 1971, says the microprocessor allowed the creation of thousands of different types of products, all powered by what he calls "a speck of intelligence." And these devices are now connecting with one another and connecting people through the Internet.
"I think [the] Internet represents the collection of all the power of this engine, and it's the defining capacity of microprocessors," said Faggin. "It connects people at a planetary scale. It connects things and provides flows of information, which are useful for communication, control and computation." (Flickr photo)

"I think [the] Internet represents the collection of all the power of this engine, and it's the defining capacity of microprocessors," said Faggin. "It connects people at a planetary scale. It connects things and provides flows of information, which are useful for communication, control and computation."

The future is sure to bring faster, cheaper, more power-efficient computers, says Faggin. However, even if quantum computers become a reality, which Faggin says could bring capabilities beyond today's mechanical versions, computers will not match the complex intelligence of human consciousness.

"I think that human intelligence, especially in the lower manifestations of it, will be aided tremendously by computers, but there are aspects of human capacities that we don't define as intelligence, which have to do with intuition, will, intention, imagination and creativity," he said.

Although logic is a term the computer industry uses when referring to central processing units, or microprocessors, Faggin says human consciousness entails more than logical thought processes and the ability to rationalize. The human brain, he contends, gives a person keen awareness of oneself and one's surroundings. It is motivated by powerful subconscious and emotional processes that work beneath or alongside logical thinking.

"Consciousness is the ability that human beings have to experience, to think, to know that they know, or to know that they don't know," said Faggin. "A machine cannot do that."

Faggin, born and educated in Italy, spent a career turning complex ideas and blueprints for real-world computing. In November 2010, he joined Hoff and Mazur in receiving the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama.

"I grew up in Vicenza, which is near Venice in Italy," said Faggin. "When I was a child, I was interested in machines."

His first love was airplanes. He remembers wanting to become an aeronautical engineer so he could design and build large model planes.

"As I grew up, I became more interested in science and decided to study physics, which then gave me an understanding of the basic workings of the universe," he said.

Early in his career while working at SGS Fairchild in Italy in 1968, he recalls inventing and developing silicon gate technology, which would become the basis for building tiny transitors that could rapidly switch on and off.

A few years later, start-up company Intel came knocking. Les Vadez, one of the founding members of Intel, which at the time was a fledgling memory chip company, invited Faggin to help with a secret project. Faggin accepted and immediately began drafting the blueprint for what would become the Intel 4004. The chip was specifically built for an advanced calculator by Japan's Busicom, but Faggin knew it was destined for much more than just calculators.

"My major contribution was to figure out a way to integrate all the complexity of a central processing unit [CPU] into a single chip, which had never been done before," said Faggin. "It required a new methodology."

After helping the 4004 evolve into a multi-purpose, programmable processor for devices beyond the Busicom calculator, Faggin went to work on the 8080 processor, which was an 8-bit CPU used in early minicomputers several years prior to the first IBM PC.

"I did the architecture and directed its development, and the 8080 was the first high-performance microprocessor in the market," he said. "It really opened wide the application field for microprocessors."

In 1974, a few months after the 8080 hit the market, Faggin left Intel and started Zilog, where he conceived the Z80 microprocessor.

Chip Designed for Busicom Calculator Changed the World
Federico Faggin designed the Intel 4004 for a cutting-edge punch key calculator by Japan's Busicom. The chip became the world's first microprocessor in 1971, and Faggin saw the potential beyond its intended purpose, which compelled him to help Intel find new customers. (Flickr photo)

"The Z80 is one of the most successful microprocessors ever produced," he said. "It is still in high-volume production today, more than two decades after it debuted."

Before retiring a few years ago, he founded and was CEO of three start-up companies. At one of his start-ups, Synaptics, he helped bring the human touch as a way to interact with computers. Synaptics produces human-to-computer interface products using neural networks and mixed-signal technology, and is best known for capacitive sensing touchscreens and the TouchPad, which is used on many laptops today.

Retirement has allowed him to return to his passion for science, philosophy and design, and exploring the role of technology in our lives.

"Since I retired from business a couple years ago, I have started a non-profit foundation for the study of consciousness," said Faggin. "Consciousness, in my way of looking at it, is the new frontier. It is what defines a human being, and distinguishes it from a machine.

"They [computers] will allow human beings to recognize what makes them human and people will recognize how much more powerful a human being is than a machine."

He believes that quantum computers could fundamentally change the nature of computing beyond the capabilities of today's mechanical computer.

"As for whether computers that are quantum or not can rival human intelligence, I have my doubts," said Faggin.

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Tech Innovation: The Pursuit of Moore's Law

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:29:07 GMT

From Developing 3-D Tri-Gate Transistors to Discovering the Dimensional Limits of Materials, Intel's Mike Mayberry Leads a Team Charged with Exploring the Boundaries of Technology

Mike Mayberry, a 27-year Intel veteran, agrees with futurist Arthur C. Clarke's "Third Law": "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." As director of the group responsible for cutting-edge process technology research, Mayberry and team have created plenty of enchantment.

His group of researchers and technicians includes some of Intel's brightest minds -- people who have demonstrated the feasibility of game-changing technologies such as high-k/metal-gate and 3-D Tri-Gate transistors, helping keep Moore's Law alive and well.

Flickr photo

How do you respond to those who say Moore's Law is going to end soon?

My usual comment is, "Well, then I'll be fired first. And since I haven't been fired, then there's at least some period of time before it will end." We typically say we have about 10 years of visibility. We don't know what will happen beyond 10 because you have to invent things along the way.

We know that things will not end in the next 5. And we're pretty sure they won't end in the next 10. That was true when I started 27 years ago. There were things that people said in the '80s that would cause life to end in the '90s. And in the '90s, there were things that would cause life to end in the '00s. We keep extending that 10-year visibility.

Any kind of technology has some natural lifetime. And eventually, you have to replace it with something else. That's what we're working on today. What are the things that come after what we know and love today?

How does Intel Labs intersect with the work of your group's researchers and technicians?

Intel Labs looks at what kinds of products would be interesting to people in 5 to 10 years. We build things. We work with the Labs in some cases because they say, "We can do something really cool if we had a certain building block or certain fabrication capability." And we may say, "Yeah, we know how do to that. Let's work together." Or, we may say, "No, that's impossible. What are the alternatives? What can you do differently?"

We explore technology. Sometimes we find things that work. Sometimes we find things that don't work. We like to do sufficient research to find the fatal flaws and kill our own projects before we've spent millions of dollars.

Intel develops process technologies on its own, while others share the burden as part of an alliance. What benefits do you see to the Intel approach?

No one really works in isolation. Our development relies on equipment that does certain things. If the equipment was not capable, it doesn't matter how great the idea is. So, our research and development engineers work with suppliers. We work as well on basic materials that hopefully can be retrofitted to their tools. We work with universities on very novel ideas and hire the best students.

When people say we work on it ourselves, what they're really referring to is the process of integrating all the pieces together, not that individual pieces that were all created internally. Nobody can do that. In fact, we're intentionally reusing a lot of things for cost reasons from one generation to another.

But that said, the final integration that our technology development group does is unique, pulling in these building blocks that may have come from somewhere else. And they work on a lot of different things to get to high performance and high yield and low cost.

The consortium that works on these same things has both advantages and disadvantages. There's cost sharing. You don't necessarily have to buy one piece of equipment for every company. You share it. Now, by sharing it, you also get fewer hours on it. Your cycles of learning are typically much slower. Our development is optimized for very fast learning cycles and that's a key competitive advantage for us versus these alliances.

Flickr photo

What's your secret sauce? How did you get to the right solution on Tri-Gate and high-k metal gate?

We're allowed to start early. We're allowed to take risks. We're allowed to fail. And when we find something with promise we can harness all the great talent at Intel to turn it into a production reality, not just issue a press release.

We tried a thousand combinations of materials to make high-k/metal gate and only a few worked. But then we made those few work in very high volume and we've shipped hundreds of millions of units ahead of our competitors.

What do these advances mean for the customer?

We keep things going, right? The original Moore's Law observation was about lowering the cost of a function. We also enable more complex products which can do new things people want to do. An audio recorder or a music player or a video player, for example, would be delivered at lower cost for a given amount of capability.

Most of these building blocks are about making things either more capable -- say a faster or smaller operating transistor -- and therefore potentially cheaper to manufacture, like a smaller wire or a different kind of function that we're integrating together that hasn't been possible in the past.

It wouldn't do any good to say, "Hey, we're going to deliver something that's not quite as good as what you had before. And it's going to cost more, isn't that great?"

In the research pipeline, what are some of the long-range options that are being explored?

We're looking at discovering the dimensional limits of materials. What happens when you can count the atoms? How do you measure, where do things break? We're optimizing novel devices for efficient operation at lower voltages, which let you pack still more functions within a given power budget.

We're also exploring non-traditional computing elements, which some day may allow very fast pattern recognition or other problems that are tough to solve today.

Are you nervous about Intel's future, the need to continually evolve and push the limits of technology?

If I were nervous, I wouldn't have this job. This is not a job for a nervous person or a timid person because there are lots of things that have to be invented. I'm glossing over all of the challenges that we have along the way. If you try in your head to think of all the challenges simultaneously, your head would explode. This is really hard stuff, but we need to make it look easy when it's done.

Clearly, it's a very different world. We have to recognize that technology is changing how we do things. And then we also have to realize that technology is changing the world and adapt our products in a similar way.

From a management point of view, we have to question why we've been doing something this way for 10 years. Do we still have to? Why did we start doing it this way? Does it still apply?

I'm big on the why behind it, the "I know you don't know how to solve the problem, but why are we working on it?"

What do you think Intel has to do to remain successful over the next 40 years?

The trends are that we have very complex technology that people want to ignore. They want it to just happen by itself. Arthur C. Clarke says, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Some of the things we do on an everyday basis and take for granted would have been considered magic 25 years ago, right? Twenty-five years from now, the things that people will do will be magical to us.

We want to continue to make things ubiquitous, embed them everywhere. We want to continue to make things very easy to use, taken for granted, make things more autonomous.

In your 27 years at Intel, what has surprised you most about technology?

In my career, we've gone from no Internet to, when you ask your child to write a paper without using the Internet, they ask, "Uh, how do I start?" If you count all the characters in the books in the Library of Congress, we're building more memory in an hour than that. The point is we're using memory for more than characters in books. We're using it for sound. We're using it for video. We're using it to store experiences.

I think people are not exponential creatures. It's very hard to grasp things that change cumulatively over so radical a rate. We don't really appreciate that.

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Giant Crane Finishes Job at High Tech Factory

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:41:31 GMT

The Mammoth Crane Integral to Building Intel's Multi-Billion-Dollar Chip Manufacturing Plant is On to the Next Project.

The world's largest land-based mobile crane has finished the heavy lifting at Intel's massive construction site in Hillsboro, Ore.

The Lampson International LTL-2600 Transi-Lift, billed as the largest mobile construction crane in the world, has been on site for several weeks installing giant roof trusses on D1X, Intel's multi-billion-dollar factory currently under construction here.

The Lampson LTL-2600 Transi-Lift is the largest mobile industrial crane in the world, capable of lifting and moving 2,600 tons. The crane has been working on Intel's massive new factory construction project outside Hillsboro, Ore. for the past 5-7 weeks. (Flickr photo)

Kate Lampson, director of public affairs and marketing for Lampson International, said the crane's job at D1X wrapped up this week and workers have already begun dismantling it in preparation for shipment and transport to its next job, which may be in Norway, she said.

Intel's Ronler Acres campus features a wetland area that was kept intact and enhanced as part of the original construction project that began there in 1994. When finished, D1X will be the fourth major fab on the site; there's also a small pathfinding research fab located here. (Flickr photo)

Lampson declined to put a value on the big crane or discuss how much Intel paid to have it on site, but previous published reports put the rental at $5 million and it has been at the site for approximately 5-7 weeks.

The giant crane looms large along with several other construction cranes at Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Ore. The site is directly across the street from the award-winning Orenco Station residential neighborhood where Intel made an effort to communicate closely on the construction project and handed out "pardon our dust" car wash certificates to residents. (Flickr photo)

The crane has an "ultimate capacity" exceeding 2,600 tons, according to Lampson. That means a lift capacity of over half a million pounds, or the equivalent of 67 large male elephants in a single lift. What makes it unique to other heavy-lift industrial cranes is it can be fully mobile under load, Lampson said.

The big crane and its counterweight recently completed installing the large white roof trusses seen in D1X on the left, with Mt. Hood in the distance. (Flickr photo)

The construction is part of a massive investment in U.S. manufacturing that Intel announced in October of last year, and again in February of this year. Overall, the company is spending between $6 billion and $8 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing including D1X, while upgrading existing facilities in Oregon and Arizona. Another new $5 billion factory in Arizona was announced in February, and construction is now underway.

D1X with the recently completed roof trusses in place. With that job done, the big crane will now be disassembled and moved in approximately 85-100 separate truckloads to its next location, according to the owner of the crane, Lampson International. (Flickr photo)

When President Barack Obama visited an Oregon factory earlier this year, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said the D1X project would generate 3,000 construction jobs over 2 years and require 19,000 tons of steel, 13,000 truckloads of cement and more than 40 miles of pipe before it was done. When finished, the clean room alone -- the main floor where silicon development and manufacturing is done -- will be the size of four football fields, according to Otellini.

Otellini said D1X is scheduled for start-up in 2013 and will be the first 14nm microprocessor manufacturing facility in the world.

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Brazil Blazes Path for Latin American Markets

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:25:56 GMT

Personal Computers Weren't Part of Most Brazilians' Daily Lives Just 7 Years Ago. Now, the Country Has Surpassed Japan as the World's No. 3 PC Market.

The advent of an affluent middle class in Brazil amid a long run of economic stability has helped spur unprecedented expansion of the Latin American county's emerging PC market.

Sao Paulo-based Fast Shop is one of Brazil's largest high-end electronics retailers. (Flickr photo)

Low unemployment and accessible credit in the Latin American nation have stimulated robust consumer spending. Those factors, combined with government efforts to boost digital inclusion by encouraging lower PC prices and local manufacturing and have pushed Brazil ahead of Japan as the world's third-largest PC market.

Back in 2008 consulting firm IDC ranked Brazil No. 5, just behind the United Kingdom. Not long before then a computer was considered an oddity to the general populace, according to Latin America's largest manufacturer of notebooks, desktops and netbooks. That's a long way from the IDC study issued last month that slotted Brazil behind only China and the United States for computer sales.

"When we entered the local market back in 2004, the computer was not yet part of everyday life for most of the population," said Hélio Rotenberg, president of Positivo Informática noting that the Curitiba-based company has shipped more than 9 million systems since entering the Brazilian market, 1.9 million in 2010 alone.

The 3.86 million PCs sold in Brazil between April and June represents a 12.5 percent increase from the same period last year.

"Never before [were] so many computers sold in a single quarter in Brazil," said IDC Brazil's market analyst Martim Juacida.

A decade of economic stability at a time when much of the world was experiencing anything but, along with an unemployment rate of about 6 percent, are key factors in Brazil becoming the third-largest PC market, according to Maximiliano Salvadori Martinhão, telecommunications secretary of the nation's Ministry of Communication.

"Brazil has experienced in the last 10 years a very stable and positive economic performance," he said.

The Brazilian government sees PCs as an important tool for digital inclusion. The Ministry of Communications was concerned over low PC density among lower income classes and became part of the solution. In order to change the bleak picture the government stimulated local manufacturing by lowering taxes on PCs built in the country and sold under a set price cap. Simultaneously, several social programs and a good overall economic performance increased income for a large number of citizens.

"All these policies combined produced the important expansion in the Brazilian PC market," Martinhão said.

Falling prices have contributed to Brazil's rise on the list of global PC markets. (Flickr photo)

The positive figures are partly attributed to the country's good economic performance and the higher access to credit that has made computers less out of reach for many Brazilians, according to Juacida, who also pointed to strong demand generated by manufacturers managing to maintain falling prices.

Martinhão agrees, stating that because the country was able to improve wealth distribution, the evolution of PC market was a positive consequence. As proof, second-quarter equipment sales in Brazil hit record levels, outpacing Japan by 95,000 computers and helping the country catapult to its current ranking.

"It is, in fact, a major achievement to surpass Japan," he said, boasting as well over the fact that his country ranks higher than India and Indonesia, two countries with greater populations than Brazil.

The growth is not limited to the PC market: Brazil is the fourth-largest market for automobiles, recently surpassing Germany. It's also the fourth-biggest market for TVs and LCD panels. In terms of the global mobile market, the country of about 200 million people has risen to No. 5, and there are now more registered mobile phones in Brazil than there are Brazilians. By 2015, South America's most populous country will rank sixth among the world's largest software developers if an Evans Data Corporation study proves accurate.

The ascendance of Brazil's PC market is not an isolated phenomenon, according to Fernando Martins, Intel Brazil's president and general manager. "Brazil's economy is growing with strong fundamentals due to the emergence of a new affluent middle class," said the 15-year Intel official. "This first wave of economic growth has generated 160 million new, eager consumers. Brazilians are affluent spenders -- not savers -- and highly selective in their purchases."

Rotenberg echoed Martins' view, remarking that the reason Brazil's middle class is the PC industry's current "engine of growth" stems from a combination of favorable factors.

Strong marketing helped Brazil-based manufacturer Positivo Informática ship 1.9 million PCs in 2010. (Flickr photo)

"Improvement of employment and income, the expansion of loans to individuals and reduction on the prices of computers -- these factors, combined with low penetration of PCs in households paved the way for the rapid growth of the segment," Rotenberg said, adding that the middle class will likely account for half of Brazil's total PC market in 2011.

For the middle class, an affordable PC also comes with a bonus: prestige for the connected consumer.

Brazilians are very social in nature, according to the Sao Paulo-based Martins. Having an account with Facebook or orkut, Google's social website operated in Brazil, is a status symbol, he noted, and to be able to share pictures and videos of family and friends "is a must."

"In Brazil, Internet and PCs are synonymous -- tablets and smartphones are still prohibitively expensive," said Martins. "This confluence of factors explains why PC ownership is the No. 1 consumption dream today. Our market research shows that PCs are sexy in Brazil."

Some market segments have more sex appeal than others. According to IDC Brazil, 51.5 percent of the computers sold in Brazil from April to June were laptops, while 48.5 percent were desktop computers. Home users were the main buyers of computers in the period, accounting for 69.5 percent of equipment sold. Companies, in turn, had 25.8 percent, while 4.7 percent came from government and education.

Reports from IDC, the government and other industry leaders don't see Brazil's love affair with the PC waning anytime soon. Intel's Brazilian chief paints an especially rosy picture, predicting volume of Intel's business in the country to triple by 2015.

"In my role," Martins said, "I have frequent contact with all sectors of the Brazilian society, from ministers and secretaries of state in the nation's capital to chief economists in major banks to bus and cab drivers on the streets. There is a common thread in these exchanges: Brazilians are extremely optimist about the country's future."

Optimistic and realistic, apparently. Even though Brazil makes up nearly half of South America's entire population, Brazilian government and industry leaders don't see their country surpassing either China or the United States on the list of world's largest PC markets.

"The China and United States markets are significantly larger than Brazil's, so it is not feasible to imagine that the country will reach the rank of second-largest market for PCs," Rotenberg said. "The difference between those two markets and Brazil's is approximately four times. But certainly, we will work hard to help Brazil grow."

The telecom secretary agrees, stating that of far greater importance is his government creating conditions for its people and businesses to have access to a modern and affordable ICT infrastructure.

"The real goals to be achieved," Martinhão said, "is a growing share of the population getting access to the information society, with its effects on education, income, etcetera, as a tool for economic and social development and reduction of poverty."

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Data Crunching Computers Speed Solar Car Across Outback

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:49:06 GMT

Wildfires in The Outback, Mechanical Issues and Exploding Car Batteries Have Thinned the Field, While the Dutch Nuna 6 Car Has Dodged Danger and Kept Within Striking Distance of Winning the World Solar Challenge

In contrast to the deafening roar that's standard in a NASCAR or IndyCar race, each of the 37 vehicles competing in the Veolia World Solar Challenge speeds forth in silence. The quiet is courtesy of the sun, which powers these cars.

The Nuna 6 solar car by Hans-Peter van Velthoven. Image courtesy of Nuon Solar Team under a Creative Commons license. (Flickr photo)

The specially designed vehicles may be soothingly quiet, but traversing 1,800 miles along Stuart Highway from Darwin to Adelaide across Australia's Outback is hardly a calming experience. Daytime temperatures routinely top 100 degrees, and at night the mercury plunges near freezing. Dust and sandstorms are common and kangaroo hits are a real threat to the featherweight experimental cars bristling with solar panels.

The threats are not just external. The battery on the Filipino team car exploded while it was being repaired at Tenant Creek in Australia's Northern Territory, engulfing the vehicle in flames. The attrition is considerable: By the race's third day, more than a score of teams had been forced to trailer their vehicles, including the Cambridge University Eco Racing Team previously profiled by Intel Free Press.

The Dutch Nuon Solar team, comprised of students from Delft University of Technology, remained in the thick of the competition when the sun set on the third day of racing. The team stood in second place overall just minutes behind the Tokai Solar Car team from Japan and ahead of the University of Michigan team. The three leaders have been averaging more than 90 km/hour (54 miles an hour).

Inside the Nuna 6 chase car. (Flickr photo)

The Nuna 6 is a 3-wheeled carbon-fiber wisp weighing just 145 kilograms (320 pounds) and stands less than 1 meter high. The Nuon Solar team designed and built Nuna 6 with the help of 13 high-end Intel Core i5- and Core i7-based workstations provided by co-sponsors Intel and Dell. Two of those are systems stashed in a chase car and are digesting and analyzing race data real time via a WiFi link to Nuna 6. The computing horsepower is helping crunch weather data, drive race decisions such as optimal road speed and calculate best use of the car's on-board 21-kg (46-pound) lithium-ion battery. Each vehicle is allotted 5kW hours of stored energy -- enough to power a single 60-watt light bulb for approximately 3 1/2 days. All other power must come from the sun or recovered kinetic energy from the car.

The race is still a long way from Adelaide, but the Nuon Solar team is positioned to build on the success of Nuna 1 through Nuna 5, which includes four gold medals and one silver, in what some call the Formula One of eco-friendly motor sports.

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High Tech Workers Embrace Technology Relics

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:31:02 GMT

Even within a Company Focused on the Digital Technology of Tomorrow, People Refuse to Let Go of the Analog Tech of Yesterday.

Inside Intel, there are thousands of engineers, fab technicians and chip designers hard at work delivering the technologies that power today's digital world. Ironically, for a company that manufactures the world's most complex silicon devices in increasingly smaller and smaller dimensions, many in the company yearn for a far more analog past -- the days of LP records, tubes, wires, knobs and even "talking face-to-face."

Thanks to our friends over at Intel's Employee Communications group, we offer a closer look at some of the most beloved of the "older" technologies, and the stories around them.

Some artists still issue new music on vinyl long play (LP) records. (Flickr photo)

Non-digital music, in particular vinyl records, has an ardent fan base.

"Lovely warm, crackly analog vinyl sound," said Julie Hobus. "And the album covers and detailed liner notes that went with it."

While many LP lovers still buy and the support the format, today's generation needs some new clichés. "The other day I told my daughter that she sounded like a broken record," said Laura Rumbel, "and realized that she had no idea what I was referring to!"

Will your backup drive still work 10 years from now? (Flickr photo)

"35mm film: Can you believe you trusted your precious memories to such low-quality storage media?" said one Intel employee, sparking a barrage of disagreement.

"Hey, 35mm film may have its faults, but it's certainly not a low-quality storage medium!" said Michael Antos. "Properly stored, you can make prints from a negative shot 60-plus years ago and have it look nearly perfect. I have both types of cameras, but I much prefer my 35mm Canon Rebel."

"I loved 35mm black and white photographic film, and still do," agreed Ellen Weadock. "Processing it manually was a real adventure."

TVs weren't "smart," but you could fix them yourself. (Flickr photo)

Console stereos and TVs, are the relics of Cecil Walker's past. "As furniture, looks were more important than how good they looked and sounded," he said.

Oh, for the pre-WiDi days of knobs, bunny ears, roof antennas, corded remote controls and vacuum tubes.

TVs even required maintenance. David Rice remembered "testing vacuum tubes at the grocery store to fix the black and white TV ... then proudly showing Mom and Dad that I could fix the TV in time for the news at dinner time."

It lacks the instant results of the digital calculator, but its battery will never die. (Flickr photo)

A company of engineers could never forget the trusted slide rule, preferably made by Keuffel and Esser, as the first real pocket calculator.

Claire Pirtle found her trusty rule "at my parent's house last year. I gave it to my nephew who is an engineering student at Rutgers."

Richard Meyer's "grandkids try to make it work. It was used to send men to the Moon."

"I was required to use a slide rule instead of a calculator during my freshman year in college," recalled Steven Nahas. "I think the following year, freshmen were allowed to use calculators."

Engines nowadays hide electronic fuel injection under giant pieces of plastic. (Flickr photo)

The nearly extinct carburetor -- outside NASCAR, motorcycles, and old hot rods -- drew both fond and painful memories.

"My children will never know the pleasure of flooding an engine or using a screwdriver to hold open the choke valve in -20 degree weather," said Andrew Thomas.

Christopher Reepmeyer remembered his dad's 1987 Ford pickup, which "took 30 seconds to get it to fire and it would stall right away when you put the 3-speed automatic in drive."

"All the passion and character are gone from modern cars," he added.

Thaddeus Podrazik was more explicit: "Carburetors! Not!"

Did we use fewer slides when we had to print them? (Flickr photo)

Prior to death by PowerPoint and the quest for Inbox zero, people sent paper memos, kept contacts in Rolodexes and printed presentations on transparencies.

At least PowerPoint removes one point of failure: "I always had printer issues while trying to print out a lot of transparencies right before a meeting where I had to present," said Robert Morris.

Guy AlLee had the solution: "Cutting out colored gels to make filled line graphs on transparencies by hand for the boss to use at a public conference on an overhead projector."

Once a computer program, now a great bookmark. (Flickr photo)

Intel employees could likely staff and build a second computer history museum, with everything from typewriters to consumer transistors to the first personal computers. But it was the punch card, used to save and transfer software programs, that left a mark.

Woojong Han was hurrying his stack of cards to the "computer room" at his college. "I had to cross the lawn to the building and lost balance for a second or two ... all cards were on the ground!" Ouch.

Reza Nassib called punch cards "not my favorite thing at all."

"My senior year in college I had to write a Pascal compiler using punch cards. Very painful trying to keep those babies in the right sequence and the right shoe box!"

The quickening pace of technological innovation means even the newest, shiniest gadgets reach obsolescence in the blink of an eye. (Flickr photo)

The newest technology relic? "The first iPad," said John Barbour.

But even as the "relic cycle" goes faster, old tech can make great teaching tools, suggested Jim St. Leger.

"My personal experience has been that when my son discovers the skills required to take a 35mm film photo on an old SLR, having to set the F-stop, select a shutter speed, hold the no-stabilization camera steady, take the film to a dark room, mix up some chemicals, expose some light through some celluloid film onto a paper, and, voila, he has a much greater appreciation for what a digital camera can do."

"There's something to be said for learnings from analog systems," he added, "even if you then just move to the digital modern-day equivalent."

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DreamWorks: Behind the Scenes with a Code Warrior

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:24:27 GMT

A Behind the Scenes Look at Dreamworks Animation's Technical And Artistic Prowess that has Created Some of the Biggest Hollywood Blockbusters of Our Time from "Shrek" to "Kung Fu Panda" to "Puss in Boots."

A big-eyed cat called Puss in Boots, a cuddly panda named Po, an injured dragon nicknamed "Toothless." All three are among the incredibly popular characters from DreamWorks Animation movies who have earned the company billions of dollars and a reputation for unmatched creativity.

Intel has a long history of working with DreamWorks SKG that dates back to 2001. Co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has addressed internal Intel conferences and held meetings with Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Over the last three years, with the advent of 3-D animation, the companies have developed a strong technical relationship that capitalizes on Intel's server technology to create a string of successful animated films.

In 2008, DreamWorks converted its computing infrastructure to an Intel-architecture based system. The move allowed artists to work with new state-of-the-art 3-D authoring tools to render higher-quality images more quickly and to modify them with greater ease. Since then a handful of Intel software engineers have played a unique role at DreamWorks: creating software that takes advantage of the computer processors' power and performance.

Matt Walsh is one of those Intel employees who has the enviable task of going to work at one of the leading animation studios on the planet. We followed Matt through a typical day at DreamWorks to find out what happens behind the scenes and how the code Matt and his colleagues write helps the next Shrek, panda or dragon come to life.

9 a.m. -- Matt rides onto the modern DreamWorks campus -- which sits along the San Francisco Bay Area shoreline -- after a 5 ½-mile ride though traffic. He's logged 5,000 miles since starting the DreamWorks commute.

9:11 a.m. -- As soon as you enter DreamWorks, it's obvious that this isn't your grandmother's cube farm; it's more like a 12-year-old's wish come true. Po from "Kung Fu Panda" greets employees at the entrance, and massive stuffed characters -- Shrek, Po, Megamind -- are strewn across futons by Matt's office. Nintendo 64, Wii and Xbox game consoles are stashed in a break room and an elaborate K'NEX contraption is engineered to roll golf balls down clear PVC pipes, alerting everyone that it's time for coffee.

9:15 a.m. -- Matt checks to see if any of the 600 tests stressing the compiler he's co-developed have failed. In each test, the computer converts MetaSL -- a shading language artists use to achieve visual effects -- into code optimized for the processor and then runs it, verifying that it produces the correct output.

10:02 a.m. -- Since 2008, Matt has been working on the software technology that is being used to create "Turbo," a movie about a snail that's slated for a 2013 release. Converting an artist's 3-D models of characters, backgrounds and props to what viewers eventually see on the screen in 3-D is a long, complicated process called "rendering." Rendering combines geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting and shading information to produce a convincingly realistic image.

Matt's software takes a shading language called "MetaSL" and converts it into efficient code that takes advantage of Intel's single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) processor features that can run at least four operations simultaneously rather than just one calculation at a time.

10:48 a.m. -- Matt's work allows processing to be completed faster, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a movie will hit theaters sooner. Instead, faster processing frees DreamWorks animators to experiment and try different things, making animated movies ever more sophisticated and realistic. Matt says his goal is to "help artists create movies at the pace of human imagination."

11:03 a.m. -- Matt plugs his ears with some pretty high-tech headphones. "Music helps me code -- helps me get in that zone. I like to work without distractions -- that's why I tend to work late at night." As he listens to ambient musician Brian Eno, Matt works to resolve some code errors, noting, "In developing compiler code, sometimes working out three really difficult lines of code is a productive day's worth of work."

11:33 a.m. -- Matt checks out the datacenter at DreamWorks with Dave Thomas, a storage supervisor. Intel engineers are driven by Moore's Law. At DreamWorks, it's "Shrek's Law": every sequel will need double the render power of the film before it. The original "Shrek" movie required 5 million rendering hours; "Shrek II" required 20 million, and the fourth, final "Shrek" consumed over 45 million hours. Five DreamWorks datacenters around the world house the needed processing power. Intel often assesses its newest servers inside DreamWorks, where the intense processing is a true test of stamina.

12:05 p.m. -- On his way to lunch, Matt passes a huge cardboard ad for DreamWorks' next big animated film, "Puss In Boots." His DreamWorks gig includes advance screenings, a perk Matt says his 7-year-old daughter enjoys the most. "I don't know what she'd do if I ever left!"

12:27 p.m. -- Matt eats lunch with colleagues Anna Newman (left) and Grace Bisel. They chat about Anna's independent film that's based on a story Matt told her about a girl who played pinball in a donut shop. Engineer during the day and artist at night, Anna represents the company's culture -- an unusual mix of employees with both artistic and technical prowess.

1:08 p.m. -- Matt joins a live video conference meeting with DreamWorks employees in Glendale, California.

1:34 p.m. -- Matt chats with colleagues Sheng Fu and Greg Junker. Greg laid the groundwork for the architecture Matt builds on today. When Intel shifted its priorities on the Larrabee GPU and discontinued SLX, a shading language that came out of Larrabee, Matt's team needed a replacement. Luckily, Greg had already been doing experiments with Cilk+ Array Notation -- a feature of Intel C++ compiler for Linux. The transition from SLX to Cilk+ was fast and relatively painless.

2:45 p.m. -- Matt spends most of his afternoon working on a presentation for the Tech Council, a group of Intel principal engineers, to explore how Matt's software can use the Sandy Bridge GPU to produce even faster results than the CPU in shading processing. Matt believes greater speeds for animators are achievable because the Sandy Bridge GPU sits on the CPU -- and avoids round trips to a peripheral card.

3:14 p.m. -- Not fans of the free Starbucks coffee on campus, this group took it upon themselves to locate quality beans and French press them into a delicious brew, just as the afternoon slump starts to hit. Matt makes the coffee himself and seven or so members of the coffee group wander into the kitchen to pour themselves a cup.

5:00 p.m. -- Matt and his boss conduct a dry run of the Tech Council presentation, striving to strike the right balance between a high-level, clear explanation and specific technical descriptions.

5:47 p.m. -- Matt wheels his bike out of DreamWorks, another day semi-complete. He'll log back on at home, finishing off his workday around 7:30 p.m.

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Solar Car Design Powered by High Performance Computing

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:48:40 GMT

Access to an HPC Cluster Enabled Cambridge University's World Solar Challenge Team to Complete Computer Simulations in Minutes Rather than Days and Slash the Solar-powered Car's Drag Coefficient to Less than a Porsche 997's.

Back in 2009, they finished a distant 14th. This year, however, a small team of Cambridge students believes a more efficient aerodynamic design, better batteries and a technology arsenal will vault their car into the top 10 of the world's most prestigious solar-powered vehicle race.

Endeavour, the Cambridge University Eco Racing team’s solar race car, was designed using a super computer, workstation computers and solid state drives to streamline the car’s drag coefficient well below that of a Porsche 997.

The Cambridge University Eco Racing Team (CUER) will compete against 35 plus teams from more than 20 nations in the Veolia World Solar Challenge. The solar car race, which some call the Formula One of eco-friendly motor sports, starts Oct. 16 at Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. Over the ensuing 4 days, the teams will traverse 1,800 miles across the Outback to Adelaide on the continent's southern coast without using a drop of gasoline. The vehicles are allotted just 5kW hours of stored energy -- enough to power a single 60-watt light bulb for approximately 3.5 days. All other power must come from the sun or recovered kinetic energy from the car.

After the 2009 disappointment, the Cambridge team turned to technology to gain an edge in the next edition of the biannual competition. Because CUER lacked the deep-pocket financing of some others in the field such as the University of Michigan team, which according to Wired magazine has spent more than $1 million on its latest car in a bid to bring the United States its first world title since 1987, the team took a daring approach to redesigning its solar-powered car.

To do that, the Cambridge team had to look beyond solar panels.

"When you look at the car, you think that the only technology on it is the solar panels, but that's definitely not the case," said team manager Emil Hewage. "This car actually drives and thinks at the same time. It requires masses and masses of data to run the car properly."

To reach peak performance, the Endeavour, named for the ship that took Capt. James Cook to Australian shores, harvests power from the sun and taps into a range of technologies, including a super computer, two high-end workstations, fast and rugged solid state drives for data storage, and a small, power-efficient in-vehicle computer according to Hewage.

CUER estimates that its car generates 2GB of data per day during the race. The in-vehicle computer, built with an Intel Atom processor, connects to the motor controller, solar array controllers, battery management system, steering wheel and lights.

The car's computer records live video and constantly calculates the slope of the road while collecting weather data from the support vehicle's telemetry system. It then runs real-time measurements through a software algorithm to determine how the car can complete the race in the shortest time. This so-called "cruise control" speed is used by the driver for more than 90 percent of the race.

Emil Hewage manages the Cambridge University Eco Racing team, and says a new aerodynamic design, better batteries and an arsenal of technology donated by Intel will vault his team's solar race car into the top 10 at this year’s World Solar Challenge in Australia.

"The car drives itself, and a lot of the time our driver is just steering to make sure not to hit things," said Hewage. "In the past we had to sacrifice because we didn't have the energy budget to let the car think. You had to send [the data] by radio, and often the radio would cut out. We'd have a big truck driving behind the car filled with desktop computers that did all of the number crunching. Now we can do all of this inside the car."

According to data from the team, Endeavour can generate as much as 1.3 kilowatts of power from the sun, and has a top speed of about 75 miles an hour.

Shaped like a giant surfboard riding above three wheels, Endeavour is covered by nearly 65 square feet of silicon solar cells. A single-person cockpit bubbles up near the front of the car, and the carbon-fiber canopy and wheel covers are decorated with a slew of stickers, including the British flag and logos from sponsors such as Ford, HP and Schlumberger.

"It looks like a baby space ship that hasn't quite grown up yet," said Hewage.

Access to Computing Resources Advance Design
The Cambridge team got access to some cutting-edge technology shortly after meeting Mark Green, an Intel technical marketing engineer, at a transportation-related exhibit at a nearby school.

Green gave the team access to an HPC cluster that is powered by Intel Xeon processors, consisting of 16 nodes and 128 physical cores.

Getting the HPC cluster was like a getting a bigger hammer to get around a problem, right when the team needed it most, according to Hewage.

"It's the one thing that really puts us ahead of the other guys," he said. "And that's going to help us build for the next 2 years."

Today the team completes computer simulations in a matter of minutes versus 24 hours, as having a supercomputer to help them crunch such data-intensive problems as computational fluid dynamics.

"It took 8 weeks to design the first version of the car in 2009," Hewage said. "But this year, in a space of about 24 hours, we improved the performance by nearly 10 percent. That's because of the HPC cluster that we used in our redesign process."

According to Green, the additional computing resources helped the Cambridge team streamline the car's shape, bringing the drag coefficient down to just 0.17. By comparison, a Porsche 997 has a drag coefficient of 0.28.

To build an in-vehicle computer, Green helped CUER get its hands on an embedded Intel Atom processor and 80GB Intel solid state drives (SSDs).

Hewage said that they don't "really use the SSDs for their speed, which helps as does their power efficiency, but it's actually for their rugged nature … their ability to keep functioning when a typical hard drive would probably not survive riding on our car's stiff suspension."

Green said the Cambridge team is showing how technologies can help researchers develop electric vehicles that could someday be more widely available.

"We all have to live on this planet, and technology can play a vital role in creating a more sustainable future," he said. The Cambridge team is innovating quickly and they are grabbing the interest of more people leading up to race day."

"We are an underdog," said Hewage, "but we'll be showing up with a car this year that will definitely be top 10. It's about turning up with a really smart design, really thinking about your design and putting in the proper preparation."

A little luck also wouldn't hurt.

"Driving 3,000 kilometers, chances are you might hit a kangaroo," he said. "You could've spent your whole time designing a car, the fastest thing on Earth, then you hit a kangaroo and it's all over."

See how the team does. CUER will be blogging, sharing photos and providing Twitter updates during the event, and is developing an application that will enable people to view real-time telemetry data during the race.

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How the Subconscious Drives Buying Decisions

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:25:52 GMT

Human Brain Poses Challenges for PC Design as Researchers Discover that the "Flow" of User Experience Trumps Pure Performance.

Buyers, it turns out, are complex and we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what they really want. To better understand that elusive consumer, researchers are digging deep into the recesses of the human psyche to learn how technology can be created that connects the emotional and rational parts of the human brain.

At Intel, researchers have gone a step further and are employing neuroscience to understand what consumers want. David Ginsberg leads the Insights and Market Research Group that is seeking to better understand buyers' conscious and subconscious preferences. Ginsberg, who left a career in politics to join Intel, speaks here about vectors that are prompting researchers to rethink the fundamentals of their business.

At the Intel Developer Form, Ginsberg discussed the essential human need to create and share and to lose ourselves in the "flow" of the creative experience.

You have an untraditional background for Silicon Valley. How did you shift from politics to technology?

I spent my career before coming to Intel mostly working in the White House and on presidential campaigns. I was involved in the Clinton, Gore and Kerry campaigns. I wanted to try something different. So I joined a market research firm in D.C. that was most known for its work in politics, but really made most of its finances from corporate work. While I was there, Intel came in the door as a client. I've always been kind of a technology geek at heart, and even though I planned to stay in politics, I started doing more and more work with Intel.

Friends of mine who are still in politics -- many of whom work in the White House now -- say things to me like, "Aren't you bored working at a company compared to the big issues we dealt with in politics?" And my response is lots of times in politics you feel like you're dealing with big issues, but you're really just dealing with a bunch of name-callers back and forth. Whereas here at Intel, what we do really makes a difference in the world. Every single day. And that inspires me.

How do you explain what you do as leader of Intel's Insights and Market Research Group?

Our mission is to passionately represent the voice of the end user in all of Intel's business strategy, product innovation and marketing decisions. It means that our company is paying attention to what consumers are saying more than we ever have in the past.

I think once upon a time, market research at Intel was viewed as a marketing-only activity. And this group has really made an effort to say, "You know what? All of us need to be paying attention to what our end users are saying," whether you're making business strategic decisions or you're a product planner or a marketer.

What counts as an "insight"?

The best definition that I've heard is it's "a statement that is retroactively self-evident." The most profound insight -- when you actually hear it -- makes you have the "well duh, yeah, that's obvious" moment, but it's only obvious once you've heard it. It's like a gestalt shift; it reframes how you see everything. If you're coming up with those every week, you're probably doing something wrong.

What are your biggest challenges right now?

We're in a time of rapid change in the industry and there are two main vectors that are causing us to rethink basically how we do everything.

The first is the proliferation of data. For a long time, market research based on surveys or qualitative focus groups was the only game in town to understand how consumers think. Today there are so many sources of data -- like search, social and Web analytics -- that you can almost get lost in it, or worse, draw the wrong conclusions. How do you use this stream of information to supplement traditional research?

The second big change is that for the last 50 or 60 years, market research as an industry has relied on an understanding that people make decisions based on rational conscious thought processes. The learnings happening now in both the hard and social sciences are turning that fundamental belief on its head, and are telling us that really, most decision making happens at the non-conscious level. So lots of times we're asking consumers questions that they can't answer because they themselves don't know the real reason of why they made a decision.

Ginsberg joined Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel’s PC client group, on stage at IDF during his Ultrabook keynote address. Ginsberg explained how his group strives to discover what people want from technology, not just at a functional level, but also at a deep emotional one.

So you can't be sure people are telling you the truth?

Well, they aren't aware that they aren't telling the truth! There's a pretty famous study around jams. These scientists asked a big sample of consumers to rank jams on taste, ordering them from top to bottom. The results were remarkably similar to what the experts at Consumer Reports put together. Then the scientists re-did the study with a different, but still statistically representative, group except this time they asked the sample to put the jams in order of taste and write down why. The result when they did that was that the order literally flipped, so the ones that were best tasting in the previous group, these consumers were ranking worst, and the ones that were worst, they were ranking best. The reason was because you were asking the conscious brain to suddenly get involved in something that it really doesn't know, and suddenly there are all these sort of social pressures and other things coming into play that really just created a haywire situation.

How have the two vectors you mentioned influenced your research approach?

For nearly 400 years, the thought has been that our conscious, rational brain is president and CEO of all of our decisions, and that the emotional and non-conscious part of our brain is this deep, dark, kind of secretive, Freudian place that needs to be controlled. Also, there was an assumption that the conscious brain can explain why it made the decision it made.

The reality is these basic tenets are simply not true. Many decisions are made at the non-conscious part of our brain. But the conscious part of your brain still wants to think that it's in charge. So it will come up with a reason why it made a decision. For example, you will tell me I bought this laptop because it's got 2.6 gigahertz and it's the fastest thing in the world. In reality, you bought it because you liked the rounded edges and it was red. But you don't know that. It's not that you're suppressing it; you literally don't know that.

All of this raises pretty profound questions for a market researcher. How do we really get close to our end users to understand their needs and wants and desires?

And what have you come up with?

We're really pushing the envelope about what market research is. We're literally hooking people up to EEG machines and monitoring what parts of their brains are lighting up as they're watching certain ads.

Now when we do certain types of product development research, we'll use approaches that are based in psychology and psychotherapy to understand early memories and memory structure that people have around a certain topic so we know what it is that they're actually craving. Why do they love desktops? What is it about certain super-thin designs that attract people?

What's the most surprising thing you've learned?

When you ask people what matters most when they buy a computer, they'll say "performance." And then you'll say what do you mean by performance? And they'll tell you speed. And then you say what delivers the speed? A good chunk of them will have no idea, but a good chunk of them will say the microprocessor.

Based on that, you'd think we're golden. We don't need a marketing department; everybody believes in the processor. But the reality is that's not how people often buy. People often go down the aisle at a store and say, "Oh, I like that red one."

There was something else happening. We realized that maybe we don't really understand what people mean when they're saying performance. Using these new feelings, we dived into the non-conscious and emotional feelings around when a person's computer is working best. What we uncovered -- from both mature and emerging markets -- was really surprising to us.

You never once heard, "I was sitting at my desk downloading something off the Internet while ripping a CD while crunching on some Excel spreadsheet, and the processor was just humming." Nobody actually thinks that way.

What we did hear were a lot of stories that went something like this: "It was a rainy Saturday morning. I had my laptop on my lap, and I just got lost. I was flipping from site to site; there were no interruptions. And hours went by and I didn't even realize it."

In many ways, it was the opposite of speed, right? It was the ability to get lost in your technology, to have a seamless, immersive experience. And you notice the computer is slow when that experience is interrupted. So when suddenly an hourglass comes up, or the video gets jittery you come out of that experience and remind yourself, oh, I should be mowing the lawn.

So how does this market research translate to product design?

Well, the key word that came out of the research was that what end users are looking for is they're in a state of "flow." And flow is a critical notion, because it crosses that border between your human experience of performance and your technology experience of performance.

And so this notion of flow -- we use the word "responsiveness" with engineers -- is a key part of the Ultrabook decision. One of the four vectors that Ultrabooks has to deliver is flow. That's why it has the fastest startup time and some of the other responsiveness features in it.

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Intel Free Press Hires Veteran Journalist as Managing Editor

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:03:15 GMT

Former InformationWeek.com managing editor Benjamin Tomkins has joined Intel Free Press as its new managing editor. Tomkins, who has a strong background in technology journalism and communications, had been with TechWeb/United Business Media since 2008. He served as executive editor of bMighty.com and then moved to InformationWeek where he managed editorial operations of the online business technology publication for large enterprise. He also served as interim editor-in-chief of InformationWeek.com in 2011, and during a prior stint with the company in 2004-2005 was editor-in-chief of InternetWeek.

"Ben brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our fledgling news service and we're really excited to have him on board," said Bill Calder, who will hand over day-to-day editorial operations to Tomkins and assume the role of executive editor. David Dickstein will continue in his role as staff writer and copy editor, and Ken Kaplan will continue as staff writer and multimedia producer. Go here, to learn more about Intel Free Press staff.

"Intel Free Press is a groundbreaking platform for engaging stories and quality journalism about technology and innovation," Tomkins said. "I'm thrilled to be joining the team here and working with them to take this site to the next level."

Intel Free Press is a tech news beta from Intel, covering technology and innovation stories that are often overlooked or warrant more context and deeper reporting. The stories are reported and produced by staffers employed by the company with a focus on people, technology, events and topics relevant to Intel.

China Seizes PC Lead as Emerging Markets Rise

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:48:46 GMT

Challenged by New Gadgets and Slowing Growth in Established Markets, the PC Industry is Facing Historic Shifts in Demand

In the midst of a steady stream of gloomy economic news, an up and coming Asian economic power has snatched a high-stakes, tech industry crown from the U.S.

China was the world's largest personal computer market in the second quarter of 2011. This marked the first time that more PCs shipped in China than in the U.S., according to research firm IDC. Despite the on-going debate over the presumed death of the PC, an estimated 350 million are expected to be sold this year even amid the growth of tablets and smartphones.

Bike messenger with boxes of Lenovo laptops

This historic shift comes as emerging markets are expected to see 11 percent growth in PC sales over last year, according to research firm Gartner. By contrast, PC sales in mature markets are forecast to drop 3.7 percent between 2010 and 2011.

Over the past few decades, China has evolved from an agricultural and heavy industrial base into a more open, diversified economy that draws upon information, knowledge and global connectivity and collaboration. While cities such as Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai have robust, mature economies, China still has enormous potential for emerging market growth from its inland cities and a population that dwarfs the established U.S. PC market by more than a billion potential customers.

"China has a surprisingly high number of advanced and wealthy users although this percentage is very low compared to the percentage of 'developing' users," said Steve Paine, consumer technology reviewer at UltrabooksNews.com. The pace of change is obviously fast in these huge, emerging parts of the China market."

China is now "the first market for Intel," according to senior executive Sean Maloney who recently was named chairman of Intel China. Maloney, who once served as head of Sales and Marketing for Intel in the Asia Pacific Region, was tapped to help harness the growth potential and lead Intel's overall efforts in China.

"The PC still has room to grow and we need to kick-start that," said Maloney.

The momentous growth of PC sales in China in the second quarter pushed the market more than a million units ahead of the U.S. IDC estimates that approximately 18.5 million PCs were shipped in China.

Although IDC predicts the U.S. market will hold a slim lead of just more than a million units shipped for 2011 in total, China is expected to dominate next year. IDC forecasts that China will outsell the U.S. by more than a billion dollars, shipping 85.2 million units versus 76.6 million units in the U.S. in 2012.

"China's lead in the PC market is a huge shift that reflects the rising fortunes of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of more mature regions. While the immediate economic circumstances in the U.S. and other markets had a significant impact on the timing of China's move to the lead, they have not changed the trend, but accelerated it," said Loren Loverde, program vice president of IDC's Worldwide PC Tracker.

PCs More Affordable in Emerging Markets
People living in emerging markets such as China, Brazil, Mexico, India, Turkey and Indonesia are seeing computers becoming much more affordable, according to data that Intel CFO Stacy Smith shared with investors in May. The cost of an average-priced laptop in China, for example, has dropped dramatically from 174.7 weeks of average income back in 1995 down to just 7 weeks of income in 2010. By 2014, the cost will drop to the equivalent of 2.6 weeks. That will put China very close to the worldwide average of 2.3 weeks of average wages.

Kids playing with new laptop inside an electronics store

Overall demand for personal computers, however, is being hotly debated amid the rapid popularity of tablets and smartphones.

Gartner's September report shows economic woes in many parts of the world are hampering PC sales, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, as is increasing demand for smartphones and tablets.

"More worrisome for the long term is that Generation Y has an altogether different view of client devices than older generations and are not buying PCs as their first, or necessarily main device," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, when the report was released. "For older buyers, today's PCs are not a particularly compelling product, so they continue to extend lifetimes."

Gartner actually lowered its 2011 worldwide PC shipment estimates from 9.3 percent to 3.8 percent, bringing it more in line with the IDC estimate of 4.2 percent, which was trimmed from 7.1 percent in June.

PC Industry Sees Change as Emerging Markets Rouse
China and other emerging economy nations are becoming the sales growth engines for PCs as sales slow in more mature market economies, according to IDC.

Taiwan-based PC maker Acer recently reported its first-ever revenue-losing quarter. Dell and HP also reported declines in PC sales to consumers, all occurring in the quarter when more PCs were shipping in China than the U.S. for the first time.

In late August, HP said it was inclined to spin off its $40 billion PC business, the world's largest. The company then clarified its commitment to the future of personal computing with print ads that said, "We see a future where they will be able to own a PC for the first time, giving them the ability to learn more, create more, produce more and improve the quality of their lives – things that simply can't be done on other kinds of devices." HP claims that it sells two PCs every second somewhere in its market of 170 countries.

China-based Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC business in 2005, is currently the third-largest PC maker after HP and Dell, according to IDC. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing recently told the Financial Times that "emerging markets, including China, continue to grow and outpace" the overall PC market, while in mature markets the corporate PC replacement cycle "remains strong and consistent."

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said during Intel's July earnings call that emerging markets such as Turkey and Indonesia were up 70 percent, India was up 17 percent, Russia was up 15 percent, China was up 14 percent and Latin America as a whole was up 12 percent. He pointed to growth in Brazil that would make that country the world's third-largest PC market next year, after the U.S. and China.

"It's the real-time dynamic of these markets waking up, an increase in disposable income, a decrease in the cost of computing and bandwidth for connectivity all coming together," said Otellini.

He also talked about what he sees as a common approach by many people in emerging markets.

"When it's your first time to buy a TV or computer, you want value," he said. "You want something that will last, that's going to be good for your family for more than a year or two and that tends to have you buy up a bit."

Further Reading:

Robotic Orchestra Hits Right Notes for Industrial Control

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:53:47 GMT

The Intel Industrial Computer in Concert is embedded with seven integrated computer systems each powered by an Intel Atom processor.

The tech world is rife with conductors, but this one has nothing to do with transmitting heat, electricity or light. In this case, the conductor leads a robotic orchestra, synchronizing a host of plastic and metal percussion instruments that ping, pong, bong and blink blue-hued light each time a nearby paint gun strikes them with a tiny rubber ball.

Dubbed the Intel Industrial Control in Concert, this machine-to-machine-controlled collection of digitally connected vibraphones, xylophones, high-hats and other sound-making devices is intended to demonstrate the simplicity of building a state-of-the-art smart system using off-the-shelf technologies based on common x86 chip architecture, according to Intel's Drew Pool.

The crowd-pleasing project cost approximately $160,000 to build and debuted at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The orchestra's conductor is a palm-sized computer motherboard powered by an Intel Atom processor surrounded by dozens of wires and white PVC tubing that snakes from one instrument to the next. The seven embedded Atom computer systems operate a video security camera to sense accuracy of the moving parts, a digital synthesizer for the sound, digital signage and a multi-touch interactive display that allows people to see what makes the whole operation hit the right notes.

Rubber paintballs are fired by the sensor-equipped, computer powered system to create a song that has 2,372 notes.

"This was done from concept to creation in 90 days," said Marc Christenson from Sisu Devices, an Austin, Texas-based technology integration company that builds motion, vision and machine control automation.

"This thing has seven Atom processors total, from three different generations, that are working together harmoniously to play the song," said Christenson, whose company co-built the musical demonstration project with Intel.

"It's running three different operating systems, including Windows-embedded XP as a real-time operating system," he said. "It has 250 industrial interconnects, 36 paintball hoppers that shoot rubber, glow-in-the-dark paint balls to play 2,372 notes in the song."

The high tech syncopated orchestra was inspired by the 2004 song "Pipe Dream" by Animusic, an entertainment company that makes 3-D video renderings of instrumental music, according to Drew Pool, a product marketing engineer for Intel's Embedded Computing Group.

Intel's developer conference was just the opening performance for this maestro-less orchestra. Pool said that he plans to take the robotic ensemble on tour to other tech industry events.

Computer Controlled Orchestra

3-D Photo Visualization and Beyond: 'Vibrant Media'

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:59:54 GMT

To add pizzazz to his photos of family vacations, Horst Haussecker recently bought a GPS-enabled camera that identifies the location where each shot was taken. Instead of being excited about the latest feature, however, he found himself wanting more.

"It was the most disappointing experience, actually," said Haussecker, who works for Intel in Santa Clara, Calif. "The camera had the capability but no way to see the photos on a map without a major effort, and even then it didn't visualize the photos in a 3-D setting. It merely pinpointed the location on a Google map."

"Vibrant Media" transforms flat pictures of a conventional photo album into multi-dimensional data collections.

For most people, returning the camera for a full or partial refund is pretty much the only solution, and Haussecker might still make a trip back to the store. But as director of Intel's Experience Technology Lab, he is in the rare and enviable position to actually be part of the solution.

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Haussecker and his team demonstrated the results of their efforts to develop tomorrow's photo collections where flat pictures transform into multi-dimensional data collections. The hope for this new technology is to "open new windows into perception, memory and imagination," according to the 10-year Intel Labs veteran.

Haussecker and Intel call it "Vibrant Media," and within 2 years users will see some aspects of it on their PCs, including Ultrabooks and tablets, and eventually on their smartphones.

The prize of Vibrant Media is a captured moment that the user can return to and explore. For example, a photo of a batter taken in a baseball stadium would not have just the hitter as the subject, but a peanut vendor in the background, also in focus, making an amazing behind-the-back toss. Such detail might be lost in today's cameras.

Technology that captures photos and makes 3-D models is already in the marketplace in the form of plain optic cameras and like devices that can fire off a sequence of images with miniscule delay. However, that's but one aspect of what Intel and other developers are working on.

"There's much more to photos than just having models – that's only the first step," Haussecker said. "The next step is to create something that isn't static. There's much more to this world than a static 3-D shape. The real world is live. Things are moving. Things are happening."

The ultimate challenge, and one in which Intel is seeking industry collaboration, is to create media capabilities that allow consumers to extract details from a photo to give the user more information.

"We need to stop chasing the perfect shot. There is no right or wrong answer in capturing a scene," Haussecker said. "We must change the paradigm. Today, creation and consumption are considered two different things. The future paradigm will combine these two aspects."

By virtue of the new paradigm, the user will browse media in more interactive ways. Creation and consumption will become one.

"You're not creating an artifact that you save for eternity and do nothing else with it," he said. "Instead, you're capturing very rich data sets with a large number of images that tell you something about the orientation of the camera, who is in the photo and when you're taking the photo. You're not just passively watching."

The concept is so novel that Intel and its development partners are still figuring out how consumers might use the technology.

"We have a toolbox of brand new hardware and software capabilities. What we don't have is full knowledge of what technologies people need," Haussecker said. "That's why we need to work with social scientists and ethnographers to help us understand the needs and desires of what people want in the first place, and then designers to work on the interaction and device capabilities. Next is working with the tech team to build algorithms to create the perfect photographic experience.

Intel, taking on the role of computerizing all this, is hopeful that "vibrant media" becomes a feature people want for a new class of 'personal computing' and a range of new devices, including Ultrabooks, tablets, and smartphones..

"Intel knows that people are yearning to be more creative with their photography, and we want to deliver the goods that satisfy this need." Haussecker said. "We're long past the day when people only took pictures for documenting important events. Today, people are using cameras in much more playful ways. You're in a bar and take a photo that might never be used."

With "vibrant media," that random picture taken at the bar could be as rich as a potent mudslide.

"A simple photo of friends having a good time wouldn't be simple at all," Haussecker said. "It would be more than a photo or collection of photos. It would truly capture the moment to be re-experienced in vivid ways. The day of the fleeting, random photo is coming to an end, and that's very exciting."

Vibrant Media: Future 3-D Photography

New Intel Applications Connect Smart Phones, Tablets To PCs

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:08:31 GMT

Users will soon be able to move photos back and forth between smart phones, tablets and PCs and extend caller IDs and chat capabilities from the phone to the desktop. The application software made a surprisingly low-key appearance during Intel President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini's keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, which emphasized placing the user at the center of the computing experience.

Photos move between an Android-based Samsung Galaxy 2 smart phone, a Toshiba Portege Ultrabook and an Apple iPad 2 with Intel Pair & Share.

Intel Pair & Share, which enables cross-platform sharing of photos over Wi-Fi, and Intel TelePort Extender, which notifies users of incoming mobile calls and extends SMS to the PC, are part of a joint effort underway in Intel's Software and Solutions Group and PC Client Group.

Intel Pair & Share allows users to connect any Intel PC running Windows 7 with Android and Apple iOS mobile devices to move photos between the devices over a Wi-Fi connection. In the Advanced Technology Showcase at IDF, Intel's Ellen Chi demonstrated the software by moving photos between an Android-based Samsung Galaxy 2 smart phone, a Toshiba Portege Ultrabook and an Apple iPad 2.

The free Pair & Share PC application will be available for download from Intel in October, as will the free Pair & Share mobile applications from the Android Market and Apple iTunes Store. Following Intel availability, Best Buy Marketplace and other retailers will also offer free downloads of the PC application. The PC application is expected to ship preinstalled on select Acer, Samsung and Toshiba PCs in time for the winter holiday season.

Editor's Note: Intel Pair & Share is now available for download.

After the applications are installed, connecting devices with Pair & Share is as simple as pairing a Bluetooth headset to a mobile phone according to Chi. "Once you identify the device, you click, you connect and then you enter the code," she said. On first pairing, users must enter a six-digit code, but afterward devices connect automatically when on the same Wi-Fi network.

Chat session extended from an Android smartphone to the PC desktop using Intel TelePort Extender.

Intel TelePort Extender allows users to connect any Android smartphone with any Intel PC running Windows 7 over a Wi-Fi network to receive notifications of incoming calls and engage in chat sessions on the PC. The software can "untie a user from their phone, but still never miss a call," said Intel's Balchandani Sonesh who demonstrated the technology at IDF.

A user can connect multiple phones to a single PC and a single phone to multiple PCs. TelePort Extender integrates a user's phone contact list on the PC, allowing caller ID to display on incoming call alerts that users can choose to answer on their phone or send to voicemail from the PC. In addition, users can engage in chat sessions using their phone's SMS on a PC and search archived chats.

The free TelePort Extender PC application will be available for download from Intel in late fall, as will the free TelePort Extender mobile application from the Android Market. The PC application is expected to ship preinstalled on select PCs in early 2012.

Smartphones, Tablets, PCs Connect with Intel Apps

Goodbye Burning Man, Hello SiMan

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:27:55 GMT

No one would ever confuse the Intel Developer Forum with Burning Man, but the upcoming tech industry event in San Francisco will boast at least a hint of the annual counter-cultural festival in the Nevada desert.

The completed SiMan towered over attendees at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

He's called SiMan, short for Silicon Man, and on the second day of Intel's big geekfest, he will stand an imposing 18 feet high inside Moscone Center West. While that height pales in comparison to the 50-foot-tall effigy that burned to the ground earlier this month to the delight of some 50,000 desert-dwelling self-stylists, some wearing nothing but a free spirit, SiMan promises to be a behemoth impressive in his own right.

Besides being regaled by a fully clothed crowd and remaining indoors, SiMan isn't destined for a fiery end. Rather, he will be gloriously illuminated with 1,500 LED bulbs strung together with 180 feet of wiring. And his masters plan to let him live on to serve as a beacon for an embedded future.

"SiMan was created especially for IDF, but my hope is that he will be used for other events," said Steve Reed, director of industry marketing for Intel's Embedded and Communications Group. "We want him to send to as many people as possible the message that embedded technology makes an intelligent connected solutions life possible. SiMan symbolizes that we are already living that life through devices driven by embedded technology."

While a cynical mind could discount SiMan as just a 700-pound marketing stunt, Reed and his team are hoping developers walk away from this towering 360-degree experience feeling that the sizable challenges involved in making an intelligent connected world a reality can be overcome through collaboration.

What Sleeping Beauty's castle is to Disneyland, SiMan promises to be the iconic symbol of this year's IDF Technology Showcase, where on the first floor of the convention center more than 150 companies will demonstrate their newest innovations. Unlike Dr. Frankenstein, who worked at a frantic pace with the help of a single assistant, Intel's Embedded and Communications Group has a set schedule planned for the dawn of its creation, and is hoping for community involvement during the entire build.

SiMan won’t match the flaming Burning Man phenomenon that occurs annually in the Nevada desert, but he is sure to impress the throngs of techies descending on San Francisco next week for the Intel Developer Forum.

The climax, dubbed "SiMan Glow Time," is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 14), but before the embedded giant is lit up like a Christmas tree at New York's Rockefeller Center with IDF revelers waving glow sticks provided by Intel, SiMan will have gone through several stages of construction. Those who sit through a short video at the in the "Embedded Zone" inside the technology showcase will earn a die-shaped connector piece that they'll place directly on SiMan, be it on his 25-pound head or other body parts that will be attached starting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. In what sounds like a live demonstration of the familiar children's song "Dry Bones," the two-day plan is for the torso to be connected to the head, the right arm to be connected to the torso, and so on. SiMan's first attempt at standing will be aided by motors and beams.

SiMan is the brainchild of a team responsible for driving traffic to the Embedded Zone, where communications infrastructure, machine-to-machine, medical, retail and digital signage will be among the embedded sectors showcased. Several ideas were considered, including a trivia challenge and dancing flash mob, but the concept of a glowing Goliath stuck, and timing was "perfect" with Burning Man having concluded less than 2 weeks prior to IDF.

"We were looking for a 'wow factor,'" said Len Klebba, event marketing team manager for Intel. "We whittled the ideas down to the one we thought was the most fun and had the most legs."

SiMan has two, each weighing 80 pounds, but Klebba was referring to the marketing opportunities, of course. SiMan is a rogue beast, one of a kind, with body parts adorned with processor images used to represent Intel's embedded and communications business. He was conceived to balance art with a high-tech "geek" appeal. With IDF often referred to as "the world's biggest geekfest," sounds like the perfect birthplace for the big fella.

Computing Getting More Affordable in Emerging Markets

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:26:36 GMT

For many people around the world, especially 2.5 billion people living in China, Latin America and Eastern Europe, computer prices are dropping quickly relative to average weekly incomes. The trend in wages and prices may mean new growth opportunities for computer manufacturers even amid the growth of tablets which are often priced beyond the reach of many consumers outside the U.S.

According to data released earlier by Intel, the cost of an average priced laptop in China was equal to 174.7 weeks of average income back in 1995. That shrunk dramatically to just about 30 weeks of average income in 2005, and slipped to 7 weeks of income in 2010.

A motorcyclist in Egypt brings new meaning to ‘mobile’ computing. The prices for computing are dropping relative to wages in Egypt, a trend that is expected to continue even amid the revolution last Spring. In 2009, a PC cost on average less than 14 days of work and is expected to be 6.6 days of work by 2014, according to data from Intel.

By 2014, Intel estimates the cost of an average priced laptop in China will drop to the equivalent of 2.6 weeks, putting China very close to the worldwide average of 2.3 weeks of average income.

This rapid drop in PC prices relative to weekly wages is having a major impact, pushing emerging markets to account for more than 50 percent of Intel's revenues, according to Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer.

"It comes down to a simple economic equation," Smith told China's CCTV. "[Technology] is very desirable and important in people's lives in emerging markets and the affordability of that technology has moved to a point where there are billions of people who can afford the technology."

Just 6 years ago, the average person living in India would have to work more than 440 weeks in order to amass enough wages to buy a PC. In 2010, the number of weeks dropped to less than 31. In 2014, some estimate a decrease to about 10 weeks of wages.

In Latin America, which has a population of approximately 714 million, the cost of a PC fell from 41 weeks of wages in 1995 to 6.5 weeks in 2010. In 2014, it is expected to cost 3.4 weeks of wages.

PCs are becoming more affordable more quickly for the 402 million people living in Eastern Europe, where a PC cost nearly 48 weeks of work 1995. In 2010, it took 5 weeks of work to afford a PC, and that is expected to slip to a little more than 2 weeks in 2014.

In China, it took an estimated 175 days of work to purchase a personal computer in 1995, and by 2010 the price dropped it to just above 7 days of work, according to Intel. Photo by Mira Images

Compare that with more established economies of North America (348 million people) and Western Europe (432 million people), which dropped from 4.9 and 5.6 weeks of average income respectively in 1995 to .8 and .9 weeks of income in 2010. By 2014, an average priced laptop is expected to cost a half day's wages in North America and .6 weeks of wages in Western Europe.

According to the Intel data, the worldwide average has dropped from 25.7 weeks of income in 1995 to 4.2 weeks in 2010. It is estimated that by 2014, an average-priced laptop will cost 2.3 weeks of average income.

Smith estimates that approximately two out of every three PCs will be sold to emerging markets, and that nearly two out of every three PCs will be sold into the consumer segment. Smith also estimates that about two out of every three PCs sold will be notebooks.

'Generation' Gap over Core Exposed In-Store

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:52:45 GMT

Looking for the latest back-to-school laptops might have shoppers wondering if the sales associates, themselves, should be going back to school.

That was the appearance, at least, when several retail stores in the Sacramento, Calif. area were visited to see if staff knew a basic piece of information about Intel Core processors. Always purposely standing in front of a first-generation Intel Core system when approached by a sales associate, we asked this question: "Can you please show me notebooks with second-generation Intel Core so I can buy my kid the latest technology for back-to-school?"

Our findings were mixed, and likely disconcerting for Intel.

"Badges" on second-generation Intel Core products have a golden holographic stripe near the center.

For background, second-generation Core processors, previously known by the codename "Sandy Bridge," have been supported with strong marketing since they launched in January, so it was not unreasonable to expect solid knowledge on these products across the board. Plus, even sales associates with minimal training can spot a second-generation Core system two ways. Perhaps the easiest is by the sticker on the laptop itself; "badges" on second-generation products have a golden holographic stripe that Intel internally calls the "kink." (Stickers on first-generation systems have a peel-back-looking die-resembling treatment on the upper-right corner.) The other way to identify a 2G Intel Core is by the model number; if the name starts with a "2," as in "i5-2410M," then it's a 2G CPU.

All perfectly clear, right? These were the responses:

"This one here is second generation," said Ernest at the Staples in Roseville. Unfortunately, we were looking at a first-generation core i3 Dell Inspiron. Given a chance to correct himself, he was asked, "Are you sure this is second generation? It has the old sticker." Ernest replied, "It's an older model with a new processor." Say what?

"Oh, you're looking for laptops with Sandy," said Alexa at Fry's Electronics in Roseville. She meant "Sandy Bridge," of course, but even still, it's a codename, not a component. None of Intel's processors have Sandy on the chip, whatever that is. The hole she dug got deeper the next time she spoke. "All of our Intel laptops are second generation." Alas, we were conversing directly in front of an i5 Toshiba notebook bearing the first-generation sticker, and there were three other 1G laptops on display.

First-generation Intel Core stickers are identified by a peel-back-looking, die-resembling treatment on the upper-right corner.

"We've got a couple of older models on the other side, but all of these here are the newer ones," said Nick of the Best Buy in Roseville. When the customer brought to Nick's attention a first-generation i3 HP Pavilion notebook on the supposed 2G-only side, a system that was misleadingly running an on-screen graphic with the new sticker, Nick said, apologetically, "I've got to look into that."

Despite claiming that every Intel notebook on display was second-generation, Raj at the Office Depot in Roseville overlooked a first-generation i5 HP Pavilion on the opposite side of the aisle.

So that's four major retailers that could have sold a customer on a second-generation Core notebook when in actuality the purchase was anything but. Another store made an even more dramatic error. At the Wal-Mart in Folsom, sales associate Justin correctly stated that the description of the i3 Sony Core on display indicated that this was a 2G model. However, the little sign didn't match the product, a Sony Vaio with Intel's basic-grade Pentium processor. "Well, that's not right," Justin said, embarrassed.

While discrepancies, misinformation and embarrassing mistakes were found at some stores, others shined.

"All of these are second generation, except that one," said Kris at the Staples in Citrus Heights, pointing out a first-generation HP laptop with the older sticker.

At the Office Max in Folsom, Rudy correctly stated that his store has two 1G models with the others being 2G.

In a secret shopper survey, sales associates at major retailers in the Sacramento area were asked a basic question about Intel’s two generations of Core microprocessors.

"Those three are second generation and those four are first generation," said Cory at the Staples in Folsom, and he was right. So was Anthony at the Costco in Folsom when he said the only Intel systems customers will find there have second-generation Core processors.

And then there was Matt at the Best Buy in Folsom. Not only did he correctly differentiate between the two iterations of Core on display in the notebook section, but he proactively touted the features of the newer generation, including the benefits of having graphics integrated on the chipset.

"But does it have Sandy?"

Matt looked puzzled by the customer's question. Then after a brief awkward pause, he figured it out.

"Ah, you're asking about Sandy Bridge," Matt said smiling. "That's another name for second-generation Core."

No back-to-school needed for that sales associate. Unless he's the teacher.

One on One with Erik Huggers

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:22:18 GMT

Former BBC Executive heading up Intel's Consumer Electronics efforts; On management, smart TV and life

When Intel went looking for a new leader to replace departing executive Eric Kim as head of the Digital Home Group, they went to someone who knew very little about silicon.

But through his work at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as director of the Future Media & Technology organization, and Microsoft, where he drove a wide variety of digital media initiatives, Erik Huggers is no stranger to digital media innovation.

In the following Q&A, Huggers, a native of The Netherlands, talks about why he joined Intel, how the company needs to get into the heads of digitally savvy teenagers, and why his new user experience design team is in London is a key asset.

Since joining Intel 4 months ago, have you ever asked yourself, "What have I gotten myself into here?"
On day one. I'll tell you the honest truth. Let me first say, I do not regret joining Intel for a second. I've been overwhelmed by the warm reception I've gotten.

When I was at the BBC as an executive board member in a media and entertainment company, you get a certain set of privileges when it comes to office spaces.

I had a proper executive suite on the top of the building, lots of windows, a living room set up in my office, projectors, televisions. That's how it's done for those companies for the last 90 years.

When I arrived here on day one and they showed me to my cube on floor five [in the Robert Noyce Building of Intel's Santa Clara, Calif. headquarters], I literally thought, what have I done?

I'll adapt, don't get me wrong. But the delta on day one between the executive suite and my new cube (laughs). I had a bit of detox to go through, I think.

So when I moved [in 2007] from Microsoft to the BBC I had people in front of BBC Television Centre dressed up in these chemical nuclear suits picketing against my appointment.

At Intel, I've only been warmly welcomed by colleagues and folks around the business. And so far, it's been an amazing 4 months.

During your short tenure at Intel, have you seen areas where we can improve?
As someone who's been here for 4 months, I don't claim to have tons of wisdom. I was surprised by the number of steering groups and meetings that happened. Some of these meetings are like professional debating societies, where there are armies of Intel people talking about incredible minutia. I would've thought we would be fleeter of foot.

In these meetings, I am surprised by the number of people doing email. If you don't want to be in a meeting, get out. Don't do mail. Close your laptop.

One of the things that I really learned being in the media industry directly and indirectly for 15, 20 years now, is that what those industries do really well is put the audience at the heart of everything they do. I don't think that's what we do today.

What we talk about is valid stuff like the next process node, or putting more transistors on a die, or can we do more gigahertz or flips or flops or whatever we measure, and we get really excited — for good reasons. But what's more important is: What does this stuff enable for the consumer?

And I'm not talking about the people who buy our technologies and build end-products. I mean the person who buys the end-product. How is what we build valuable to a 15-year-old who's completely connected?

We need that hardcore technical super-engineering capability that we have in spades here. But we also need the audience insight.

Finally, I'm a big supporter of our investments in software development, and I think that's absolutely critical. We need to attract the best possible engineering talent in order to take a bit more control over our own destiny as a company.

Can you talk more about user experience?
Everyone talks about user experience at Intel these days. I've come to the conclusion that most people don't know what they're talking about.

We have great talent inside Intel, don't get me wrong. Genevieve Bell and the team [Interaction and Experience Research (IXR) group in Intel Labs] clearly get it.

We need to bring top talent that can execute on that user experience and design piece into Intel so that starts to influence our culture, our way of thinking, how we think about products, the audience. So, we just hired a user experience design crew in London.

Why London?
Here in the Silicon Valley, when it comes to those sorts of skills, it's impossible for us to — well not impossible — but it's very difficult for us to compete, because you're competing with Facebook, Apple, Google. We don't have that same sort of competitive situation in the UK right now, and traditionally the UK has been a hub for design talent.

Plus, the people that I've been able to attract I know very well, because they worked in my organization. These are the guys that have designed industry award-winning services across television, telephone, tablets, PCs.

I think bringing that expertise into Intel will influence the direction of travel for whatever we do in next-generation silicon, next-generation software, next-generation services, so that we start with that audience in mind, and then we work our way back.

So in 2 years, where do you see smart TVs and Intel's play?
My hope is that our play in smart TV is going to be more than just silicon. Silicon is absolutely a critical element to get right, and I would argue that the silicon engineering team has performed miracles.

Just having that platform in your living room means nothing if there's no content, no services, no applications, if there isn't a vibrant ecosystem of third party ISVs and media companies who target that platform as a means of reaching the consumer and building a viable business.

So is DHG only about smart TV?
I think it's important to realize that we have some pretty interesting early momentum. Getting Comcast to work with us is a huge milestone. Getting other service providers to take us seriously, like Free in France, a wonderful success story, and Sony on Google TV. As Intel, we're going beyond the PC. We have early glimpses of what that world could look like in DHG. We have shipping products, we have customers.

My entire career has been dedicated to digital media. And consumers do not care whether it's consumed on a TV, a PC, a phone or a tablet. It doesn't matter.

Consumers today are hungry for taking control over their digital media consumption.

And so to me, DHG is not just about television. DHG can potentially help the rest of Intel with our digital media ambitions.

How would people at the BBC and Microsoft describe your management style?
In some cases, if a project is going completely off the rails, maybe the management style is slightly more autocratic and directive and hands-on and micromanaging. In other cases, you have a great leadership team in place and they're ticking along quite well, it's much more coaching and supporting and helping resolve blocking issues. I don't think there's such a thing as a single style.

Dutch people are very direct, and they call it as they see it, and I think that's very important.

Is there some area of management that you've had to improve upon?
No one's perfect. Everyone has opportunities to improve their day to day work, the way they interact with others. I think everyone always has to work on communication style and over-communicating, because just because you think something doesn't mean that everyone automatically understands what you're saying.

What I've found is that when I get bored of the message, that's when it really starts to ring through with other people.

Who was your best manager?
Two individuals that I have in mind were both entrepreneurial, self-starters, not afraid of managing up or managing down.

They also were able to create teamwork, group spirit, and didn't necessarily pit their best people against each other. A bit of creative tension is good, but animosity and negativity, that's simply not good.

What made you decide to come to Intel?
[President and CEO] Paul Otellini convinced me that he was absolutely, completely, and utterly dead serious about moving Intel beyond the PC.

The PC was going to remain critically important as were servers, but he was dead-set on making sure that we as an organization were going to be successful in phones, in tablets, in television, and whatever other form or factors comes along. We're going to move from a PC company to be a compute company.

How do you balance work with life?
I'm passionate about what I do. This is not for me about a paycheck. I want to be part of an organization and contribute to an organization and lead an organization that has the ambition to change the world, change the industry.

When you're mission-driven like that, putting in the long hours doesn't matter. You're passionate about it, you love what you do, you enjoy it, that's what gets you out of bed every day. And so, work/life balance is tough, but I'm fortunate that I've got a brilliant wife who's very understanding and forgiving.

How do you relieve stress?
What I do is I talk all day with customers, with partners, with employees, with colleagues. To relieve some stress, I like to be quiet. Maybe simple stuff like watch a movie or go for a walk.

What are your hobbies, besides traveling?
I'm passionate about technology, keeping up-to-speed with the latest and greatest of what's happening on the web, what's happening with consumer electronics. I get the latest widgets and gizmos and try them out.

My wife is a Formula 1 fan, and because of her, I get kind of forced into it.

Quality Control Goes Underground

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:11:23 GMT

Two employees in Intel's Corporate Quality Network have been running a remarkable chip experiment, 2,150 feet beneath the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico.

Matthew Kirsch and Norbert Seifert stand by the head of a large drilling machine deep inside the U.S. Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Plant in New Mexico. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy

Norbert Seifert and Matthew Kirsch have been testing how susceptible some of Intel's server devices are to very low-level, low-energy radiation—which can lead to tiny software-correctable errors. These blips occur at an extraordinarily low rate (the exact figure is confidential) but for mission-critical server parts, Intel wants to keep them as rare as humanly possible.

Their experiment required that they periodically squeeze into a cramped elevator in pitcjh-black darkness, then descend to the bottom of a salt mine nearly half a vertical mile under the Chihuahuan Desert.

On the earth's surface, it's tough to tease apart the effects of low-level cosmic radiation (mostly neutrons) that streams in from outer space, from another kind of low-level radiation (alpha particles) that regularly emanates out of mundane stuff like your desk, your wristwatch or even a banana.

Or chip 'packaging' materials, i.e the materials that the tiny slices of silicon are placed into so the chips can be attached to a motherboard.

That's why they wanted to check it out in a radiation-free environment. So Intel got access to the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a super-deep salt mine where the U.S. Government plans to store uranium waste -- permanently. With half a mile of solid rock overhead, radiation gets neither in nor out.

Down at the bottom of the WIPP, Seifert and Kirsch hooked up a large array of 45nm SRAM devices and began collecting "soft error" data. They monitored the data from Hillsboro, Oregon for a full year.

It turns out that more than 90 percent of all ionizing particles that cause these rare soft errors in logic chips come from the "outside world"—not from the silicon itself or its own packaging.

In the mission-critical server world, this is important data.

Popular iPhone App Keeps Commuters Connected

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:37:31 GMT

Andy Wallace remembers clearly what life was like living in Portland, Oregon before he had the 'Take Me Home' button on his iPhone's PDX Bus app.

Intel employee Andy Wallace, recently called a digital hero by the Oregonian, created the free iPhone app PDX Bus in his spare time.

Eight years of commuting to work some 250 miles each week had Wallace often sprinting from his public light rail stop in order to catch the right city bus. Relying on quick feet and good timing, he would have to make what he calls "a perfect storm of connections" or else get stuck taking the long way home.

"I have about 1 minute to catch my bus," said Wallace. "I wanted to know if I had to jump off at the train and run to catch the bus, or not."

Wallace knew there had to be a better, smarter way. So he created an app for his iPhone and submitted it to the iTunes Store.

That was back in 2008.

Today PDX Bus is in its 6.0 version. It has become Wallace's gift that keeps giving as he breathes new life into the app, refining it through 15 iterations so far. He even changed it from a closed to open-source app and recently won two awards from CivicApps, a Portland area-based organization that encourages citizens to actively participate in local government.

According to the iTunes store description, PDX Bus "was developed as a volunteer effort to provide a service for TriMet riders, the developer has no affiliation with TriMet, AT&T or Apple."

What it doesn't say is that the developer is an Intel employee who does all this in his spare time. Intel has over 15,000 employees in Oregon, many of whom volunteer and contribute to various other projects in the community. But Wallace's App may be one of the more unique contributions.

"I have a problem with lost weekends fiddling with the app instead of doing yard work," Wallace confessed. "I have to stop myself, really. If I have a new idea, it can take over evenings and weekends until it's done."

This labor of love has become an essential tool for iPhone-carrying commuters who swear by it.

PDX Bus is "a must for any Portlander," wrote Amy Wink in a review posted in the iTunes Store.

Another reviewer, Jennifer Rienella, wrote: "I really don't care about getting my [driver's] license back thanks to this app!"

"In an era of service cuts and changing schedules, Wallace is a digital folk hero," wrote The Oregonian earlier this year.

That's quite a distinction for anyone living in Portland, a city known as much for its savory microbreweries as for its Internet-savvy culture inspired by geek engineers and hip marketers.

The PDX Bus app for iPhone pulls in live arrival and departure data from public busses and trains managed by Portland’s TriMet.

Wallace, 40, is an Oxford University graduate who moved from London to Portland about a decade ago after landing a job in Intel's LAN Access Division.

"It helped having my co-workers as beta testers," said Wallace.

At Intel he also learned how to manage the open-source software licensing process, which he says can be complex.

"You practically have to be a paralegal to know how to walk through the minefield of rules," he said.

Wallace built the PDX Bus app in 2weeks during the 2008 Olympics, when he needed something to do during events he didn't like watching.

It was during a period of time when it was becoming popular and easier to build apps for the iPhone.

"I was fiddling around when I noticed that TriMet had developed a mobile Web page with an open Application Programming Interface (API) and thought, 'Perfect, I'll use that to write an iPhone app!'"

TriMet was the first transit agency in the nation to openly share its schedule and arrival data with third-party developers, according to the Oregonian.

Schedules and live tracking data from TriMet are shared publicly online, allowing commuters to know up to the minute when and where to catch the next bus or train.

That TriMet API is funneling through the Internet hordes of live data, which is constantly coming from the 52-mile MAX light rail system with 85 stations, 79 bus lines with over 7,000 bus stops and the 14.7-mile WES Commuter Rail. A Linux-based backend computer system powers the data transmission, according to Wallace.

Today on the TriMet App Center, PDX Bus app is one of 38 free and commercial mobile apps using TriMet's open data API.

"When you sign up for TriMet's API, they give you a key that permits only 20,000 users a day," said Wallace. "But last summer they told me that my app kept breaking the daily limit."

TriMet raised the limit for PDX Bus to accommodate 120,000 users each day, an indication of how popular the application has become to people in the Portland Metropolitan Area, which has a population of nearly 2.3 million people.

Portland was recently ranked #5 in the U.S. News and World Report's 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation. The city was praised for providing "riders with a variety of travel options, including buses, light rail, commuter rail, streetcars, and an aerial tram."

Public transportation is a way of life for many people in Portland. It's also a source of civic pride. Last year, public buses and trains travelled 500,000 miles and stopped nearly 1 million times to pick up passengers each week, according to TriMet.

"I use this app multiple times daily to evaluate my commute options," posted PDX Bus app reviewer "Portland Flier" in the iTunes Store.

PDX Bus integrates lots of useful features. The Take Me Home button uses GPS, Google Maps and TriMet's live data to find the best way home from where every a commuter is around Portland. Favorite Trips can be bookmarked and saved, which allows them to be accessible even when an iPhone loses its cell tower signal.

The idea for one of the simplest and possibly most useful features came from Wallace's boss at Intel.

The PDX Bus app can find and save best bus and train routes in the Portland area.

The Night Visibility Flashing Light button at the bottom of the app is designed for easy use at night by riders to signal bus drivers to stop and pick them up.

"I had to do that one," he laughed. "But it's actually one of the most famous features."

"Somebody told me that they use the Flashing Light every evening to scare the cats so they don't run out the door when she gets home," chuckled Wallace.

There's also Rider Alert, something that can help out-of-towners know when they've arrive at an unfamiliar stop. It's also helping people get some shut eye.

"I've been waiting for someone to add a GPS proximity alarm to a transit app for a year now," wrote Joshua Linden-Levy in the comment section on iTunes. "This is awesome, now I can nap on the train!"

Wallace says that the Trip Planning feature took the app to a new level of usefulness, allowing people to plan ahead so the travel details were ready at the touch of a button.

Shake the device and arrival times are refreshed.

"When I'm going downtown, I can quickly check to see if I have time for a coffee," said Wallace in a video interview with Good. "You can quickly decide if you can get a coffee or have to run to the bus."

Wallace is surprised that people liked using the PDX Bus app even though TriMet has a website optimized for mobile browsers. He's even more surprised by the amount of suggestions and feedback he gets from friends, co-workers and people who share on Twitter @PDXBus and on the PDX Bus Facebook Fan Page.

"I get a lot of feedback, and it's mostly from people asking if I can create an app for their city," he said. "But usually other cities don't have the backend technology needed to support an app like PDX Bus."

What about an Android version? That's another common question Wallace hears.

"I just don't have the time," he said. "Android requires a very different programming language. I don't have anything against Android. I just don't have the enthusiasm to do it again. The same goes for MeeGo and Intel's own AppUp store. "I just can't muster the enthusiasm now," he said.

With mixed feelings, Wallace says that PDX Bus has been taking a lot of his time.

"If I could, I'd like to generalize it so it works in other cities," he said. "But it would require APIs like what TriMet provides. They're very advanced for doing that. They are quite cutting edge."

Free Shot: Get on the Bus Before You Get on the Bus

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:32:27 GMT

We've seen ad signage double as free USB charging stations for a few years now, mostly at airports, but never before at bus shelters. A new out-of-home media buy by Vitaminwater is touting the product's "energy-boosting" properties with shelters equipped with a 5-volt battery-powered USB port. So far users of smartphones, iPods, gaming devices and other gadgets are getting a literal charge of the signs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Boston. This advertising first from ad shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which won Coca-Cola's Vitaminwater brand account in May, is yet another example of the ubiquity and longevity of the 17-year-old plug-and-play interface developed by Intel engineers with assistance from peers at a half-dozen other companies.

Intel Engineer Has Submarine, Sunken Treasure Tale

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:35:35 GMT

Tales of sunken treasure have fascinated the world since perhaps the first sunken ship, but few can claim a story of their own.

Ken Privitt

Ken Privitt is a technical marketing engineer at Intel who happens to have built a small submarine with his father years ago. Now, a lot of Intel employees have interesting hobbies and stories to tell, but Privitt's may be among the more unique. His story involves a nearly 150-year-old shipwreck, the submarine, the Supreme Court, and a fortune in gold. It even has an interesting twist.

The short version goes like this: Fifteen years ago this August, 564 gold $20 double eagle coins were recovered from the wreck of a paddle-wheel steamer named the SS Brother Jonathan using a small submarine. Privitt built that sub - a 15 ½-foot, 5,000-pound steel craft named the Delta - with his dad, Doug, a long-time machinist. The younger Privitt designed the pressure vessel and electrical, life support and propulsion systems from scratch using a self-built computer with core memory ("Pretty amazing for 1979," Ken said), and those contributions enabled the Delta to go down to 1,320 feet, making the mini-sub ideal for the job.

The before and after give this treasure tale its punch, albeit at the expense of 225 souls who perished in what remains one of the worst maritime disasters in U.S. history.

On Sunday, July 30, 1865, the Brother Jonathan was headed to Portland from San Francisco carrying 244 passengers and millions of dollars in newly minted gold bars and $20 Double Eagle gold coins. Under Capt. Samuel J. DeWolfe and clear blue skies, the ship made a brief port call to the near-halfway point of Crescent City. About a half-hour after re-embarking, the paddle steamer ran into a seasonally unusual severe storm. Enduring massive waves, some cresting at 30 feet high, terrified passengers begged the captain to head back to Crescent City, which DeWolfe did. Nearing the harbor, the skies cleared but not the mountainous waves. A strong tailwind made navigating unstable and the ship struck an uncharted rock, the impact sending the nine-story mast through the hull and ensured that the Brother Jonathan would founder. As screaming passengers were being washed off the decks by the waves, efforts were made to launch the six lifeboats capable of carrying all passengers and crew. Alas, due to the huge waves, only one lifeboat made it safely to shore.

"Because some of the 19 survivors were the crew, we know the details of what happened," said Privitt, 55. Information included what cargo was aboard – goods that lay somewhere on the ocean floor. "A lot of gold was on that. There were shipments that included a U.S. army payroll and an Indian treaty payment, and all the money was in gold coins or bullion. The ship was loaded, some believe overloaded. Back in 1865 there were no shipping rules for packing."

Fast-forward about 125 years and we come to where Privitt enters the story – a part that usually happens only in adventure novels, movies and video games. Aware of the submarine built by Privitt and his father, a representative of Deep Sea Research came knocking at the elder Privitt's machine manufacturing and marine fabrication operation - named MARFAB - in Santa Ana, Calif.

Ken Privitt poses with the Delta sub he designed with his father. Photo taken in 1982, the year the Delta made its maiden launch.

"This guy came in talking about treasure," the son recalled. "He wanted to use our sub to find the SS Brother Jonathan. My dad brushed him off at first, but since the sub was being used for oceanography research in Alaska and was passing Crescent City after dive season anyway, he figured 'What the heck. No skin off my nose.' When the man offered 4 percent of whatever they found, it was a deal."

During the initial salvage mission another contractor's mini-sub, the Snooper, actually found the Brother Jonathan, its gravesite unknown until technology could outsmart Mother Nature's challenges of rocky and dark underwater passageways, treacherous weather and mighty currents, plus human miscalculations of where the ship might have eventually settled. About a year later, with salvage rights secured, or so one thought, the Privitts' mini-sub would make history roughly 2 miles south of what is now called "Jonathan Rock." On Aug. 30, 1996, the Delta brought to the surface a cigar box-sized container found near the wheelhouse.

"That's where the purser was and my dad figured that's who you'd give valuables too," Privitt said.

When the salvors opened up the box on the team boat, found in mint condition were $2 million in one-ounce $20 double eagle gold coins. The one person who was not there for the big moment was the Delta's co-builder, and for ironic reasons.

"I get seasick," Ken Privitt shared with a laugh. "Before the Brother Jonathan thing, we'd be out on dives for a week and they didn't care I was over the side chumming a bit. I had to work. I was on the boat! Literally, I was seasick 24/7 because I'd get sick in my sleep, too. I would dream that I was working."

As for the sunken treasure, eventually 1,207 gold coins were recovered along with numerous artifacts. Some of the coins were encrusted from a century-plus of sea life, but the reason why many were found in mint condition, and, thus, more valuable, was they were discovered still wrapped in protective oil paper.

As for divvying up the booty, the salvors faced another series of challenges, only this time on land and mostly in the courtroom. Descendants of passengers, shippers and even the salvors themselves all battled for a share of the treasure, but the loudest voice came from the state of California, claiming it not only owned the rights to the wreck and everything located close to its shores. A long legal battle between the recovery team and the state over ownership of the coins went all the way to the Supreme Court before being unanimously decided in favor of the finders. The appropriately nicknamed "Golden State" threatened to appeal, but in 1999 dropped the matter when it settled for 200 of the $20 double eagles, estimated at $5,000 per coin or $1 million.

The remaining 1,006 coins were sold in a public auction and raised $6.3 million, the low end of what the auctioneers had estimated. After taking their fee, about $4.6 million was left. Deep Sea Research, saddled with all the costs and legal expenses, wound up with a very small return on investment. As for the Privitts, Dad earned $40,000 "and a helluva story," said the son, who received zilch, but a helluva story.

"The money my dad made went into MARFAB, so he really didn't get anything either," he said. "As for me, I enjoy telling the story even though the only active part was in building the submarine. If I hadn't built it none of that would have happened."

The younger Privitt did wind up with three of the auctioned double eagles. The man who helped get them there didn't even merit a discount. Successfully bidding between $2,000 and $2,500 for the three coins, he gave one of them to his mom before she passed away. Dad, 78, now possesses it. The other two gold pieces are earmarked for his two children, ages 22 and 21. Asked why he hasn't given the coins to them yet, he replied with a playful smirk, "They'll get them some day, eventually."

A bounty of $20 double eagle gold coins was resurfaced by the Delta. The hand belongs to Doug Privitt, who built the sub with his son, Ken, an Intel engineer.

The first in his family to go to college, Privitt earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from UCLA. His destiny of going in that direction was pretty much set at the age of 4, when his father, a curious and adventure-seeking machinist, heard about a man named Ed Armstrong who was building a submarine just down the street in their Torrance neighborhood.

"They immediately hit it off," Privitt said. "I'd say he and my dad built 7 to 11 submarines before they broke off after disagreeing on my dad's new design that put the ballast tanks on the front and back instead of the sides for more stability. My dad's design was correct."

With Dad on his own, the son, who started out as a studious observer, became more hands-on over the years. In fact, during and after college he worked for his dad at MARFAB as a project engineer. His experience designing and building receivers and acoustic beacons helped him land a job at Magnavox, but not before finishing and launching the Delta. After 5 years of GPS design, working heavily with Intel microprocessors, Privitt left Magnavox for Intel as a field application engineer. That was in 1985 and he's been with the company ever since, earning a prestigious Intel Achievement Award along the way for his contribution to InfiniBand, an architecture and specification for improved data flow between processors and I/O devices.

Though he maintains an office at Intel's Folsom, Calif. campus, not far from where he resided from 1980 to 2006, he now works as a technical marketing engineer out of his home in the San Diego community of Pacific Beach. He lives with Nancy, his wife of 5 years and who he met while studying at UCLA.

Just four years from the sesquicentennial of the Brother Jonathan disaster, there's a murmur among the salvage community about a return to the wreckage that lay a couple of miles off Crescent City. Some say that four-fifths of the treasure remains down there just waiting to be discovered. Should an expedition team be formed with plenty of money and legal rights, don't expect the younger Privitt to be a party to the salvage mission at sea.

"I like working, but I'm just a Joe Average engineer," he said. "Plus, it's the constant bobbing up and down of being at sea. If I had sea legs I would be a submarine operator. It's a very profitable business. I'm at Intel because I get seasick."

Apple MacBooks Inside the Enterprise?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:35:41 GMT

'Bring Your Own Mac' Program Provides New Insight, Learning for IT

Putting Apple MacBooks to work behind the corporate firewall is something many small Silicon Valley startups may have been doing for years, but it may be less likely inside larger, established companies that rely upon heavily protected enterprise networks to manage email, store documents and dispatch software to employees around the world.

Aaron Tersteeg has used MacBooks inside Intel since 2006 when he was part of an early pilot program. Today, he is an active user and part of a growing network of Intel Mac Users.

That is about to change inside Intel.

In late May, the company quietly unveiled a new program allowing employees to "Bring Your Own Mac" to work, marking a departure from Intel IT's decades-old focus on company-owned laptops based on Windows. It's also creating new learnings for the company's IT department and ushering in a potential new model of self-support.

Intel's estimated 93,000 employees aren't exactly making a mad dash to swap out their existing IT-issued laptops for a MacBook, but Macs are slowing trickling into the work environment. BusinessWeek reported on this trend with "The Mac in the Grey Flannel Suit" cover story a few years ago, but it may finally be coming to fruition as more and more IT shops test the waters.

"Today there are more than 600 Macs in the enterprise and we're getting about 10 new ones added each week," said Jim Ferguson, a client engineer in Intel's IT department who led the effort to formalize a program that started several years ago with a few pilots.

It hasn't been easy.

"When we first started we brought in Powerbook G4 laptops but they didn't support wireless network protocols," Ferguson said. "One of the biggest drawbacks was lack of compatibility between the Apple OS and Windows environment," he said.

As a result, a number of such enterprise applications as SharePoint and iMeeting didn't work properly. There were considerable security, privacy, and legal issues to work through as well.

Some of the Macs inside Intel today are owned and supported by the IT department, but the new program relies more on a self-support model, with employees handling a lot of the basics using their own machines, including technical support.

Intel's IT department, led by Intel CIO Diane Bryant, has been doing a lot of experimenting and testing of the waters with the shift to consumerization, in which employee-owned devices with multiple operating systems are granted access to the company's secure Internet. Bryant says the goal is to enable as many devices as possible in the IT environment to help make employees as productive as they can be.

In 2009, Intel told employees if they had a smartphone device they purchased on their own, they could bring it into the enterprise. In the first 3 months, some 9,000 employees took advantage of the program. The company has also allowed iPads behind the firewall, but very few have abandoned their laptops as a result.

The shift to allowing Apple laptops in particular is something Apple fans working inside Intel have been waiting for ever since Intel chips began powering Apple computers in 2006.

Aaron Tersteeg, a software developer in Intel's Software and Services Group, loves the BYOMac program. He joined a smaller-scale Mac pilot program in 2006 on the heels of a handful of Macs being used by Team Apple, the sales team that led the initial engagement a year or so before. Since then, Tersteeg says he's moved on to his third MacBook. He says he prefers the Mac experience with its fluid and consistent interaction between applications, and the elegant interface.

"Media creation and management is top notch," Tersteeg said. "I can open almost any file instantly and I'm never hunting for a tool. The OS comes with almost everything I need."

Getting IT to Think and Do Different

Ferguson says the program has really forced Intel's IT department to "think different" about how the company manages its fleet of employee-issued laptops, and is driving IT engineers to expand their programming expertise beyond Microsoft to new operating systems and browsers.

Jon Carvill is a new Intel employee who jumped at the chance to use his own MacBook Pro when he learned about the "Bring Your Own" MacBook program.

"The BYO Mac program has been a catalyst," Ferguson said. "Three years ago, most of the focus was on Windows or Explorer. Now most teams are working on Firefox and Safari instead of just Explorer."

Kevin Beaver, an information security consultant with Principle Logic has said bringing consumer technologies into the enterprise "is creating a more complex environment that was already extremely complex, and complexity is the enemy of security."

Malcolm Harkins, Intel's chief information security officer responsible for keeping Intel's online information safe, has said in earlier interviews that it's best to manage the risk and complexity up front. This is part of the philosophy inside Intel's IT department that has allowed the experimentation to continue.

"Unless you're moving toward the risk, you won't be able to shape it," Harkins said. "It's better to meet the demand rather than have the demand go around you."

Shifting Support Services

One of the biggest challenges Ferguson's team faced was how to integrate self-support into Intel's support structure.

"Self service flies in the face of everything within IT," he said. "But we think long term it is a lower cost option for IT because if we utilize people, we can build tech savvy employees who can manage their stuff over time."

The self-support model doesn't bother employees like Tersteeg.

"During the first year, things were challenging with limited support for Intel's core business tools," he said.

Even knowing there is IT support available today, Tersteeg says he really doesn't use it. Instead, he turns to the Intel Mac User Group site dubbed iMUG, where Mac fans discuss using Apple systems in the Intel environment.

"The iMUG forum is a great place to ask questions, share experience and BKMs (Best Known Methods)," said Tersteeg. "It is so much better than talking to someone by phone and hearing them read from a script. In the forum, the answers get debated and the best solution rises to the top, and there are tons of Mac fan boys and girls working to be the first to answer any question that arises."

So far, about 85 percent of MacBook users at Intel have technical job descriptions, which may help explain why support calls have been much lower than what Ferguson's team had expected.

"Support call volume was so low that our Technical Assistance Center couldn't maintain their skills. So we stopped using the TAC in 2010," said Ferguson. "We now have one contract worker who handles Mac support calls.

But Ferguson believes this is ultimately more than just allowing employees to use MacBooks and the Apple OS inside Intel.

"This program has laid the groundwork for the compute continuum," he says, referring to a vision where people can get a common, seamless Internet experience securely, no matter what device, operating system or browser they use.

With the rumored imminent launch of the newest MacBook Air with Intel's latest Core processors, Thunderbolt I/O technology and Intel graphics, there may be a lot more BYO Mac users inside Intel soon.

Free Shot: Cash Registers Ringing to the Tune of Tech

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:45:32 GMT

What’s in store for in-store? More technology, according to a recent RSR Research report, which found that 70 percent of retailers are empowering their employees with tech-enabled touch points to help their businesses to differentiate and evolve. The survey, co-sponsored by HP, said that by arming their staff with digital signage, self-service kiosks, mobile devices and other info-driven technology, retailers can increase productivity and boost multichannel selling opportunities. More is on the way, according to the report. Intel’s "Retail Interactive Fashion Experience," for example, enables shoppers to use digital signs with multi-touch commands to browse through the store's inventory of blouses, dresses, pants, and accessories. Intel is currently in talks with apparel makers and retailers, including a national department store chain, to deploy the concept in hopes of convincing them that this invention – or a customized version -- could result in increased customer brand loyalty and improved profitability, among other benefits.

Connected StoreTechnology Has Fashion Sense

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:44:20 GMT

With few variations, buying clothes from a store involves a well-worn routine: Browse the racks, select a few garments based on vanity, price, need and other factors, then try them on in the dressing room.

But what if you didn't have to drag items into the dressing room and could still see what the outfit will look like on you? Or what if the store didn't have your size? Help is just a touch screen tap away.

The interactive retail shopping concept allows shoppers to use multi-touch commands on connected displays to browse through the store’s inventory.

Designed as a new kind of shopping experience that combines the best of online and in-store shopping behaviors, the concept is part of Intel's "Connected Store" that showcases the company's latest technology for the retail and digital signage markets. Intel's "Retail Interactive Fashion Experience" enables shoppers to use digital signs with multi-touch commands to browse through the store's inventory of blouses, dresses, pants, and accessories. The user interacts with on-screen controls to filter contents by price, style, material, size and other categories.

Potential candidates are sent to a "favorites" area on the screen, and from there the consumer can combine pieces creating outfits over a digital mannequin. Solo shoppers can even get a second opinion by sending a snapshot of their picks to friends and family for real-time feedback.

Shopping the technology around

Intel is currently in talks with apparel makers and retailers, including a national department store chain, to deploy the concept in hopes of convincing them that this invention – or a customized version -- could result in increased customer brand loyalty and improved profitability, among other benefits. At the National Retail Federation Conference earlier this year, Intel teamed up with adidas, Best Buy, Kraft Foods, and Proctor and Gamble, in addition to the MIT Media lab, to create a futuristic showcase and demonstrate what's possible.

"It's not our intention for this solution to be sold as-is. It's a conceptual thing." said Shailesh Chaudhry, a strategic marketing manager in Intel's Retail Innovation division. "We're using this proof of concept to drive engagements,"

So if a retailer is turned off by the prospect of a large 85-inch plasma screen, that's fine with Intel, which will build to suit.

"Our goal is to drive retail innovation and deploy a brand new category based on our technology." Chaudhry said.

One industry analyst who thinks Intel might be onto something, albeit somewhat ill-timed, is Gartner's Van Baker.

"What Intel has is going toward where the future of retail is going," said Baker, who covers consumer behavior as it relates to emerging technologies in the retail industry. "I don't think we're going to be there soon, but it puts an interesting concept in the market and gives retailers a version of where things might be heading."

Intel's concept is being marketed at a time when retailers have other things on their mind besides newfangled technologies, according to Baker.

"Retailers are worried about revenue right now and consumers opening their wallets again," he said. "They're focusing on the basics right now: having the right products, having them in stock, having them priced right and merchandising them well. They're going to stay focused there until there's evidence the economy is turning around.

"It's not the environment for retailers to be marching forward and investing in leading-edge solutions. Their thinking is if nobody's walking in the door then it doesn't matter."

Hand gloves to baseball gloves

Intel's concept is "very scalable," according to Chaudhry. A sporting goods store, for instance, could have a large selection of baseball mitts, but good luck to the lefty looking for an adult-sized pitcher's glove. The digital sign could let the southpaw know availability and cost, and if the search comes up empty and the player is patient, swipes of the customer's loyalty and credit cards would have the item shipped prepaid from a central warehouse.

"A lot of the technology Intel is demonstrating lets retailers better leverage inventory assets with their store and warehouse operations," Baker said.

Baker repeatedly cited a recent study that found that 67 percent of people who go into a store and have a lousy experience with a sales associate will simply leave.

"If you can, through a self-service kind of approach, get customers the information they need to make a purchase decision, even if the sales associate is hard to come by or not knowledgeable, that bodes well for the retailer," Baker said.

"Our data also shows that people like to go online and do a lot of research first, then go in a store and buy the product. If a retailer is able to give the consumer an online type of experience in the store to help them find, say, a type of garment in an assortment of colors, this extension creates an environment where this type of technology can help create revenue."

Chaudhry said because competition is light, acceptance of these new proof of concepts is slow, which is why you may not have seen one.

"When working with the retail industry, there's a long lead time for anything like this," he said. "There's the prototype, then pilots of multiple kinds that can take years. Then after even more stages, and if everything is successful, there's overall technology integration. You have to connect them back to their existing infrastructure."

If discussions continue to go as well as Chaudhry said they are with one particular department store, shoppers could be trying on clothes with the help of Intel technology within a few years.

From High-End Desktops to Tablets: A Recipe for Success

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:15:15 GMT

While many top chefs might hold on to their most precious family recipes, Francois Piednoel is touring the Asia giving away what he calls his "recipe" for building an Atom processor-based tablet.

"When companies in Asia heard about the recipe, they wanted it," said Piednoel, a veteran performance analyst at Intel who has traditionally worked on the extreme edge of high-performance PC's. "But if I give you a recipe of French cooking and you go into your kitchen alone, you are not going to make what my mom used to cook," he says with his native French accent, then chuckles.

Francois Piednoel, an high performance computer analyst at Intel, has spent two years pushing Atom-powered tablets to their limits, resulting in a compilation of software programming tips that he calls "a recipe for a good tablet."

"A lot of people building tablets were using the wrong recipe," said Piednoel "They were using things that were designed for today's high-end PCs and they tried to run them on Atom. It's not going to work."

But are tablet makers really interested in hearing from a guy who loves over-clocking and once conceived and developed a screaming dual-socket, dual-CPU desktop machine with multiple graphics options called Skulltrail?

Apparently so. Piednoel steps in as a kind of pied piper, drawing new tablet makers towards his mastery of math and computer code, which he claims can speed up performance of Atom-powered tablets so they respond smoothly at 60-frame-per-second.

Aside from Apple's line of iPads, innovation in tablets has largely disappointed many industry analysts, including IDC researcher Mario Morales, who believes a shakeout in the tablet space is brewing.

"At Computex last year (2010), most companies made a big splash by announcing so many types of different tablets that never saw the light of day," said Morales.

Despite similar criticism rising from this year's Computex, tablet makers continue to bring out new and improved designs to take on Apple's iPad 2 and leading Android tablets like Motorola's Xoom and Samsung's Galaxy Tab.

Making a Recipe with Legacy Ingredients

"I'm going across Japan and Taiwan and sitting with programmers, explaining to them the entire philosophy and they see very quickly that my very simple research is making a big difference," said Piednoel.

"The goal is to get every one of those companies that have OK software today to have very good software by the end of this year. Then you don't get one tablet that's good, but you get many good tablets."

Looking at Piednoel's past, it's like he traded Formula One cars for go-carts. For more than a decade, he has pushed the limits of technology. He and a small team dreamed up then brought to life Skulltrail, a dual CPU socket desktop platform for enthusiasts. It brought together eight processor cores and support for multi-graphics setups, something that continues to inspire innovation among high-end computing aficionados.

While low-power and just enough performance are in vogue in today's tablet market, some might question whether Intel should transform a high-end desktop guy into a tablet cook. Many believe mobile, thin, light, and long battery life – are antithetical to the desktop computing legacy.

"If we did something in the legacy before, we had a good reason," said Piednoel. "It always brought us some performance. We have some advantages that we don't talk about very much like the ability of using SSSE3 instructions to get another level of performance. There are a lot of mechanisms, which we can take advantage of, that are built into legacy."

"When going across Asia this is what surprised most of the people. That the x86 architecture legacy is an awesome tool. If you use it right you can do things that nobody else can."

He says it's all about finding the edge, but emphasizes that tablet makers must first know the scientific limits and then get creative about working within and around unmovable constraints.

Piednoel optimized performance of an older "Pineview" and a current "Oaktrail" Atom-powered tablet, both running Windows 7.

According Piednoel, his tablet recipe takes into account known memory bottleneck issues, and includes programming tricks that can increase performance from 30 to 60 frames per second.

"Pay attention to smoothness," he says, referring to a key ingredient. "This is the only thing you cannot sacrifice."

Piednoel's recipe first saw the light of day in early June during Computex. Gizmodo said that what Piednoel is doing "is about putting user experience above all else, but doing it in a way that is based on the fundamental math of what performance measures are actually making a difference."

"You start measuring bandwidth and what you can do with the GPU and CPU subsystems," said Piednoel. "Then you figure out the discrepancies between what people experience every day and what's actually possible. When you get a discrepancy, you can analyze it to a point where you say, if I change how it's doing this now, I can get it to go that much faster."

"All of those tricks in my recipe are nothing new," Piednoel said. "It's just about putting them together and making sure people understand them and why they are there. It's about putting the tablet user's needs first, not the operating system."

In his lab, Piednoel demonstrate the responsiveness and media sharing ability of an older Atom-processor based system (Pineview) against a recently released Oaktrail-powered tablet. Both have about the same performance but Oaktrail has up to 10 hours of battery life, more than double the older tablet.

He tests these tablets with a program that his performance lab team built to test high-end PCs. Rather than folders, the program displays an expandable calendar filled with dated photos and videos that can play simultaneously by tapping on the thumbnail.

The program was built to show the limits of performance on high-end PC's; by seeing how many videos can be played at once. Today it helps him find the edge of tablet performance, revealing how much a tablet can handle before video playback stutters or the touch-screen experience lags.

Ironically, it is just this kind of legacy PC test however, that is helping Piednoel refine his recipe for tablets today.

"Atom has the processing power of high-end computers from about 8 to 10 years ago, but it can't handle what today's Sandy Bridge Core processors can handle," he said. "Still, if we treat the Atom like a gaming machine of the past, there are lots of ways we can find the edge and then fix things to bring out a smooth user experience."

"Basically what I'm doing here is giving out two years of R&D to anyone who wants to do it, which is OK," he says. "It enables competition by helping other innovate more quickly. I know that my recipe will get into the hands of the other side, but it's OK."

Analyzing Atom for Optimized Tablet Recipe

The Making of Museum of Me

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:51:38 GMT

In the first week of June, a new Facebook application called Museum of Me captured the attention of more than 2.5 million people and surprised the people and the company that created it. And it all started with a simple sketch on a napkin.

There are no bricks and mortar in sight, but millions of people worldwide have stepped into Intel's ultra-modern, entirely virtual "Museum of Me" on Facebook.

During a time when celebrities and businesses around the world are clamoring to grab the attention of consumers through Facebook, the Museum of Me broke through the noise by taking what people care about dearly, and letting them create their own personalized story in a visual way.

The Museum of Me was created by an Intel marketing team in Hong Kong working with a boutique advertising agency in Japan, and it's reportedly become one of the top 12 most popular museums in the world judging by the numbers.

Stephanie Gan, an advertising and digital programs manager at Intel, said the experience became an overnight sensation that spread socially around the world as millions of people were curious enough to go off and create a personalized virtual museum of their life. It was supposed to launch officially on June 1 but the team did a test pilot on May 31. Within 5 minutes, there were 36 likes. Within 5 days, there were 1 million hits.

"We just had the Facebook 'Like' button on the site and it took off through the power of what people were experiencing," Gan said.

"It spread quickly through word of mouth via social networks, largely Facebook, but also Twitter and YouTube," she said. "The first thing we saw came from a person in Madrid, who tweeted about the video we posted to YouTube."

Next, people in Japan were tweeting the link to Museum of Me. Then New York, California and Brazil. Press and analysts covering social networking and computing trends weighed in, which contributed to the buzz.

Museum of Me pulls information from your Facebook page to create a virtual museum of your digital life. Photos, videos and friends are presented as pieces of art, displayed randomly as if in a museum or art gallery.

CNET called it a "really neat tool that does a fine job of collecting all the information from your Facebook page and doling it out in a fun exhibit." The Wall Street Journal's Tech Europe blog labeled it "a slick use of Facebook's social graph and for creating what will certainly be a viral product."

It struck an emotional chord with people, according to Jayant Murty, the director of Intel's brand strategy in Asia.

Virtual museum-goers admire your photos in one of the galleries in the Museum of Me.

"Images trigger memories and those memories can be very, very personal," said Murty. "People go back to photo albums to reminisce on the past and tell stories about our past. These are things we do in our everyday lives. We just found a way to pull this together into an online experience."

"Ultimately, the Museum of Me taps into one's narcissism and private experiences in an intensely social and networked world," Murty said.

Like any new and successful idea, the concept for The Museum of Me sprang from humble beginnings. The idea began with rough sketches drawn on cocktail napkins.

"Earlier this year at our big International Sales and Marketing Conference, our team wanted to quickly share the concept and idea of the project with our corporate colleagues, since we had the chance to meet up with them," says Murty. "We didn't have any writing material on us at the time, so we grabbed napkins from the bar, crowded around tables and sketched our ideas out!"

Not everyone was convinced once it went live, and the initial flood of visitors strained the servers gathering data for all these personal museums through the cloud.

Mashable called the experience "a bit creepy … it seems a bit like you've passed on," and BetaBeat pointed out "that the very personal nature of this information makes the context in which it sits extremely important" in a post titled "Intel's Museum of Me Features Dead Friends and Ex-Lovers."

One person said "I don't want to end up on a wall" below an image that his "friend" shared on Facebook from the Museum of Me experience.

Murty said there is a level of privacy built into the experience and that one of the big "aha" moments for him was when his team figured out how they would approach the sharing aspect.

"We created the Museum of Me with the intention of it being a personal, private experience," said Murty. "Holding steadfast to the view that this is a private experience in a public environment was probably the best decision we made."

Creating the Exhibit

After whittling down their ideas into a concept, Murty and Gan knew they were on to something big, but nobody expected it to become so popular once it went live.

"We took the idea of Museum of Me and started to share it around inside Intel when it was still in very early sketches," said Murty. "It was really back-of-the-napkin stage, but even in that early phase virtually everyone said, 'Wow, that's interesting!' And that's not a response we encounter here all the time."

According to Gan, the aim was to make something thrilling and emotional then equate it the performance and visual experience of Intel's 2^{nd generation of Core processors. The company markets these with the tagline "Visually Smart" to highlight built-in graphics and media capabilities.}

In the final gallery at the Museum of Me, robots meticulously assemble hundreds of your photos into, well, you'll need to visit to see!

"We are not 'in your face' about Core i5 or Intel branding," she said. "First you have the experience and then at the end we flash the brand badge. This is a better way for us to create an emotional connection."

Projector Inc., the agency in Japan, suggested they create music that would play inside Museum of Me. So they worked with artist Takagi Masakatsu, a Japanese composer who solicited more than 400 different recorded voices from his Twitter followers. Those voices were woven into the Museum of Me's musical score.

When it was finished, it represented a compelling new way to share people's digital lives. Becky Brown, who heads up Intel's social media center of excellence, said it was evident pretty quickly that more capacity was needed as the word spread.

"This thing just took off," said Brown. "We were watching comments on our fan page, and some people were saying things were lagging, and that that's how we knew we needed to add more server capacity."

Rather than this being an entirely new idea however, Murty sees it as triangulating and processing a variety of insights.

"Very often great ideas are ones in which people draw on two or three parallel sources of inspiration," he said. "The fact is, the pieces of the puzzle were there. It is just that we assembled them with the help of the talented people."

The Battle for Female Talent in China

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:46:04 GMT

It is the world's second-largest economy and the world's largest labor force. It is China, and Intel is recruiting talented women who live there or want to return — women who are graduating from Chinese and American universities at nearly the same rate as men and who make up 40 percent of MBA students in top-ranked programs.

Even as Intel actively recruits technical and non-technical women in China, the company is realizing it has to focus on retaining them as well. While women's opportunities in China are growing, they are dealing with cultural expectations that they are responsible for child and elder care according to Intel managers in China. Other issues include gender bias and travel time.

Roz Hudnell (center, in blue jacket), Intel’s diversity director, with other participants of the recent Global Advancement of Women conference held in Beijing. (photo by Easly Blessed)

"It's not easy for women to have a role in this [high-tech] industry," said Helen Tian, operations manager of Intel Labs China and co-chairwoman of the Beijing chapter of Women at Intel Network, or WIN.

Still, women represent a rich talent pool that no company can afford to ignore.

Roz Hudnell, Intel's diversity director, recently hosted a conference in Beijing and unveiled a report she co-authored titled, "The Battle for Female Talent in China."

The report included data from 4,350 college-educated men and women in Brazil, Russia, India, China and the United Arab Emirates. Findings showed that women are flooding into universities and graduate schools, representing 65 percent of college graduates in the UAE, 60 percent in Brazil and 47 percent in China.

During her visit to China, Hudnell met with representatives from the United States embassy who are working with companies to develop a formal leadership exchange program to advance female leadership in China. The agreement between the United States and China is being led by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Liu Yandong, the highest ranking woman official in China.

"Businesses should be discussing diversity in the global context and working to hire and retain a workforce comprised of people with different perspectives, backgrounds and cultures," said Hudnell. "It's vitally important as we strive to get closer to end-users and capture new markets."

Lara Tiam, Intel's human resources manager in China, said that while there are millions of working women in China, a shortage of technical women exists. Despite that, Intel China managed to exceed its 2010 goals to hire more technical — and non-technical women — mostly for the assembly test facility in Chengdu and the new Fab 68 in Dalian.

"A big recruiting draw for women in China is work flexibility — the ability to work from home at least once a week, and the culture of flexibility that allows them to attend to family concerns as needed," Tiam said.

Other incentives, she noted, are maternity laws that protect working women from the time they become pregnant until their child is 1 year old, and cultural norms in which grandparents often provide childcare for their working daughters and sons.

However, women who relocate from their hometown to go to Fab 68 in Dalian and Chengdu often lose that support system. In response, Fab 68 has set up childcare support for the working mothers. Both Chengdu and Dalian are currently exploring options to support children's education as well.

"For our Technology Manufacturing Group sites," Tiam explained, "60 to 70 percent of our recruiting is coming from recent college graduates, which the company affectionately refers to in its classic acronym language as "RCG's". We have an active internship program where employees spend from 3 months to a year with Intel before they graduate. We take them inside the factories and they learn the tools and the environment."

"In China, a social stigma is attached to using professional help or placing parents in assisted-living facilities," said Wang-Li Moser, general manager for corporate programs in Intel China. "That responsibility typically is taken care of by daughters, working or not."

Tiam said that given the young workforce in China, Intel China is not currently concerned with a mass exodus of women (and men) leaving to take care of elderly parents. But the company is aware of this issue and working to address it.

Factors like the one-child policy in China — with many parents pushing their daughters to succeed "just like boys" — and dreams of a modern lifestyle with a spacious apartment and fancy car are boosting women's enrollment at universities inside and outside China.

CiCi Li, a staffing manager for Intel's China operations, visits a number of Chinese student associations at U.S. universities to persuade women studying abroad to return to China.

Li said most of these women would have preferred to stay in their native China, but there are limited top-rate university spots for the massive number of applicants. Plus, Li added, their parents are still back in China and many students want to be closer to home.

Li also meets with Chinese Intel employees working outside of the country who might want to return to their native land. Most of them left China to study, graduated, and then accepted job offers in other parts of Asia and the States.

Because Intel is hiring more women in China, participation in WIN is increasing, and there are now chapters located in every major China site.

Employee groups such as WIN help women in emerging markets build networks — one of the four pillars of success to attract and keep talented women, according to the report. The other three include finding talent early at universities; giving working women international exposure and providing plenty of support for families in the host countries; and building ties to clients, customers and communities.

"What I find interesting are the nuances and the cultural implications of what women are going through around the world," Hudnell said. "In China, you now have women entering the workforce who are the products of the one-child policy, and the need for them to develop careers and take care of themselves and their own parents is imminent."

Tech Analysts Disappointed in Tablet Innovation

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:51:56 GMT

For some tech industry analysts, shock and awe from the annual computer industry Computex event in Taiwan has been displaced by disappointment and desire for device makers to take smarter approaches, particularly those companies fixated on competing against Apple's line of iPads.

"There were over 50 new tablets launched at this show, and they all basically follow a PC model of just creating devices with lower prices and very little innovation," wrote Tim Bajarin, industry analysts at Creative Strategies, in a recent article for PCMag.com.

"Of the 50 tablets I saw, there was probably only one or two that might even have a chance of selling a modest amount," he wrote.

Even prior to this year's Computex, IDC analyst Mario Morales expected to see, "an evolution of where they (companies) have so far failed in the areas of smartphones and tablets. Last year, most companies made a big splash by announcing so many types of different tablets that never saw the light of day."

CCS Insights analysts John Jackson looked forward to nothing more than "incremental iteration on tablet and mobile computing form factors."

"I'm a bit skeptical about seeing anything that would cause oohs and ahs," said Johnson.

These analysts have buttressed their criticism with what they believe is desperately needed to meet tablet sales predictions from research firms, including some that are expecting to see over 200 million tablets sold per year by 2014.

"Where they're missing the real formula is being able to provide the complete solution where they're bringing the hardware, software and the content piece together and that's why I fundamentally believe we're going to see a shakeout in the tablet space," said Morales.

"Most companies are making the mistake of going directly at Apple in the consumer space. They are ignoring the clear opportunities to play in areas that are more vertical, in fields such as educational and medical that now underserved."

Morales points out that HP with their Palm OS and understanding of enterprise markets, and RIM, which can leverage their email technology, are two companies positioned to grow tablets sales in vertical industries.

Bajarin suggests that Apple will dominate tablet sales well into 2012, and warns that tablet makers shouldn't focus solely on hardware.

"I went by one booth of a key semiconductor company that had nine tablets using its chip, and they all looked pretty much the same," Baharin continued. "Even worse, it just took a stock version of Android and put it on the tablets with no ties to services or any enhanced UI."

"Content and services, will become more important in the market," said Johnson, who says it's vital for new tablets and smartphones to be designed with a complete ecosystem of hardware, software and services in mind.

According to Johnson, innovations in smartphones could move quickly into tablets, especially context-aware, location-based services that leverage camera, GPS, RF and other technologies built inside mobile devices.

"We will also see companies exploiting the full capabilities of the sensory subsystems that we're on today's smartphones. These sensory subsystems are becoming mainstream and I think we have yet to see the full potential of these drawn out or made available to third party developers. That's going to be a bit of a wow-factor, maybe a subtle one at first, but something that will be pretty obvious in the next two or three years."

'Redneck Rocket Scientist' Follows His Dream

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:32:43 GMT

For a self-described redneck, Morris Jarvis sure doesn't fit the mold. For one thing, he's a building information modeling project manager in suburban Phoenix, not a poor Southern farmer as the true definition of "redneck" suggests. Jarvis also has a college degree -- in aerospace engineering, no less. And not one of his leather belts is personalized.

Instead of the usual car or two, Morris Jarvis’ garage in Mesa, Ariz. contains a quarter-scale space shuttle that, when fully funded, will make suborbital test flights around Earth. Jarvis has a goal to eventually carry paying passengers in future versions of this prototype.

Oh, and the man has a spaceship in his garage. And he wants to send people into space using standard off-the-shelf technology.

The spacecraft is the real deal as far as prototypes go. And once he's fully funded, Jarvis plans to take the craft on suborbital test flights around Earth en route to a final version he hopes will eventually carry paying passengers.

"If I wrote a book it would be called, 'Redneck Rocket Scientist: The Older I Get the Faster I Was,'" Morris said, smiling as what he was standing next to – a quarter-scale NASA space shuttle, basically -- hardly helped sell the country bumpkin image he tries to project.

If Jarvis ever does write that book his friends say he should, it would probably begin with what he describes as a "dysfunctional childhood" that took him to a ranch in New Mexico and the east-central Arizona towns of Eager and Springerville. At times he lived with no radio or TV, other times he earned money splitting wood. But even if he did flirt with a sub-sophisticated lifestyle, his destiny for great things later in life was determined at the age of 4 when he watched the moon landing along with the rest of the TV-accessible world.

"I hunkered down in front of the TV. I was glued to the set," he said. "I struggle with the question of when I got an interest in space because there was never that moment, but I do remember the moon landing."

At the age of 12, Morris built his first liquid rocket engine with alcohol found in the garage and oxygen used for much different purposes by his ailing mother. The result was what they call in model rocketry as a "CATO," an acronym that stands for "Catastrophic Take Off." Or "Catastrophe At Take Off" depending on who you talk to.

"I didn't understand the concept of cooling yet," he recalled. "After a couple of seconds it was glowing and you could tell this wasn't going to be good. I ran for cover and the rocket blew up. It shattered. My mom came running out just in time to see me putting the last of the fire out."

And this man wants to take you into space.

"Since then I got an aerospace engineering degree and got better on that sort of thing," Jarvis said with a confident smile. "I understand that cooling is a big deal now."

Had Jarvis not taken a 2-year assignment in Ireland for his day job with Intel, where he's worked for 14 years, the Hermes Spacecraft project might have been at the next stage by now. That's conducting simulated landing tests with the craft attached to a trailer at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. This involves a high-altitude balloon that stretches 400 feet in diameter taking the craft to about 110,000 feet, then gliding back to Earth.

"That's taking the spacecraft to 3 percent atmosphere. You're basically in space," Jarvis said.

Initial test flights would be remote-controlled, but later could be piloted, according to Jarvis, who said the last step is to build a final version of the Hermes with a heat-resistant carbon composite skin and attached to a hybrid rocket powered first stage. After reaching approximately 150,000 feet, the Hermes would then detach and fire either a self-built engine or, if there's funding, an XLR99 rocket engine now sitting inside an old craft in California that was developed for the Air Force's X-15 project. After expending its fuel, the Hermes would then coast to reach a max altitude of 70 miles above the earth before arching over for its zero "g" return to the atmosphere. Once back inside the Earth's atmosphere, the Hermes would then glide back to Earth for a runway landing.

Intel technology powers most of the data gathering, test and communications systems of the Hermes, named for the mythological Greek messenger of the gods. Showcasing the capabilities of its high-performance, low-power platform products, Intel asked Jarvis to transport the Hermes to the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in 2008. The craft's first public display was a show-and-tell for the new Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor SoC [system on chip] product line and the Intel Atom processor Z5xx series.

Scattered about Morris Jarvis’ backyard are remnants of past projects and the first car he ever bought: a 1/3-scale Model T he paid for by doing electrical work, at age 12.

"This is all off-the-shelf technology," Jarvis said. "These are the same chips available to the public, as is everything else used in the making of the Hermes. The math is there, the hard physical science is out there. Nothing new – it's all cookbook stuff."

Jarvis makes it sound so easy. But besides know-how, who you know is as important for a project like this. Besides corporate support during various stages from ADI Engineering, Dot Hill, GE Fanuc, MicroSun and National Instruments, in addition to Intel, Jarvis has the backing of several people he affectionately calls "fellow dreamers."

Among them is John Oliver, an Intel computer architect and hardware designer who designed and built the remote cockpit for test use and is currently helping with marketing and fundraising. Steve Reed, another Intel employee who works in the Embedded and Communication Group, was instrumental in program approval and funding.

The most decorated "dreamer" has already lived the dream. Retired NASA astronaut Story Musgrave, the first person to fly on six Space Shuttle missions, attended the developer conference where the Hermes was on display. When asked by a journalist if he'd "fly in that thing," Musgrave responded "sign me up" and even volunteered to pilot the Hermes' first manned test.

Like with so many dreams, it's all a matter of time and money, with an emphasis on the latter.

"When you're working out of your own pocket, like we are, you take baby steps," Jarvis said. "To do the first balloon launch we need $1.5 million." The price tag for the first rocket launch is roughly $5.5 million.

"Honestly, the only thing that separates me from Burt Rutan and Richard Branson is money," Jarvis said, referring to the designer and maverick billionaire who, by this time next year, could be sending well-heeled Virgin Galactic passengers to the same destination as where the Hermes would go.

"Branson is charging $200,000 a ride and collecting $20,000 down payments," Jarvis said. "He already has more than $60 million in down payments. There's a lot of money in this business and we want to be a direct competitor to Virgin Galactic.

"Hopefully at some point we'll get that angel investor who wants to dive right in."

The Hermes' first flight is planned to be an unmanned, tethered flight at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, during which Morris Jarvis (pictured) will control the spacecraft from a remote cockpit like this on the ground.

When that day arrives, by Jarvis' calculations the balloon launch could happen within a year and the first rocket test maybe a half-year later.

The frustrating thing for Jarvis and team is there had been funding over the years, but much of that dried up, along with a documentary on the Discovery Channel, due to the economy and that Ireland gig.

"Stars misaligned," he said. "I went away and everyone knew that if I wasn't pushing things the project would slow down. Then the economy just cratered. Programs like this are the first to get cut. It's no fault of anyone's."

No stranger to economic crashes – "I'd rather deal with those than the other kind," – Jarvis was forced to scrap the forerunner to the Hermes because of the dot-com crash of 2000. "The investor we had lined up lost his ass," he said.

The remnants of that project are in his backyard, along with a few of the 14 total cars and trucks that remind Jarvis why he convinced his wife to not live under the rules of a homeowner association. Some of the four-wheeled machines are eyesores -- rusted, dented, tattered interiors -- but Jarvis, who, yep, is into ground vehicles, too, is quick to point out that all but one runs and what's under the hood for some would excite subscribers of "Car and Driver."

"I bought a shop and my wife got a house in the process," Jarvis laughed as he stood in front of his East Mesa home, which had the selling point of a canal right-of-way on two sides and a retention basin on another. "The only real neighbor I have is a bigger redneck than I am."

As for Susan, his wife of 3 years, "not including a 5-year engagement and being together for 15 years plus," Jarvis said she doesn't share his passion for space and speed. "Amazingly understanding" is how he describes her. No doubt hubby scored points when after returning from Ireland he named the spacecraft the "Sensational Susan."

How many rednecks get to do that?

Intel's Morris Jarvis discusses the Hermes Spacecraft

Morris Jarvis has a goal of being able to take paying passengers into space, using off-the-shelf technology. Here, Morris shows off his prototype spacecraft modeled after the NASA Shuttles now being retired.

A Brief Interview with Intel's Sean Maloney

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 27 May 2011 20:40:07 GMT

Editor's Note: A few days before traveling to Taipei, Taiwan, where he is slated to deliver a keynote address at Computex 2011, Intel Free Press had a chance to sit down for a brief conversation with Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney, the newly named chairman of Intel China. Maloney returned to work in January after suffering a stroke last year. The following is a transcript taken from the video interview.

IFP: First of all, how are you feeling and how does it feel to be back at work and in the middle of everything?

Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney is moving to China to head-up the company's efforts there as Chairman of Intel China.

Maloney: It feels great. Physically I'm almost completely recovered. And my speech continues to improve. It's better than when I started in January and it will be better again all through the course of this year.

IFP: You've had a long and successful relationship with the technology community in Taiwan. How does it feel to be coming back and keynoting at Computex during this interesting time when everything is changing and the dynamics of the traditional PC industry are changing?

Maloney: It's an honor. I've done this keynote for years and not doing it last year killed me. The change that you mentioned is a good thing, and our partners in Taiwan are embracing it.

IFP: Are you worried that Intel will be seen as trying to resuscitate the PC at a time when conventional wisdom says that the PC is declining?

Maloney: Well, we don't see it that way. Clearly the PC this year is doing really well, but the PC still has room to grow and we need to kick start that.

IFP: How do you challenge the critics who are saying that some of this is too little, too late -- that the ARM ecosystem is too firmly established now, particularly in tablets and phones?

Maloney: The ARM ecosystem is really well established, but I don't think that anyone is in the position that Intel is in to get all the way from the bottom to the top. In process technology, we are still 2 years or more in front. I think it will be a good 4 or 5 years.

IFP: Intel has talked a lot about accelerating the SoC (System-on-a-Chip) roadmap, which according to some pundits can't happen fast enough. Why is it taking so long for the company to accelerate Atom SoCs and is there anything you can do to make it go faster?

Maloney: Well, unfortunately 2 years ago we thought that the market was not moving as fast as it has moved. Now we've announced that we will be doing one new process generation every year for the next 3 or 4 years. That's pretty fast. It's a big acceleration from where we are now.

IFP: Intel CEO and President Paul Otellini mentioned during the recent investors meeting that China is poised to be No. 1 in the PC market next year. What does that mean for Intel?

Maloney: It means everything, right? The U.S. was the first and foremost market for 43 years at Intel. Now it's going to be China, No. 1. That's amazing. Really, I am excited about China. It's the first market for Intel next year. There are so many things we can do in China, and we're going to do them.

Putting the "I" in Indy 500 Auto Race

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 26 May 2011 23:05:01 GMT

Ladies and gentleman, start your engines. But first turn on your computers!

iRacing.com is officially sanctioned by Indy 500 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and virtual race finals will be livestreamed online and on Jumbo Tron screens prior to the real life Indy 500 race.

This weekend, millions of auto racing fans will scream from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stands, in front of their TVs and from behind the steering wheels of their virtual Dallaras inside a massively multiplayer game called "iRacing."

As the world's top IndyCar drivers compete in qualifying rounds in Indianapolis, members of "iRacing' are participating in this year's centennial Indy 500 race by turning on their home computers and racing in qualifying heats against other iRacers competing online in the 2nd Annual iRacing.com Indy 500.

"It's the closest most people will get to driving on the real track," said iRacing marketing manager Otto Szebeni.

Sanctioned by the Indy 500 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Szebeni said "iRacing" will bring together about 1,400 avid racing fans, nearly twice as many as last year, from more than 100 countries. He pointed out that thanks to the Internet, more people raced in the virtual Indy 500 last year than have raced in all of the real-life Indianapolis 500s since 1909.

Today, auto racing fans and real-life professional drivers are stepping into the virtual world of simulated racing, and are able to experience the world's best racetracks in a virtual world that Szebeni claims is within two millimeters of the real track.

"Racers feel the excitement of really racing on the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway," he said. "iRacing.com members can feel the rubber gripping every curve and the acceleration on every straightaway. You can even feel bumps in the road that are actually on the Indy 500 track," he said.

Szebeni said "iRacing's" virtual racetracks are modeled after real racetracks using hordes of data collected from laser scans, not GPS like many other auto racing games. He said his team spent over a week scanning the 2 ½-mile oval track at Indianapolis.

"It's an expensive, laborious task, but authenticity is what it's all about, all based on real world data," said Szebeni.

A motorized orb with a laser inside is fastened atop of tripod, which the iRacing.com engineers moved up and down the race track, collecting millions and millions of points to create what Szebeni calls a "Point Cloud." The laser orb scans 360 degrees, then is moved ahead a few feet and scans again, capturing the racing surface and surrounding area. Digital artists map texture onto the point cloud using photos and graphics.

"This is not an artist's rendition but a real digital replication of the race track," said Szebeni. "That is what we do, and same goes for the cars, which are all modeled from officially sanctioned CAD data, and some cars are even designed from laser scans."

iRacing.com uses a precision Leica laser scanning device to capture raw data to model its virtual racetracks after real world racetrack within a millimeter of accuracy.

According to Szebeni," iRacing" is a new dimension for races like the Indy 500, which is working hard to energize the existing fan-base and help create new IndyCar racing enthusiasts.

"'iRacing' is so immersive and intense that sometimes I step out of my driving chair sweating from the death-grip determination I put into the race," said Don Bowden, an Intel technology demonstration engineer who has helped Intel sponsor many "iRacing" competitions, including the Indy 500.

Anyone at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend can sit behind the wheel of an iRacering.com chassis and take a virtual spin around the Indy 500 track. Szebeni said that some fans will get the chance to race next to Justin Wilson, Scott Speed and other IndyCar drivers.

Bowden is in charge of building 10 computers at the legendary speedway. "The computers are built with the latest Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor, great graphics from the 6970 ATI GPU and some really fast Intel SSD drives," said Bowden. Each computer will be controlled by a simulated IndyCar chassis, including a steering wheel, gear shifters, and gas, brake and clutch pedals.

iRacing.com members have been competing online for weeks leading up to the real Indy 500 in hopes of winning cash, prizes and bragging rights. Multiple splits with multiple races occur simultaneously, where 33 cars race 200 laps around the course. The ability to handle realistic racing for hundreds, even thousands of people simultaneously comes from iRacing.com server farms based in Boston and Australia.

There will be two different iRacing.com Indy 500 finals, one for the rookie and less skilled racers, and one for the C and higher-ranked racers. Each race will have 33 cars and, in theory, everyone will race similarly skilled drivers, according to Szebeni.

iRacing.com Indy 500 finals will be live-streamed on iRacing.com and PSRTV.com, and on large jumbo-tron screens in and around the speedway. Selected fans taking part in the pre-race festivities also will compete against Indy 500 drivers in an iRacing.com sprint race, with prizes including race day packages to the big race on May 31.

After the Indy 500, PC-based drivers can look forward to the release of iRacing 2.0, which will feature even more realistic tire performance and other features, according to Szebeni.

A life-long race fan from the Boston area, Szebeni said he believes iRacing will continue to catch on and benefit the world of auto racing.

"We're at the very beginning of this," he said. "There are really two big sports in the world, soccer and motor sports. Unlike soccer, where anyone can just go and play a game, most people can't really experience what it's like to race on a real track."

Intel's demo guy and auto-racing aficionado Don Bowden demonstrates the immersive Indy racing experience on iRacing.com.
A "Virtual Indy 500" will feature fans across the world racing in a full-length Indianapolis 500 on the PC simulation seen here.

Modern Day Da Vinci Designs Smart Spider

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:57:10 GMT

It's "A Bug's Life" meets "WALL-E," except this other-worldly creation is no product of Pixar Animation. It's the real deal. This six-legged robot is fully equipped with Artificial Intelligence, it can crawl creepily like a spider on its own, or bust into syncopated flamenco dance moves.

This hexapod replica, built by Matt Bunting for Intel, uses computer vision and machine learning to figure out its next moves.

It even has a tantalized Twitter following @hexapod, where fans can track its whereabouts.

With 21 motors and a Web camera for an eye, this skateboard-sized robot is fast moving and fully aware of its surroundings. Which gives many people the heebie-jeebies at first sight, according to creator Matt Bunting. Especially for anyone who is afraid of spiders. Aside from arachnophobes, Bunting said the hexapod is a real attention-grabber that often peaks people's curiosity.

"When people first see the hexapod, their instinct is to just wave their hand at it, but it can't recognize waving," said Bunting, adding that it can quickly find and track faces.

"It's very cool to see a little kid walk up and stick his face into the hexapod, said Bunting, raising his eyebrows. "The hexapod looks right back and follows along as the kid moves a little bit to the right or left. It's a very chilling, unearthly feeling to have this creepy looking robot follow your own movements."

"Creepy and cute and the same time," he added.

Bunting tinkered around using very inexpensive parts to build his first hexapod when he was in high school. A few years later, in 2009, he evolved his earlier ideas into a fully functioning hexapod while in a cognitive robotics class during his undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona.

"I liked the idea of having a machine being able to learn," said Bunting. "So I built a hexapod that was much more capable than the first one I built in high school. I didn't want to pre-program it with algorithms, so I didn't use inverse kinematics and force all of the legs to move in the way that I wanted them to, but instead I used this reinforcement learning technique called cue-learning. With cue learning the hexapod was able to experiment in the world and figure out an optimal way to walk."

After the hexapod could walk, Bunting used a Playstation 3 game controller that he hacked and made the robot dance for a video he posted on YouTube.

Since then, Bunting's work has captured the attention of technology companies, including Intel and HRL Laboratories, his current employer and graduate school sponsor. His hexapod currently graces the cover of the June edition of Linux Journal, and the electronics and engineering industry publication, EETimes, just honored Bunting with a prestigious ACE Award, naming him this year's Top Student "whose discipline, hard work and academic success are considered hallmarks for other engineering or science students."

After building his first hexapod in high school, Matt Bunting reinvented his robot design as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, where he's now pursuing a PhD. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and working on DARPA's "Cheetah Project."

Two days after Bunting posted his first video on YouTube, back in 2009, he was contacted by Stewart Christie from Intel's embedded and communications group. Christie's job is to find the next generation of developers, and sometimes that means meeting robot builders in their gear-cluttered garages or taking requests for equipment or project sponsorship on his team's website.

Christie calls Bunting "a real modern-day Da Vinci," pointing out that Bunting even created the Spanish guitar music that compels his spider robot to dance, as seen in the YouTube video.

"My job is to look for hobbyists, hackers and future customers who are working on cool projects and who might not be aware that they can build on Intel architecture," he said.

"When Intel first contacted me I was a little bit shocked," said Bunting. "I didn't believe it at first … because you don't normally think this kind of thing is going to happen to you … that somebody would recognize you for the work that you do."

Soon after, the hexapod began to multiply as Bunting worked to meet Intel's request for two replicas.

"With the help of Intel, I really worked hard to make it look the way I always wanted it to look, said Bunting. "I created an even better machine-learning technique, which involved an artificial neural network, and I used a generic algorithm to tune all of the weights."

Bunting refers to his works as "biologically influenced robotics," in which he combines the ability to see, learn and respond with movements.

Early on, Bunting said he wanted all of the processing to be done onboard, controlling all of the 21 motors, and processing vision with advanced machine learning techniques. Each of the six legs would be powered by three servos, or smart motors, and three more would control the camera.

"I needed something that was very powerful," he said. "I also wanted something that would eventually run on batteries, so it needed to be powerful and computationally efficient at the same time. Fortunately, CompuLab came out with the Fit PC right around that time, so I ordered one of those and it has an onboard Intel Atom processor (running at 1.6 GHz). It could handle vision processing seamlessly along with all of the kinematic equations to operate all of the motors."

Bunting used OpenCV, or Open Computer Vision, which is a library of free software for real-time computer vision.

"I've implemented a few vision computing techniques such as object recognition,"" said Bunting. "There's face tracking onboard, so the hexapod can find your face and actually follow it around. For the machine learning, like the reinforcement techniques that I implemented, vision was used to measure the optic flow. Using the optic flow, it's able to take two successive images and figure out how the objects are moving around in the world. The hexapod could tell if a person's head has tilted, moved forward, up or down and that was all critical for machine learning."

Matt Bunting has been described as a "real modern day Da Vinci"

Currently a graduate student at the University of Arizona, Bunting spends much of his time coding and tweaking his creations inside the windowless Robotics and Neural Systems' lab led by UofA Professor Tony Lewis. Inspired at a young age, and even today, by building Lego models and mathematics, Bunting has evolved into a valuable asset for the Tucson school's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, even helping to attract new students and big-time research projects like DARPA's "Cheetah."

According to Bunting, his team will collaborate with other researchers in a competition to create a four-legged robot that could eventually lead to a two-legged robot able to run faster than any robot today. Proof of his team's prototype rests in his iPhone in the form of a photo showing robotic hind legs of a small cheetah.

"If we scale it up, I think we can actually achieve 70 mph," Bunting recently told Arizona Engineer, a publication of the university's College of Engineering.

Bunting said his hexapods are coming in handy as he focuses more time on DARPA's Cheetah project. He said he's extending the "machine learning" that he built into the six-legged robot, and refining the 3-D printer techniques he used to fabricate the light, hard plastic skeleton and legs of the hexapod.

In addition to the hexapod he has inside his lab, Bunting keeps in touch with his other hexapods through Twitter, where Intel's Christie shares the robots' whereabouts like elementary school science class visits, technology tradeshows, media events such as the recent Tech Heaven in New York, and competitions like Robocup in Rome.

Christie said that someday a robot like this could be programmed to interpret facial gestures and human expressions, which could make it useful in such places as school and hospitals.

"This hexapod is surprisingly easy to command using a Bluetooth game controller," said Christie. "I can hand the controller to anyone, and they're off and running, especially kids who are used to playing with the Playstation."

The collaboration continues. "Now I'm encouraging Matt to train the hexapod to post photos to its Twitter account so people can see what the robot sees when it's in action at an event," said Christie.

Christie also pointed out that several other teams have developed ancillary projects, using the same Atom-based hardware that Bunting used, including a 10-foot wingspan autonomous aircraft and an underwater robot.

"They all cited Matt's success as the reason for choosing the Atom processor," Christie said.

From Scanners to Slippers, It's a Wild Universal Serial Bus Ride

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:54:44 GMT

Keyboards, printers, joysticks – sure. But toy missile launchers, disco balls and thumb drives that look like thumbs?

When a small team of Intel engineers developed the Universal Serial Bus with a half-dozen other companies in 1994, the objective was to create a low-cost plug-and-play interface to connect computers to peripheral devices. In the early days USB products were sold primarily at computer and office supply stores. Today, they're as universal as the serial bus itself.

A small, portable desk aquarium powered by a USB connection is just one of many creative ways USB technology is being used to power everything from foam missile launchers to thumb drives that look like human thumbs.

That's how fast and broadly USB-equipped devices have taken off – to the point where today over 10 billion exist in the world, according to market research firm In-Stat. No one is more surprised by the explosion than Ajay Bhatt, the Intel computer architect who co-invented the standard.

"Originally when we did this it was to replace connectors for simple stuff like scanners, keyboards and mice," Bhatt said. "We didn't know it would be around this long, this popular and lead to such a wide variety of products."

Bhatt said he uses his own technology every day, but keeps to the more mundane computer peripherals and consumer electronics. So simple are his needs that the man doesn't even own a USB missile launcher complete with foam missiles to attack a neighboring cubical at his Hillsboro, Ore. workplace. And as for those popular beverage warmers, Bhatt literally doesn't make the connection.

"Don't have one. I'd rather get fresh coffee," he said.

It's not as if Bhatt hasn't had opportunities to get his hands on one. Mug warmers are among the countless USB products out there.

Trade Shows a USB Bonanza

Industry trade shows are also a hotbed for USB goods be they relevant or not. But for every USB record turntable, USB heated slippers and USB desk aquarium, there are billions of more practical accessories being happily and shamelessly snatched off exhibitor booth shelves. This common trade show practice might not bring in new business for the gift-giving exhibitor, but it does keep such companies as Robertson Marketing in business and on the forefront of trends.

"There are fads out there like the USB cup warmer, rocket launchers, a dog that moves, and they're all cute conversation starters," said Tom Robertson, president of the Virginia-based promotional merchandise distributor. "But in business settings, more professional and usable items like flash drives, hubs and mice are more widely purchased – things you can take on the go and are more widely used."

By far, USB flash drives make up the bulk of Robertson's trade show tchotchke business. What finds this market segment trumping all its USB cousins is its versatile functionality and innovative shapes and designs.

USB drives can cater to a specific event or purpose, such as resembling an army dog tag for a military-themed marketing campaign. Novelty flash drives handed out at industry shows have taken the shape of a chicken leg (poultry), syringe (nursing), golf ball (sporting goods), designer purse (fashion) and sushi (restaurant). Given out at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Annual Meeting was, of course, a thumb drive that looks like a human thumb.

The cool factor is important in the world of promotional flash drives, but when it comes to actual use it's all about capacity. A 1-gigabyte flash drive is somewhat obsolete nowadays; the majority of orders are for sticks between 2Gb and 4Gb, according to Robertson.

After flash drives, the most popular USB promotional items are desktop-driven products such as hubs, mice and digital photo frames, according to Alex Symms, Southeast regional sales manager for KTI Promo, a Houston-based supplier of high-tech promotional items. Next popular is the music category led by USB mini-speakers and travel speakers, followed by USB chargers for mobile devices, iPods and cell phones. Somehow the USB hamster wheel didn't make the list of best-sellers, but you've got to love its slogan: "The faster you type the faster he runs!"

Staying on the Bus

So what does the future hold? As consumers demand newfangled products that capitalize on established USB technology in all its wired and unwired flavors, the advent of SuperSpeed USB, or USB 3.0, seems to be the talk of the promotional merchandise industry.

"The foundation of USB technology was version 1.0, then on to 2.0, and now there's a mass push to USB 3.0," said Robertson about the latest version that is 10 times faster than USB 2.0. "This gives you the ability to download entire HD movies or entire hard drives of information in a very short amount of time."

Hot feet? Steve Whalley, USB co-inventor and Intel technology initiatives manager says that, "While we predicted the usual suspects such as keyboards, mice, printers, scanners and other traditional PC peripherals moving to USB, I'm glad to see how the world innovated around a common interface to build a plethora of new usages and novel inventions, wacky or otherwise."

"Who wouldn't like to be able to transfer a 25GB HD movie from a portable USB device to a PC in just 70 seconds with USB 3.0 versus the 14 minutes it takes today using USB 2.0?" USB Implementers Forum President Jeff Ravencraft asked, rhetorically.

"About 60 percent of our USB business is flash drives, and as 3.0 comes to the forefront, you could actually see this percentage increase as more peripherals and hardware take advantage of this blazing difference in the speed of read/write," Robertson said. "It's getting a lot of buzz."

Whether the world needs an even faster USB hamster wheel remains to be seen. (Not to fear, animal lovers -- it's a mechanical rodent.) But as the broadened range of USB speeds spawns new and improved products, be they uncanny or conventional their origins date back to when detaching a Windows 95-compatible keyboard from a PC, replacing it with another device, then plugging it back in without the need to reboot the PC made news at Comdex.

"It's amazing to have been part of a technology that has shipped billions of devices – most of them not too wacky, but actually very useful and hard to live without today," said Steve Whalley, USB co-inventor and Intel technology initiatives manager. "While we predicted the usual suspects such as keyboards, mice, printers, scanners and other traditional PC peripherals moving to USB, I'm glad to see how the world innovated around a common interface to build a plethora of new usages and novel inventions, wacky or otherwise."

Free Shot: Tech Time Tied to Toasted Teens

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:58:00 GMT

The good news out of a new study from Weill Cornell Medical College is American teenagers are spending more time behind their computer desks than a video game console. The bad news is these teens are not only liquored up, but their increased tech time is spent more on recreational use than school work. According to researchers at Cornell University's medical school in New York City, teens who drink alcohol spend more time on their computers for social networking and downloading and listening to music, compared with their peers who don't drink. Results of an anonymous survey of 264 teenagers ages 13 to 17 were reported in the online edition of the journal Addictive Behaviors in a study authored by Dr. Jennifer Epstein, a public health researcher at the college. She said that while the specific factors linking teenage drinking and computer use are not yet established, "it seems likely that adolescents are experimenting with drinking and activities on the Internet." In turn, exposure to online material such as alcohol advertising or alcohol-using peers on social networking sites could reinforce teens' drinking, according to Epstein, adding that "children are being exposed to computers and the Internet at younger ages." "For this reason," she said, "it's important that parents are actively involved in monitoring their children's computer usage, as well as alcohol use."

User Experience Takes Center Stage at TechFest

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:09:56 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore.—There were more 1,000 of them from all over the world; Intel researchers and scientists chatting and sharing knowledge and information about transistors, systems, software, validation, voltage, augmented reality, power—and perhaps most importantly, new user experiences.

Some of Intel's best and brightest—principal engineers, senior principal engineers, Fellows and Senior Fellows—met for three days last week at Intel's first-ever "TechFest" to discuss and debate critical technical challenges that require an "exponential change" in thinking, as Intel Vice President Dadi Perlmutter put it in one of the keynote addresses during the confab in Portland, Ore. The private invite-only event was hosted not far from Intel's sprawling Hillsboro, Ore. campuses including the company's main Silicon research and development facility recently visited by President Barak Obama.

Intel's new Director of Creative Innovation will.i.am even attended and mingled with the crowd as did Chief Technology Officer and Senior Fellow Justin Rattner who keynoted.

While Intel researchers tend to focus on narrow topics (even atoms on a particular section of the transistor), Rattner said he wanted researchers to know one another and to better understand each other's disciplines.

This exchange of technical knowledge, argued Rattner, is key to Intel's future success.

Andy Taylor, Intel Fellows Office, describes the idea and concept behind Intel's recent TechFest.

And so is "creating a sense of urgency in everything we do," said Perlmutter, who is general manager of the Intel Architecture Group.

The dominant themes at the conference were more and better collaboration, better user experience and the compute continuum.

"We can still make the PC exciting, but we need to change our world view..." - Dadi Perlmutter

Getting out of the box

This year's conference was a marked departure from the prior model in which isolated disciplines — micro architecture, platform architecture, SoCs, graphics, power, user experience, graphics and visual computing, and systems software — each held their own mini-conference.

"It's no longer feasible for teams to work in isolation," said Rattner in his keynote. "We can't live in our boxes anymore, focused on only one narrow area of expertise."

Rattner called out the visionary thinking of Carver Mead, who wrote in his landmark 1980 text, "Introduction to VLSI Systems," that "tall, thin engineers work at every level of integration from circuits to application software."

Intel engineers — tall and thin or not — have to be able to see all items in the vertical stack — from materials to microarchitecture to programming to user experience — and not just be experts in their own narrowly focused area, Rattner asserted.

Sundar Iyengar, a principal engineer in IAG, shared at the event that since Intel is so process driven, it will take time and a change in culture to break down silos. But he said success can be achieved through collaboration.

Intel's Director of Creative Innovation will.i.am (center) discusses future technologies with Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and director of Interaction & Experience Research, and Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer, at TechFest in Portland, Ore.

Jill Sciarappo, director of strategy for low-end products in the Embedded Computing Group, said she adheres to the Netflix model of business groups being "highly aligned, loosely coupled." Business groups in that model still exist in loose silos, but work together on strategy and goals rather than tactics.

Ask users first, then design

Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and director of Interaction and Experience Research (IXR) group in Intel Labs, said in a keynote that Intel has to stop believing it is only a transistor company, urging the audience to make the user experience part of Intel's DNA.

"User experience is part of how Intel will win the future," said Bell, and it's not just the "soft and fluffy stuff" as some engineers will call it. "As we did with Centrino when people told us they wanted to be connected everywhere and we created the mobile experience, we need to create more product categories and accelerate and move faster," Bell said.

Perlmutter said "99.9 percent" of the people outside of TechFest don't care about "optimized drivers" and clock speed or the silicon in their devices; they care about the experiences their devices give them.

Azam Barkatullah, principal engineer in Intel's New Business Initiatives group, said the user experience track at TechFest opened his eyes to the company's traditional method of developing products and then looking for a problem they need to solve. Instead, he added, Intel needs to find the problem end users have, figure out a solution and then develop a product around that.

Compute and continue

Many speakers at TechFest echoed the message that the company must deliver experiences and capabilities that span the continuum — everything from smartphones to PCs to smart TVs to cloud computing.

Dave Diehl, chief architect with McAfee Firewall Enterprise, discusses endpoint to network firewall interlock at the Intel’s TechFest in Portland, Ore.

"User experience is part of how Intel will win the future." - Genevieve Bell

In his talk on "Compute Continuum Connectivity," Intel's Joshua Boelter pointed out that just 25 percent of the world is connected and 80 percent of those devices are computers and phones. We are only at the "beginning of an explosion of connected devices" Boelter said, by 2015, we should see a billion additional users and 10 billion more connected devices.

Technology users, he added, want all their devices to work together. For example, their smartphone controlling their heaters at home, their tablets transferring photos to their smartphones.

'Nothing is sacred'

"The world is changing and we need to think beyond the PC," said Perlmutter. "We continue to see the world through the lens of our past — the CPU lens and the PC lens. We can still make the PC exciting, but we need to change our world view to be successful in the future, and look at the user experience lens, the better battery life lens, the 2x performance lens."

An exponential change is needed, he told the audience. "We need to break the old rules. Nothing is sacred."

Mothers Know Best About Tech

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:44:40 GMT

Think Mother's Day is all about flowers, cards and taking mom out for nice meal? Think again. More than $1.46 billion will be spent on consumer tech for Mother's Day this year in the U.S., nearly double the amount spent just five years ago, according to the National Retail Federation.

Colleen Padilla, who blogs at ClassyMommy, says moms have an innate sense for when new tech gadgets are really a necessity for the family.

The 2011 NRF survey, released last week, showed that the portion of people purchasing tech-related Mother's Day gifts this year will top 13 percent, up from 9 percent last year, with each person spending an average of $95 on consumer electronics or computer accessory related items.

According to stats compiled by She-Economy, women account for 85 percent of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care, and account for 66 percent of PC purchases.

We reached out to five tech savvy mom's to find out why they know best about what technologies are right for their family, and what's high on their wish list for Mother's Day.

Colleen Padilla is a full-time mother of two who is based in Philadelphia and is known to many for her blog ClassyMommy. She is currently working on a book titled "The Digital Mom Handbook," which will be released in July from Harper Collins.

"Moms aren't blinded by the latest and greatest whiz bang technology," says Padilla. "We need to see how it will actually improve our daily lives and offer practical solutions for our family.Moms seem to have an innate sense of just when new tech gadgets are a necessity in our lives versus a whimsical want."

What's on Padilla's Mother's Day wish list? "A new fashionable cover for my Kindle, a pink HP Mini netbook and maybe a little surprise from Tiffany's," she says.

Amy Oztan, who blogs at SelfishMom, says moms are on the pulse of what technology will work or not - budget wise, habit wise, longevity wise.

Amy Oztan is a mother of two and shares her genuine, humor-laced parenting experiences and advice on SelfishMom. "I've always been into gadgets and electronics," she says.

"I think moms in general have the edge when it comes to buying tech for the family and home because most of us are more in tune with the rhythms of daily life in our households. Even for those households where both parents work full-time, mom probably has her finger on the pulse of what will work and what won't - budget wise, habit wise, longevity wise."

What's on Selfish Mom Oztan's Mother's Day wish list?

"Most years for Mother's Day I have a very selfish wish: to spend most of the day alone," she says. "That day has always been kind-of a get-out-of-jail-free day, a day to do whatever you want. But to be honest, as my kids get older, I think that hurts their feelings a little bit. So I'll spend part of the day with them and part of it doing something indulgent for myself."

"As far as tech goes," she says, "it's probably time for me to move to a new camera. I love my two point-and-shoot cameras, but I drool over the pictures my friends take with their fancier cameras. And if we want to go into the really wishful stuff, I fell in love with those little dancing Nao robots. Make one tall enough to open my fridge and bring me a drink, and I'll be the happiest mom in Brooklyn!"

On the week leading up to Mother's Day, Becky Worley actually found her life invaded by robots as she prepared a consumer technology segment for ABC News' "Good Morning America" and Yahoo! News' Upgrade Your Life.

TV news tech reporter Becky Worley says innovations in robots such as vacuums can help mom spend less time on keeping order in the home.

"Mom's work is NEVER done," she says. "Can she get a little help? A robot just might do the trick."

Worley's job allows her to not only test out the latest consumer products, it allows her to meet with the people from companies that make them.

"The Jetson's dream of mechanized cleaners and laundry folding robots is not quite here, but innovations in home robotics are promising busy moms like me some respite," said Worley.

"In my years of testing, the vacuum cleaners are amazing," she says. "The Roomba from iRobot is great on hard-wood floors and low-pile rugs, it doesn't have much suction for deep-pile rugs. But for me, the Neato is the holy grail of home robots, and it's a Mother's day gift that would save mom 30 minutes or more each week."

Beth Blecherman is a mother of three who is the Chief Technologist at Cool Tech Mom and writes about technology and gadgets for family on her blog TechMamas.

"Moms know best because they are the main one purchasing tech for families, so they need to find best tech" that fits the family's need, says Blecherman.

What's on Techmama's Mother's Day wish list?

"I want one of those new thin and light laptops like Samsung Series 9," she says. "And a desktop with a BIG screen for our family room.

Erin Martin Kane is her family's tech expert and is hoping for a a Sonos wireless multi-room music system to enhance her Mother's Day.

Erin Martin Kane is the executive producer of Manic Mommies Media and a lifestyle blogger at Real Simple.

"Although my husband is in charge of the televisions in the house (and the remotes)," she says, "I have always been the one in charge of the other technology around the home, probably because of the many different hats I wear:"

In addition to being a mother of two, Kane says she's "an Entrepreneur running two businesses out of my living room office; the Chief Homework Officer and Captain of the Video Game Police; the Family Archivist responsible for capturing and preserving digital memories; the Family Administrator and keeper of the calendar dates like birthdays; and Tech Support, because when something breaks, I'm the troubleshooter and unlike my husband, I have no problem calling in the professionals."

"When it comes to how best to manage all these responsibilities," she concludes, "I'm the Decider. Period."

What's on Kane's Mother's Day wish list?" A trip to church with no complaints from anyone," she says. "Brunch, where I don't have to cook or clean up after. Alone time, preferably at a spa. And of course, a Sonos wireless multi-room music system, something I'm test-driving now."

Consumers Accelerate Demand for Connected Cars

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:47:00 GMT

Automatic transmission, one-button door lock and alarm set, built-in GPS navigation, cameras and sensors for maneuvering in tight spots – soon these may seem like standard conveniences compared to new technologies moving into the mainstream this year, according to some auto industry In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) experts.

According to one study more than 42 million cars are expected to be equipped with Internet access by 2017.

It appears automakers are embracing the Internet in a big way this year as they climb back from the auto industry crash of 2008-2009.

According to Instat research, 15 million IVI systems will be sold this year, with more than 35 million expected to ship by 2015. In a report released earlier this year, InStat Senior Analyst Stephanie Ethier said that "in order to compete, the automotive industry must now keep pace with the innovation and scalability found in the consumer electronics industry."

Bringing New Meaning to the Term: "Information Superhighway"

Look for increasing numbers of vehicles to get online as a new element to IVI systems. The worldwide number of cars able to connect to the Internet is forecasted to grow from less than 1 million in 2009 to more than 42 million by 2017, according to a report by iSuppli.

The Internet is key to the way people consume content today and putting this online capability on wheels is a growing trend.

"People want experiences they're used to getting at home or on their mobile devices," said Intel Labs researcher Joe Pitarresi. "They want the entertainment and access to online services they're used to getting outside the car to extend to what we call the fourth screen, which is inside the car."

These experiences must be customized and carefully designed in order to maintain a safe driving environment, said Pitarresi, who is exploring ways to deliver in-car Internet experiences in a safe manner.

For years professional car modifiers, or "modders," have been embedding wireless computers inside cars. In 2005, Intel teamed up with West Coast Customs and Mad Mike, former host of MTV's "Pimp My Ride," to trick out a Chrysler 300C with a Centrino-powered laptop that controlled security cameras, music, a DVD player and other electronic functions from inside and outside the car using an Internet-connected device. The designers were able to remove side or rearview mirrors because the driver could look at a line of dashboard screens and get a real-time perspective from webcams built around the car.

According to Pitarresi, competition is heating up as more automakers try turning more of their models into connected cars. Today, IVI Internet-enabled systems and services are on the market from a number of manufacturers.

At CES 2011, Intel showed a proof-of-concept demo with BMW that featured an Intel Atom processor-powered IVI system with built-in Internet access and a new BMW Connected iPhone app which allows for streaming Internet radio and video and the ability to have Facebook and Twitter streams read out loud.

Ford, which led the automotive industry in this area when it announced Sync-based vehicles with Microsoft in 2007, is continuing to refine the platform. Popular Mechanics reported this month that Ford is making a SYNC-based MyTouch system with built-in WiFi, and open to third-party apps, available inside the 2011 Lincoln MXK. The goal is to offer My Touch in 80 percent of its fleet within 5 years.

This year, GM's OnStar, which has over 5 million subscribers, will be offered through an aftermarket rearview mirror. This accessory is embedded with a cellular phone, Bluetooth hands-free calling, navigation and crash response technology, and will be available at Best Buy for $299 plus installation and monthly subscription fee, according to AutoTrader.

"If the battle of the 20th century was Ford versus General Motors, the next century might be Ford SYNC vs. GM OnStar," said Jason Johnson, product development engineer at Ford, in a recent interview with Mashable.

Companies such as Broadcom Corporation, Freescale Semiconductor, Intel, Marvell, Nvidia and STMicroelectronics are supplying the chips embedded into today's vehicles, helping monitor and control everything from engine performance to brake usage and tire pressure. But as automakers build more cars that connect to the Internet, chipmakers as well as other businesses and services could benefit, according to Xingang Guo an Intel researcher based in Hillsboro, Ore.

Xingang Guo, who works in the Intel Labs, thinks a lot about the prospect of millions of cars connected, sharing and consuming up-to-the-minute information.

"They could be connecting to business and social entities," he said. "The government may want to log potholes or traffic conditions, and insurance industry experts could get more nuanced information to help them offer more personalized coverage to customers. There may even be applications for energy providers, emergency response and local businesses."

Guo and Pitarresi's research team at Intel has built several prototype systems for cars, each powered by an Intel Atom processor. Proof-of-concept platforms have been built into a BMW X5, a Mercedes-Benz and an Infinity EX35.

In these proof-of-concept vehicles from Intel, the onboard test units are nestled inside the trunk and a MeeGo operating system connects to the car's internal controller network. In one demonstration, the Intel Labs team showed what happens when a car alarm is triggered by a thief or door dinger. On-board video cameras automatically begin capturing the scene inside and outside the vehicle and the computer system feeds live video to the Internet, where footage is archived and can be immediately retrieved from a private site. Car owners are able to click a link from their phone, computer or smart TV to view a live video stream from the car's webcam at the time the alarm was triggered.

Intel Labs says the application could save time and give people peace of mind by allowing them to do such things as lock their doors using a smart phone without having to walk back to the car. The application can also help locate cars in a crowded parking lot.

"We believe application innovation for connected vehicles is truly unlimited," Pitarresi said.

These research efforts are intended to help identify and transfer intelligence to Intel's recently created Automotive Solutions Division, which builds and sells technologies to the auto industry for their IVI systems.

According to Joel Hoffmann, a strategic market development manager at Intel's Automotive Solutions Division, "IVI systems built with standardized technologies -- versus proprietary hardware and software – can help automakers and their suppliers more easily and cost-effectively incorporate new features that consumers want today, and remain flexible enough to take on future enhancements."

WiFi and passenger Internet access may soon be a standard feature in many cars.

While there are still issues to overcome, not the least of which is connectivity across a diverse urban to rural geographic area with multiple service providers, many believe it is only a matter of time before Internet capabilities become standard to meet the demand for connectivity, navigation and information.

Dealing with privacy and data security are also major challenges. A recent New York Times story reported how researchers were able to use a computer to hack into a new car's electronics system, demonstrating how future thieves could potentially unlock doors and even start the engine without bashing in windows.

Yet to be decided, too, is the tug of war between in-dash computing systems and smart phones. With increasing computing functionality in handheld devices, it's possible they will become the ultimate car computer, freely able to move inside and outside the car. For example, Honda is making its InterNavi system available free to all Honda owners, and they can use it on their phones even if they don't have a compatible in-dash system.

"It's more than just accessing the Internet; it's also having access to a set of services, applications, information and ability to conduct transactions, all while allowing the driver to focus on driving," said Guo. "More than just putting the car on the Internet, this is about creating new experiences for the vehicle. We need to make sure information is carefully managed, filtered and delivered so eyes can stay on the road."

Consumers can expect to see automakers offering new connected experiences similar to the Internet-driven ones people get on other devices. These future features will be automobile-centric and optimized for safe, in-vehicle use, according to Pitarresi.

"Adding Internet connectivity to IVI systems will make driving safer, more time- and energy-efficient and more pleasurable and productive," he said.

Q&A with Praveen Vishakantaiah, President, Intel India

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:39:02 GMT

Praveen Vishakantaiah, president, Intel India discusses technology trends and the company’s key initiatives in the country.

With nearly 1.2 billion people, India represents a vast and multi-faceted challenge for Intel, as well as one of the company's most important growth markets. Praveen Vishakantaiah, an Intel veteran of 17 years, oversees the company's activities in India. He leads more than 2,600 employees, with most working in software and hardware design and sales and marketing. The sprawling 40-acre campus in Bangalore alone is Intel's largest non-manufacturing site outside the United States.

Vishakantaiah joined the Intel India team in 2003 as it was in the middle of a 3-year period when the company grew from 150 employees to more than 2,000. He took on his current role in 2007 and has helped build an R&D powerhouse in the country. Vishakantaiah grew up in India, then moved to Austin to gain his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Texas. After receiving his doctorate he joined Intel and has been with the company ever since. His hobbies include gardening and cooking, which he claims helps him to relieve stress – except when preparing a meal for others.

We caught up with Vishakantaiah on a recent trip to the United States. What follows are his thoughts on tech trends in India, Intel's efforts to meet specific needs in India and the company's WiMAX activities.

IFP: What are some of the trends you're seeing in the marketplace in India?
Vishakantaiah: From an India perspective the interesting trend is, of course, people look to technology as a way to change their lives, change their livelihood, change and have an impact on how they can live – elevate their standard of living. Whenever they see technology helping to move them in that manner, they move quickly to adopt it. That's the big focus that most companies that are trying to drive technology adoption in India are trying to pay attention to.

The most commonly told story is the mobile phone story. If you look at cell phones, India is very comparable [with other countries]. Now contrast that with PCs where it's very low – it's just about a 5 percent penetration of India's population. How's the PC going to change the life of an average consumer in India? That's a trend we need to figure out how to tap into.

IFP: What is it about technology that's specific to India that makes people look to technology to improve their lives?
Vishakantaiah: I don't think it's very different than other emerging markets, but compared to mature markets it's fairly straightforward. The average consumer in a mature market like the U.S. and in Europe will look to technology to also address entertainment and convenience and that doesn't necessarily apply in the emerging markets. That's because in emerging markets people are first and foremost thinking about how to improve their lives. So their requirements from a technology perspective are to help them do better in life first.

IFP: What is driving PC growth in India?
Vishakantaiah: The thing that is driving PC growth is netbooks, nettops -- and the mobile form factor definitely helps. It's very interesting, particularly if you look at entry-level desktops, they still rely on continuous power. And, as most people realize, continuous power in India is not a given, so clearly something like a laptop is very interesting to people because it gives them battery backup and they can use it even when they don't have power. The new [mobile] form factors that Intel is helping to enable in the PC space are definitely causing people to be more interested in PC products.

IFP: What about tablets?
Vishakantaiah: There are three elements affecting tablet adoption in India. Ease of use is a plus. Using a tablet is less intimidating than using a PC in many cases. The touch interface and simple icons make tablets more accessible. Also working in favor of tablets is the role of content consumption. If I just want to consume information the tablet does everything I need it to do. As we've seen with phones in India, that is often good enough. However, the third element is cost and cost is a key factor. If tablets remain in the $600-$800 range it will limit adoption. If the cost doesn't come down it becomes more of a luxury item.

IFP: In the past, we heard a lot from Intel about WiMAX, particularly in India. What's happening with WiMAX and LTE in India?
Vishakantaiah: So, just to set the Intel context, WiMAX has been the technology that's been more ready from a 4G connectivity perspective. Given that Intel was saying [WiMAX] was something that really needed to happen in many countries, the same thing was true in India. The technology has been more mature than any other 4G data connectivity technology and we're driving that. Now that we potentially have LTE coming onto the horizon our stance is: wireless technology of choice. Whichever one is able to be rolled out fast enough, we'll support it. So we're taking an approach where we're agnostic in terms of technology. However, it made sense in the past few years to focus on WiMAX because that was the only technology that was available.

A bustling street in a village outside of India's capitol city of New Delhi.

IFP: What is the Universal Handheld Device Project you've been working on?
Vishakantaiah: There's a big thrust on rural banking and what's called "financial inclusion" [by the government] in India. If you look at the breadth of India, a large portion of the population, almost two-thirds, doesn't have access to banking services. So there's an initiative by the government to promote financial inclusion. This makes sense because as the economy is improving and developing in India we want to make sure we're not leaving people behind. The idea is to take banking to the doorstep of every villager and every farmer. So Intel has developed a device that runs the same applications that people would see when they walk into a bank in India. We developed the Universal Handheld Device, an Atom-based embedded device. It's similar to what you'd see when you return a rental car and the attendant helps you transact your rental return. The device has a printer, it's got biometric capability, it's got a smartcard reader, it's got a GPRS – it's pretty much got everything integrated into it. And, customers can pick and choose the functions they want to include. This is now being piloted by the government to help implement financial inclusion.

IFP: What is Intel's role in developing the Universal Handheld Device?
Vishakantaiah: All the development has been done by Intel. We've developed what's called a reference design and have struck a partnership with a Taiwanese ODM. We've licensed the design to them and so for every one that's sold we receive a royalty. It's a new business model for us. In the past we would provide the reference designs to customers but in this case we license an ODM to build the device.

IFP: What are some of the biggest challenges Intel faces in India?
Vishakantaiah: One is how do we tap into the significant market potential that India represents with almost 1.2 billion people? How do we turn technology adoption interest into market opportunities for Intel? We have to think of new types of products and new methods of product development to serve the market. We also want to help Intel with its growth initiatives in new areas, so being at the forefront of that effort is important as well.

Tablet-Equipped Custom Chopper Finds Glass House

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:12:54 GMT

Intel’s embedded chopper now rests in a custom-designed display case in Chandler, Arizona

When Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper meet an untimely end on a deserted rural road in the classic 1960s film "Easy Rider," one of their motorcycles is engulfed in flames as the camera pans skyward. It's a good thing the Intel Chopper never met the same fate. Unlike the Harley Davidson Hydra-Glides in the film, this one never even saw the road.

It turns out the four motorcycles used in "Easy Rider" were former police bikes purchased at an auction for about $500 in the late '60s. Having four bikes ensured backups so that shooting for the movie could continue in case one of them failed or was wrecked. One, the famous "Captain America" emblazoned with the American flag paint job, was demolished in the final scene, while the other three were stolen and likely sold off for parts before their significance in movie history was known.

In a bold but also somewhat offbeat move to celebrate the 30^{th anniversary of Intel's embedded business in 2007, Intel built a custom-chopper that would make the original "Easy Rider" bikes look like kids' stuff. After three decades of silicon innovation, the company wanted to celebrate by building a super-bike filled with all the latest innovations. It was sleek, flashy, filled with gadgets, and not very rider-friendly.}

The Intel bike featured dual V-Twin motors (four-cylinders to celebrate the company's first quad core embedded processor) with a total of 250 horsepower. It also had GPS, a rear-view camera, fingerprint recognition start, a motorized kick-stand, and a low-power dual core (Core Duo) tablet that served as a virtual dashboard and control center. The tablet had a screen that was viewable in sunlight with digital speedometer, tachometer, voltage meter, and battery gauges. It also had WiFi and could be used to access the Internet.

But like many other custom bikes built by Paul Teutul Sr. and his team at Orange County Choppers in Orange County, N.Y., this one was clearly more show than ride. According to sources at Intel, the bike never saw anything more than a stage. Others said you wouldn't have wanted to ride it, as the size of the engine made it difficult to get your legs around and balance properly.

The Intel embedded custom motorcycle built in 2007.

It was fired up several times, and served mostly as a photo-prop at trade shows. Various Intel executives were seen posing around it but never took it out for a joyride as far as we could tell. But it surely drew attention. It had an 18-month run at trade shows and various events around the United States, including the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in September 2007. Even the semi-truck that ferried it around from venue to venue was flashy. According to one person we talked to, the truck was once pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. The officer informed the driver that the boldly painted trailer carrying the motorcycle, which featured a large image of the motorcycle itself and giant graphics, was too distracting for other drivers and the paint job needed to be toned down.

So after a handful of very short drives up and down stages at trade shows, the Intel bike has come to its final resting place -- not engulfed in flames thankfully, but encased in glass collecting dust. Today, the Intel bike is on display in an unremarkable entrance to an Intel building at one of the company's buildings in Chandler, Ariz. where it is visible only to Intel employees and occasional visitors.

The lead characters in "Easy Rider" sought freedom on the road and died a quick and brutal death. The Intel chopper was built as a monument to "mobile" embedded innovation but today rests in a glass display case, aging slowly and anonymously – an easy rider no more.

The Many Sides of Radia Perlman

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:27:32 GMT

Call her a mother of two, but don't call her "Mother of the Internet."

Engineer, author, inventor and, since March, Intel's director of Network and Security Technology, Radia Perlman never cottoned to the label despite its use nearly every time she speaks at a technical conference or is written about in a story (including this one, her first interview since leaving Sun Microsystems).

"'Mother of the Internet.' I did not come up with that," Perlman said. "I was interviewed for some thingy or other, and the writer came up with that. I didn't see the article in advance, and it kinda stuck. One reason they thought they could get away with it is because several people claim being the 'Father of the Internet,' and 'Mother of the Internet' wasn't already staked out."

The reason Perlman winces at the label is "it's a title that one has no clear way of getting, unlike, for example, a Ph.D.," said Perlman, who earned hers in computer science from MIT in 1988. "It's overreaching because I don't think any single individual deserves credit for inventing the Internet. Many people had large roles, including, actually, Al Gore, and in a sense it was something that was inevitable. Also, being called 'Mother of the Internet' is a little strange in that it emphasizes gender. I mostly don't even think about gender."

Coined by a publication whose name she forgets – hence, "thingy" – the cringe-worthy nickname is probably something she's stuck with. Not helping her cause is a Wikipedia entry that references the maternal moniker in the opening sentence. But also noted are her myriad accomplishments and honors: SIGCOMM lifetime achievement award and similar honor from the advanced computing systems association USENIX … lauded as one of the 20 most influential people in the tech industry by Data Communications magazine … named Silicon Valley Inventor of the Year by an intellectual property law association … an honorary doctorate from the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden … one of three recipients of the inaugural Women of Vision Award from the Anita Borg Institute. That's only the short list for the daughter of engineering-grounded parents.

The achievement that has made Perlman a household name in certain cerebral circles is the spanning tree algorithm, which she invented in 1985 while working for the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corporation. Her protocol transformed Ethernet from a technology that could only work with a few nodes over a limited distance, into something that could create fairly large networks. Her protocol, as the name suggests, creates a spanning tree within a mesh network of connected layer-2 bridges, which are typically Ethernet switches, then disables the links that are not part of that tree.

"The protocol is really very simple," Perlman said. "I can summarize it in a poem!"

Poem? Yep, the woman who has made large contributions to many areas of network design and standardization is also a poet. Her ode to the spanning tree algorithm, titled "Algorhyme," is a geek favorite and has even been set to music, thanks to her son, Ray. Perlman's daughter, Dawn, an amateur opera singer, even performed it at a recital. The proud mom accompanied on piano.

The poem, Perlman's first, could serve as a "Spanning Tree for Dummies," and was the abstract of the paper in which Perlman published the spanning tree algorithm:

"Algorhyme"

I think that I shall never see

a graph more lovely than a tree.

A tree whose crucial property

is loop-free connectivity.

A tree that must be sure to span

so packets can reach every LAN.

First, the root must be selected.

By ID, it is elected.

Least-cost paths from root are traced.

In the tree, these paths are placed.

A mesh is made by folks like me,

then bridges find a spanning tree.

Perlman said she is a bit surprised that the spanning tree is what she's most known for given that "I always thought it was a bad idea to forward Ethernet packets" and that it took her less than a week to invent the algorithm, write the specification and, of course, pen the poem. Other networking contributions include inventing concepts that made a particular type of routing protocol, called "link state routing," stable, scalable and easy to manage. The protocol she designed for DECnet got adopted by the International Organization for Standardization and renamed IS-IS, and is the routing protocol of choice in most ISPs today. Recently she's been working on standardizing TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links), a concept she introduced to the industry that allows forwarding Ethernet packets using IS-IS instead of spanning tree. ("My apology to the world for introducing spanning tree," she mused.) Perlman also has done important work in security, including the ability to make data expire and become unreachable, even though backups of the data still exist.

When Perlman isn't inventing or dabbling in poetry, she's writing books. While their titles suggest dry reading that only a computer scientist would relish – "Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches and Internetworking Protocols" and "Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World" – Perlman said one mustn't judge her books by their covers.

"They're not just technical books," she said. "They're actually very funny."

When talking about the lighter side of Radia Perlman, one must include her stab at stand-up comedy. Yes, stand-up comedy. While on a cruise to Novosibirsk, Russia to see a solar eclipse in full glory, Perlman signed up to perform in a passenger talent show.

"To play piano," she recalled. "On the day of the show, Charlie [Perlman's significant other] and I walked around the ship and it dawned on us that we hadn't seen a piano. When we were told there wasn't one, I decided to try stand-up comedy. It's something I always wanted to do.

"That night at the talent show, the audience was pretty drunk and I couldn't possibly have been as funny as they were acting like I was. They were rolling! The next day we kept hearing other passengers talking about my performance and retelling some of the stories."

Creative writing skills and a penchant for comedy are desirable attributes, but not why Intel hired Perlman, who turns 60 in December. Based out of Redmond, Wash., she joined the company in early March as an Intel Fellow, one of the highest levels of technical achievement within the company. Now after a couple of months on the job, Perlman, who was at Sun for 13 years, and also previously worked for Novell and Digital, finds herself at a company that was never on her radar as a place of employment.

"I never thought about working at Intel," Perlman said. "I always figured they did all these mysterious chip things. I am in awe of it, but never thought about working here because I have no expertise in things like doubling the number of transistors every 2 years just because Moore's Law says you can, or how to make a room really, really, really clean. I never thought there would be anything interesting for me to do and they wouldn't be interested in me."

Jesse Walker, a principal engineer at Intel Labs, recommended Perlman to Intel Labs Vice President Wen-Hann Wang, and the recruitment effort obviously panned out. It didn't hurt that Perlman's daughter had babysat Walker's kid.

"I've always been pretty happy where I've worked, but so far I'm the happiest here," she said. "People tend to be intellectually curious and invite participation and advice from those who have fresh eyes and fresh expertise. They have passionate discussions as nerds do, but people do listen to each other."

The Touch Generation: The Evolution of Digital Natives

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:34:16 GMT

Could the spread of touchscreen computing devices such as smartphones and tablets be turning today's digital natives into even younger touch-savvy tikes?

A new generation of children being reared by digitally connected parents are not only comfortable using touchscreen computers, they are intuitively touching screens and flipping through apps with ease. And no wonder; it's not uncommon to see a mother or father handing a smartphone to young kids these days, even infants, as a replacement for rattles and pacifiers -- not to mention the impact of mimicking their parents who are addicted to the devices themselves.

Some parents view tablets and smartphone computers as developmental tools, especially when sharing the experience and providing a healthy balance between entertainment, education and physical activity.

"Digital native" was a term coined by author Marc Prensky in 2001 in his book "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." It refers to anyone who was born after the transition from analog to digital and who generally has a greater understanding of the digital technologies from an early age. But that is now evolving into a generation raised on touch and like everything else, it seems to be the proliferation of smartphones that is driving it.

A recent study by BabyCenter, a leading website for pregnancy and parenting information, surveyed more than 5,000 mothers in the United States and found that adoption of smartphones among mothers rose 64 percent in the past 2 years. More than half of mothers surveyed said they purchased a smartphone as a direct result of becoming a parent. While mothers said the camera had become the most important function of the phone, apps to help keep life organized and their kids entertained had evolved from being unnecessary to essential.

Looking at several parenting blogs and child development websites, and talking to new mothers, the debate over what role technology should play in a child's life is still raging. It's also not going away anytime soon.

"I have spent a lot of time talking to my son's pediatrician and doing research on the merits and downsides of screen time," said Mia Kim, a mother of a toddler and editor-in-chief of Popgadget, a blog about personal tech and innovative lifestyles for women. "I'm honestly a little bit of a skeptic about the dangers," she said.

Kim exemplifies the type of parent who sees mobile phones, video games, portable music players, television and computers as developmental tools for children, especially when parents share these experiences and provide a healthy balance among entertainment, education and physical activity.

"It seems like there's a lack of information about this new territory with tablets being scary by default," said Kim. "What it comes down to is that it's bad to leave your child on his own to do nothing but stare at a screen, but that's pretty much common sense, isn't it?"

Even though many parents like Kim share concerns about potentially damaging impact of technology on children who are getting too much screen time, there seems to be growing acceptance of exposing infants and toddlers to Internet computing devices.

"My son recently turned 1 and he can say his ABCs -- OK, well sort of, just the letters he likes -- but I owe that to the books we read together, and lots of them we read on the iPad," said Kim.

Mike Wilson is a musician and father of a 2-year-old boy who can swiftly and precisely flip through his favorite applications on his very own iPad.

18-month old Sawyer Aakre is already a natural on the iPad and his mother’s iPad.

In the YouTube video description for Baby Works iPad Perfectly. Amazing Must Watch!, Wilson says his son's speech, understanding and word recognition has improved dramatically as a result of playing with the iPad. "Even hand eye coordination has improved within just a short while. I am so amazed and thankful for this amazing learning tool … I want to say thanks to Apple and all those that have given my child such a head start in life with this amazing instrument."

"At 18 months old, my son already knows how to do the iPhone swipe," said Intel employee Kari Aakre. "Luckily he doesn't know my password to unlock my phone just yet. I've downloaded a few apps and games for him, and he really has fun with it, even though he isn't really old enough to know what he's doing. He just sees Mom and Dad on these phones all the time, so he wants to play, too."

If numbers are an indicator, there will be a giant leap in the population of babies born to touchscreen mobile devices. Consider the iPad, which sold 7 million units just in the past 3 months of 2010, according to Apple. If Gartner research estimates pan out, there will be 55-70 million tablets shipped by the end of 2011.

Add to that the meteoric rise in sales of smartphones, which increased 72 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to research firm Gartner Inc. About 101 million smartphones were shipped in just the past 3 months of 2010, according to IDC.

And yet, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) still recommends that parents of young children should limit any screen time, including television and computer devices, to no more than 2 hours a day.

Dr. Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, a pediatrician and member of the AAP, recently told the New York Times that smartphones should be no exception. "At the moment, we seem to feel it's the same as TV," she said.

According to Kim, her pediatrician told her "no TV" until her boy was at least 2.When asked about reading books on computers, Kim's doctor replied, "If it's a screen, it's no good until he's at least 2. Put your little guy in front of an iPad and he won't be talking even when he's in kindergarten," she recalled the doctor saying.

Child development experts such as O'Keeffe say that parents of infants and toddlers should emphasize eye contact, conversation, whole-body movement and dexterity with a variety of objects versus spending time on a single device, touchscreen or not. But some psychologists are beginning to acknowledge that it's important for parents to stay involved in their child's digital life, without giving up control and getting rid of all screens.

Anne K. Fishel, Ph.D. and Tristan Gorrindo, M.D., in their Psychology Today blog Digital Family, recently advised that "during preschool years, children are mimicking the behaviors of adults, so parents should be particularly mindful of their own technology use during family time (dinners, playing outside, etc.). Imaginative play is to digital play as fruits and vegetables are to dessert. A child's diet should have a healthy serving of nutrient rich play."

Fishel and Gorrindo encourage parents spend screen time socially or collaboratively whenever possible rather than turning to tech as a digital babysitter.

"I'm a little surprised at the vehement no-tech, no screen stance," said Kim. "The world is simply changing and we have to adapt. I don't think it's all good or all bad."

Kim said she listens to her pediatrician and follows all the important rules, but she also trusts her instincts.

"Know if your child is enjoying and benefiting from computer time," she said. "If your child isn't interested, don't push it, and if they are, and are clearly engaged and learning things (my baby knows some "selections" from the ABC song from an alphabet app), then practice moderation and make sure your toddler gets plenty of non-screen time, too."

Thinking Outside the PC

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:15:27 GMT

Ton Steenman is an Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Embedded and Communications Group. While only recently taking over as head of the business after Doug Davis went off to run the newly established Netbook and Tablet Group, Steenman has been instrumental in establishing Intel's position as an embedded supplier to the communications, automotive, retail and industrial control markets.

Ton Steenman, VP and GM of Intel’s Embedded and Communications Group

Intel has had a successful embedded business for many years, but with the advent of a new low-power Atom architecture over the past few years, the prospects are growing as more and more devices connect to the Internet and communicate, from digital signs and ATM machines to retail kiosks and cars, plus beyond.

In a recent interview with ZDNet UK, Steenman said he was tracking over 4,500 design engagements and over 1,500 design wins with Atom SoCs (system on chip), 60 percent of which are with customers who have never used Intel architecture before. We sat down to discuss some of this with Steenman on the eve of his Intel Developer Forum keynote speech in Beijing.

Q: You already have a successful business with over $1 billion in revenue. What is your vision and where do you go from here?

Steenman: We are connecting embedded devices, delivering great experiences and enabling productivity, and these are bringing benefits to society. There is a group of embedded applications that offer a very rich experience for consumers. This is really a transition that has happened over the past 3 years as the expectation of consumers has shifted to much more interactivity with embedded devices, and all of these embedded devices have become connected. There are applications like self check-out at retail stores, ticket kiosks at airports or digital signs that you find in the mall. These are all embedded applications and consumers are exposed to everyday. You might not even notice it, but computers are all around you nowadays. What we're trying to do is make those experiences very rich.

We're also delivering productivity benefits to industries. Platforms that we deliver in industrial control really help factories become more efficient. We bring higher- performance capabilities to machines that are building things, and these machines can become faster and more accurate. Speed and accuracy are the two dimensions that will improve productivity of a factory.

We also need to provide highly scalable networks. Keep in mind that there's going to be billions of connected devices soon, and you need a highly scalable network infrastructure to connect all of these things so that the network can be managed and continue to connect to devices and reliably deliver services. We are helping equipment manufacturers and service providers build scalable intelligence and performance into their networks.

Q: How do you differentiate yourself in the embedded business?

Embedded logo

Steenman: Nobody in the industry today is looking at this opportunity the way we do, which is from the perspective of "how do we really connect all of these devices together and deliver a rich experience?"

We're showing how technology can have a real positive impact on society in the form of great experiences for people and in the form of productivity for businesses and service providers. Productivity eventually drives increases in the standard of living for everybody. At a real technology level, we are looking at security, manageability and connectivity as the three tenants we have to put in place so that the platform can deliver rich experiences, productivity and scalable networks.

Q: Where are your biggest opportunities for growth?

Steenman: There's a big opportunity in China because they are building out a lot of infrastructure to improve the standard of living for so many people. A large amount of infrastructure has to be put into place to enable this, including smart grid technology so everyone has electricity and health care. So that even people in rural villages can have access to health care treatment, better communication networks and transportation, with smart roads and railway systems that leverage the Internet. Most of these projects have a tremendous amount of embedded technology in it. The high-speed railway system just put in a system of Atom-based smart cameras.

China is on a tear. They're doing things fast, and time to market for these technologies is a very important element for them. They like the Intel architecture platform because of its standardization and that there are so many developers out there who understand Intel architecture.

Q: In many cases you're reaching out to customers outside of Intel's core business. What are they asking for?

Steenman: The biggest demand is that we help them with technology and support so they can focus on their applications, and integrating and deploying their system -- like ticketing kiosks that need to be integrated into the overall capabilities of their high-speed rail build out. They're asking us to help them integrate our specific technology into their application.

Q: Why are customers choosing Atom, and what are they converting from if new to Intel?

Interactive embedded retail kiosk is an example of some of the new kinds of devices Intel is enabling with its Atom processor.

Steenman: There are some designs that we're winning from ARM, but there is also just a lot of new applications being developed. Atom is particularly important to our customers because it allows them to build applications in small form factors and have low-power consumption. Atom is giving them a good balance between power consumption and performance.

In China, Geely Auto and Shenzhen Hazen Auto Electronics are two companies building on Atom for the auto industry. In their older models they had ARM processors in there. They're now using Atom because they really want to build a connected vehicle. They need enough performance to add things to the vehicle over time, so they want a highly scalable platform.

Q: How do you leverage other parts of the company?

Steenman: We have good collaboration with Intel Labs, and we're doing a number of research programs with them. For the more immediate designs and opportunities, we collaborate with our Software and Services Group (SSG). Clearly software becomes more and more important, so SSG plays a very critical role with us enabling many of those software stacks and applications on our platform. We do a lot of work with Wind River Systems, the software company Intel purchased a few years ago that builds software stacks on top of Intel architecture for the automotive and communications industries. They are tremendously helpful as we build out our solutions.

Q: What about security, what are you doing there?

Steenman: We're engaging with McAfee now that the acquisition is complete. Just as security is important for computing in general, it is just as important for embedded devices. Almost every company I talk to says that as their applications become connected, and as their applications connect to the Internet, security we can provide at the device level will become a major attribute of differentiation. It's going to be something that more people really worry about, so the collaboration with McAfee is going to be very important for us to enable security in certain dimensions on these connected embedded devices.

Raising the IQ on Smartphones

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:59:07 GMT

We expect a lot out of smartphones today, but some technology and human behavior scientists believe that mobile computing devices can do even more if only they knew more about their owners.

Tinkering with cameras, microphones, software and other features inside today's smartphones, a team of researchers inside Intel Labs is exploring ways to improve the Intelligence Quotient of future smartphones so they're not just more efficient, but more intuitive about their owner. This was the topic of a recent Future Labs podcast interview.

Lama Nachman, a senior researcher at Intel Labs, is finding ways to raise the IQ of future smartphones using context aware computing technologies.

"We're making systems much more aware of the user and what they're trying to do," said Lama Nachman, a senior researcher at Intel Labs in the podcast. "And then essentially facilitate, act on their behalf, and make recommendations. So devices become much more personalized to us and our needs."

The driving concept behind this context-aware research is to develop artificial intelligence by enabling mobile devices to grow wiser as they build and tap into a database of specific information about owner behavior, movement and even mood.

Researchers such as Nachman say that people would have to train their phone by capturing and identifying sound patterns and images in the owner's world. If a phone owner was at home riding a stationary bike, researchers say, the phone could discern that the rider was indoors, and screen calls accordingly. Simultaneously, it could track how long the user was on the bike and feed that information to an exercise application on the owner's phone.

Nachman said being able to track one's own activities like commuting, watching TV or chatting with work colleagues might help people better optimize the way they use their time in the same way that financial software lets us manage our personal finances. Applications could even use data to help the owner by reminding him or her to "take the stairs" or "there's time between meetings, take a 5-minute walk."

These background-sensing technologies raise questions about privacy. Today, commercially developed applications require people to accept terms and conditions before they can be used. Since wiretapping is illegal in the United States, cell phones can't automatically turn themselves on and start recording conversations.

Andrew Campbell, a professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College, said users need to be kept in the loop in this area of "active computer learning," and developers must find ways to ensure that users keep control of their personal data.

"This issue of privacy is an Achilles heel when you're looking to advance science," said Campbell. "These sensors are an extraordinary opportunity and there has to be good solutions to preserve people's privacy. We must allow them [device owners] to own their data. It's a double-edged sword because we want to innovate at the same time."

Future Lab: Context Aware

Free Shot: Intel Atom Part of Commodore 64 Comeback

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:07:36 GMT

When one thinks of comebacks, a struggling athlete back on his game or a has-been celebrity returning to the spotlight often comes to mind. But a computer? This comeback won’t likely make the cover of Sports Illustrated or People, but among technology circles, the just-announced return of the Commodore 64 is a pretty big deal. The computer once called the "breadbox" and "bullnose" due to its shape and color is back. Due out this summer is a new version of what was originally an 8-bit home computer that sold about 15 million units between 1982 and 1994. The 2011 edition could be considered retro with its beige color and keyboard-dominated body – even the $595 price for the base unit harkens back to 1982 – but inside it’s an entirely different animal. For one of the five models, we’re talking an 1.8ghz dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor, Nvidia Ion 2 graphics chipset, 2 GB of DDR3 memory, HDMI outputs to connect to a HDTV and your choice of a DVD or Blu-ray drive. If you wind up buying one, enhance your unboxing experience by dusting off your Sony Walkman if you’ve got one and play "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. That song was No.1 when the C64 debuted.

LeBron James Gets Technical with New Animated Series

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:09:32 GMT

With the NBA regular season winding down, Miami Heat star LeBron James has a decent chance to threepeat as the league's MVP. But even if he doesn't gain ground on current favorite Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, James will at least break ground with his latest off-court venture – something unique among pro athletes.

"The LeBrons" is a new Web-based animated series starting April 6.

It's a Web-based animated series called "The LeBrons," and when the program debuts on April 6 the superstar forward will no doubt be hoping to put on good shows for both the home fans at American Airlines Arena and visitors to "The LeBrons" YouTube channel. With a game against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks and the premiere episode of "The LeBrons," performances of a completely different nature are what that day will bring on and off the court for James.

"The idea for the creation of the show began with a series of Nike television commercials introducing four characters that represented four different sides of my personality: Kid, Wise, Business and Athlete," James said in an interview over email.

"I decided to create the new series loosely based on these characters, told through the point of view of Kid, that would take place in Akron, Ohio, my hometown," said James, who lends the voice of the cool and confident Business in this, his foray into digital entertainment.

Each episode will convey positive, youth-targeted messages for a generation whose parents might have grown up watching another show of like genre.

"'The LeBrons' has a style a little bit similar to 'Fat Albert,' and will be done in a fun, edgy way that youth can relate to," James said, referring to "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" that ran on Saturday morning television in the 1970s and '80s. "The main thing is that we're going to have a message behind every episode – like how important school is, being trustworthy and families learning how to stick together through hard times."

Bill Cosby, the driving force behind "Fat Albert," relied on CBS to spread his family-friendly morals before syndication and home video came along. For James, who's inarguably among the most popular active athletes in the world, he's starting out with practically the entire Internet-accessible world as his potential audience.

Miami Heat star LeBron James voices the character of Business in his new animated Web series.

"I hope to use technology to change the rules of creating a show," said James, whose own company Spring Hill Productions and Believe Entertainment Group created the series. "Launching 'The LeBrons' online, I'll be able to really appeal to young people in an innovative, new way and reach everyone who follows me on the Internet, especially [on] LeBronJames.com, Twitter and Facebook," James said.

To watch the show, kids first need to have access to computers, and James is aware that not everyone has one at their technology-hungry fingertips. Doing something about this, James teamed up with the show's lead technology sponsors, Intel and HP, to see to it that "The LeBrons" not only teaches youths lessons in altruism through story, but by action. A portion of the proceeds from the series will be used to purchase HP computers powered by Intel Core processors and donated to Boys & Girls Clubs of America in support of its education initiatives.

"The real opportunity with 'The LeBrons' is to give back to today's youth, and through the show we're continuing our work with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to help make an impact," James said. "It shows how big a difference we think technology can make in the lives of today's youth."

James realizes that in his profession the "net" is something to shoot through and not log onto, and guarding power forwards is a more valued skill than knowing PowerPoint. But not everyone can grow up and get a college basketball scholarship or play in the pros as James has done, which is another reason he believes exposure to technology is important at a young age.

Each webisode of “The LeBrons” includes positive messages geared to youth.

"Today's youth are so much more advanced because of computers," said James, who said he had "some" technology while growing up in the projects of Akron, but having more could have opened doors to opportunity, growth and development.

Growing up as an inner-city kid, you don't have a lot of options, he said. "I believe it's about being well-rounded and always trying to be your best no matter what your pursuit is. Young people today are growing up with all different kinds of talents and abilities, whether it's basketball or something else, and there are so many influences like family, friends, education and technology that affect their future and opportunities."

Some of those themes will be addressed in the 10-episode first season of "The LeBrons."

"Like showing youths of all ages how to be a good person, no matter what their circumstances are," James said.

Being a positive influence to youth is the driving force behind the series for James, whose LeBron James Family Foundation has benefited his hometown of Akron, the Boys & Girls Club of America and other causes.

"I never imagined we'd be doing this show," James said, "but like most young people, I always wanted to be a hero growing up, and the show should inspire young people to always try to be their best, to learn the importance of helping others, and to go after their dreams."

Exclusive sneak peek at the new LeBron James aninmated series, The LeBrons.

Centrino and the Hotspot Revolution

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:57:51 GMT

Coffeehouses, fast food joints, airports, hotels and college campuses were some of the first public places to offer it, and today WiFi is available on trains, planes, in taxicabs -- almost everywhere, including inside millions of homes around the world.

As part of the effort to promote hotspots, then San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former Intel CEO Andy Grove unveiled one of the first ‘unwired’ airports at San Francisco International Airport in March 2003.

It wasn't always this way.

Few technologies in recent decades have caught on and become as ubiquitous as quickly as WiFi, but few may remember that things really didn't take off until 2003 when it became a standard feature of laptops with Intel's Centrino mobile technology.

WiFi, short for "wireless fidelity," was derived from its technical specification IEEE 802.11b, a protocol that started evolving in the early 1990s. Centrino was the name Intel gave to its mobile platform that included a new low power processor code-named 'Banias' and a bundle of chips that included Wi-Fi.

"Intel's Centrino effort represented one of the great technology inflection points in the market," said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group. "It drove us from a largely wired computer world to one that freed us from those cables and allowed our PCs to roam along with us.

"WiFi was struggling in the market because it was relatively hard to set up, unreliable and little understood. It took Intel and a massive push behind Centrino to address these shortcomings and make it into the standard it has become today," Enderle said.

In 2003, WiFi was not widely available or understood by most consumers, and Intel knew it had some work to do to promote the concept as part of a massive launch in March of that year. The company had an entire team charged with working with partners and "validating" hotspots around the world. Armed with $300 million and scores of dealmakers, Intel unleashed a worldwide marketing program to accelerate the mobile computing concept and promote the new Centrino brand. Wired Magazine even published a special "Unwired" edition for the occasion.

Almost overnight, McDonald's, Starbucks, bookstores, hotels and airports began offering WiFi service at their locations, and dozens of wireless routers for the home were being tested, certified and branded so that people could see they were "verified" for optimal experience on Centrino-powered laptops.

On the day Centrino was released, thousands of verified hotspots were live, and Intel set a goal to have more than 10,000 verified hotspots by the end of the year.

In 2003 industry analyst firm IDC estimated that more than 118,000 hotspots would exist worldwide by 2005.

Prior to 2003, WiFi wireless Internet technology was relatively unknown to most people. In 2004, Pyramid Research reported that 75 million WiFi users existed globally, and that number was projected to climb to around 327 million in 2009.

T-Mobile was one of the first to partner with Intel to establish dozens of validated wireless hotspots around the U.S. Signs like this one alerted people to the presence of Wi-Fi.

Research numbers at the time varied, but most showed that the uptake of WiFi was momentous and not just a short-lived flash in the pan.

"Every great technology advancement had an event tied to it that caused it to spread widely," said Enderle. "For color it was Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color." For WiFi it was Intel's Centrino."

WiFi quickly changed the workplace, allowing people to roam around the office or work from coffee shops while staying connected to email and the Internet without wires. Yet WiFi went well beyond serving work needs. It turned laptops into a must-have personal device that people carried with them almost everywhere they went, even on vacation. Like a wallet, people began to think twice before leaving home without their laptop.

Sept. 25, 2003, 6 months after Centrino was released, was celebrated across the United States as "One Unwired Day." People with WiFi-equipped laptops got free wireless Internet access at more than 5,500 public WiFi hotspot locations nationwide. Hotspots continued popping up in common places around the world – places like libraries, museums and cities squares -- and in such unusual places as the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily and even hard-to-reach Mount Everest.

U.S. cities competed for the honor of being named "Most Unwired City." Portland, Ore. won the first Unwired City crown in 2003, followed by San Francisco in 2004 and Seattle in 2005, according to research sponsored by Intel and carried out by Bert Sperling's Best Places.

Not everything rolled out as quickly and smoothly as everyone had hoped. The innovative Connexion by Boeing in-flight Internet service was something industry experts and the media got to experience at San Francisco International Airport months prior to the launch of Centrino. The service was available on several airlines, but in 2006, Boeing announced that it would discontinue its Connexion service, stating that, "the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected." A few years later, after industry struggles and consolidation, many airlines began offering in-flight Internet service again, and today JetBlue, Southwest, Virgin are among airlines offering WiFi services on many flights.

Today, the growth of public wireless hotspots continues, according to JiWire, an advertising company that focuses on location-based channels such as WiFi networks. JiWire's Insights report released in August 2010 showed that the number of wireless hotspots in the United States grew 17 percent, and that free hotspots outnumbered fee-based service locations for the first time.

JiWire reported that over 55 percent of public hotspots in the country were free, mostly at hotels, cafes and airports, but pointed out that there was an 11 percent increase in other locations offering free wireless Internet access, including universities and public transit systems.

WiFi is now common in almost every new laptop and is being built inside all kinds of consumer electronics, including portable gaming devices, game consoles, tablets and mobile phones. The WiFi Alliance, a trade association that promotes Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology and certifies products built to certain standards for trusted interoperability, reported that there were 761 million shipments of WiFi products in 2010.

"These days, an electronic product not capable of communicating or accessing content at any time or in any place is regarded by consumers as deficient," said Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst for consumer and communication electronics at IHS. "This wireless revolution is contributing to a global boom in demand for WiFi chipsets."

Source Wi-Fi Alliance

With all the hotspots around the world, from coffee shops to nature preserves, it's hard to imagine there are more places to unwire. But more hotspots are coming, and more billions more devices are gaining connectivity functionality. IDC predicts some 15 billion intelligent, connected devices by 2015. According to research firm iSuppli, shipments of Wireless LAN chipsets are on pace to exceed 1 billion units in shipments in 2012 and more than 2 billion units by 2014.

And if you thought your home, hotel, local restaurant or coffee shop was all you needed to unwire, you may be in for a surprise. The next hotspot might just be your own car or in your pocket thanks to various services being offered by cellular carriers today on the latest smartphones.

"WiFi in the car is a hot topic these days," said iSuppli analyst Stacey Oh. "Whereas WiFi was an aftermarket accessory in the past, original equipment manufacturers now are touting it as a key offering."

Millions Join 'The Chase'

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:22:15 GMT

As the list of most intense chase scenes ever filmed goes, the action-packed pursuit in the short film, "The Chase" might not rival Steve McQueen barreling after bad guys through San Francisco in "Bullitt" or Gene Hackman tracking a train-bound thug through Brooklyn in "The French Connection." But just as these and other cinematic heart-stoppers have put theatergoers at the edge of the seats, Internet users by the millions are getting swept up by the live-action and animated short from Intel that incorporates iTunes, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft Office, Google Maps, Flickr and other sites and programs.

Though it appears actress Tereza Oslacova is performing a stunt for a big-budgeted action flick, it’s actually for a commercial spot for Intel.

In "The Chase," which recently surpassed 2 million views on YouTube, a woman with an envelope of mysterious contents uses her skills in espionage to outwit, outrun and outlast hooligans across various digital media. Played by Czech actress Tereza Oslacova, the heroine – spoiler alert! -- ultimately ensnares the pursuers on a desktop where she is able to put the villains in the trash and eliminate them with a tidy click of the mouse.

The novel spot, shot by a European crew in and around Prague, Czech Republic, is intended to illustrate the multi-tasking power of Intel's latest processors. The film's popularity has taken even Intel by surprise.

"I've never seen such a pick up on anything we've done to-date," said Johan Jervoe, Intel's vice president of creative and digital marketing services based in Santa Clara, Calif. "This is innovative marketing that works, one, because of the sheer production quality, and two, because the original creative concept is cool."

"Car chase … Prague … girls … fast cars … bad guys … old women in lifts … how could it not be cool?" said Adam Foulkes, one-half of the London-based directing team "Smith & Foulkes," the other gent being Alan Smith.

Sporting many standard action movie elements was by design, according to the film's writer, Josh Parschauer, of San Francisco-based ad agency Venables Bell & Partners.

"We wanted a cliché movie action feel," he said. "Using Prague wasn't originally in the script, but 'The Bourne Identity' and 'Mission: Impossible' have shot there, and the cobblestone streets, the different buildings and people of Old Europe helped achieve that feel."

So popular is Prague as a film location, a traffic jam of sorts caused some inconvenience for the 3-day "Chase" shoot in the world capital. Some other locations were unavailable due to production of "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," the third sequel in the film franchise. Word got around that "M:I" was shooting in town, so locals often asked the Chase crew where Tom Cruise was. Among those letting them down gently was producer Kacey Hart of Venables Bell.

"Watching a commercial being made is still cool, and even though they wanted to see Tom Cruise, they were still fascinated over the process and how much equipment is needed," said Hart, who has produced several spots for Intel.

Other production challenges

For the model playing a sunbathing beauty whose serenity in her swimming pool is shaken up when the heroine plunges from the sky, it was pretending to be in 90-degree weather when the temperature was closer to 30 – and the heated pool wasn't, adding to the chill of Prague in autumn. For the directors, the most formidable challenge during the making of "Chase" was, to no surprise, the chase itself.

"Obviously, the chase sequence is the most dramatic, impactful and expensive part of any action film," Smith said. "We didn't quite have the budget to smash cars on the streets of Prague, so we had to use our live action almost as the glue between animated stunts."

The test, Foulkes added, was to then "stitch everything together so that the action seamlessly flowed. I think the lack of live action stunts frustrated our DP [director of photography] Oliver Wood, who is used to throwing Matt Damon off roofs."

Czech actress Tereza Oslacova on the set of “The Chase,” Intel’s action-packed film short and Internet hit.

Wood, who lensed all three "Bourne" movies and last year's "The Other Guys," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, is another reason "Chase" has a motion picture look and feel, albeit lasting for under 2 minutes. Others with feature film experience among the cast and crew include Czech native Pavel Bezdek, who plays the shorter of the two main hooligans and whose stunt work includes "Van Helsing," "Hellboy" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

Feature work by "Chase's" directors includes the purposely saccharine-sweet "Littlest Elf" cartoon that opens Jim Carrey's 2004 dark comedy, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. "Their 3-D animated short, "This Way Up," was nominated for an Oscar in 2009. Ads fill up most of Smith & Foulkes' calendar at present, and the team's 2004 work for Honda has filled a trophy case all to itself. The animated spot "Grrr," launched to promote a newly launched diesel engine in the United Kingdom, is one of the most awarded commercials ever.

Time will tell how well-decorated "Chase" is come industry awards season. In the 2 months since it debuted, however, the film has topped Visible Measures' Top 10 Viral Video Ad Chart and was named an "Ad Worth Spreading" at the annual TED conference held earlier this month. The film was one of 10 ideas selected among 1,000 submissions worldwide by the non-profit group originally known as Technology, Entertainment and Design.

"Chase's" success has led to some buzz about a sequel. Intel's Jervoe hasn't ruled one out, fully aware he's got a hit on his hands. The directors said they're game. "Maybe we can blow up some real cars next time," Foulkes said with his partner going one step further: "'The Chase Trilogy' has a certain ring to it."

While any talk of a "Chase" sequel is in the exploratory stage, at best, a sure thing is a global special edition. A re-mastered HTML5 re-release will give viewers a browser-based experience that opens up the different programs and applications in separate windows on the user's actual desktop.

"By showing the story through separate windows, we're more closely portraying the actual desktop performance capabilities of the 2nd generation Intel Core i5 processor," Jervoe said. "This enables viewers to feel like the action is actually taking place on their computer."

Another enhancement is multi-lingual translation of the original English text. Viewers will now be able to experience "Chase" in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages. In addition, because the film integrates various online programs and sites into the story, online entities were created to make them real. For users who want a deeper look, viewers are encouraged to find the eight hidden properties found in the film to uncover a deeper experience called "The Hunt." The Facebook tab offers a leaderboard of users from around the world who have uncovered all of the hidden properties.

A re-launch of the film is scheduled for later this month with additional features being added through the early spring.

Intel Tattoos Speak Volumes

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:06:19 GMT

Editors Note: Our partners over at Intel’s internal Circuit News recently scoured the world within Intel for well, employee body art. What they found was not that surprising, Intel employees just like millions of others across the globe like tattoos. But for an engineering company steeped in a history rife with pocket-protectors, bunny suits, and geek eyewear (now chic), we thought you might like to meet some of Intel’s painted people. The following is a sample of Intel staffers (and one very dedicated fan) found in virtually every geography around the world, with a variety of job descriptions in a diverse range of business groups.

Fairies. Dragons. Leprechauns. Paw prints. Chakras. A praying mantis. There’s no end to the variety of tattoos Intel employees have indelibly inked onto themselves.

We found tattoos in Amsterdam, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. We found them adorning the bodies of engineers, layout designers, manufacturing technicians, finance analysts, facility managers, and more. Even a technical assistant for a senior executive. We also found a walking billboard in Damien Bayless, who is not an Intel employee but probably should be.

Name: Yendry Zamorapiedra
Job: Infrastructure automation services, Intel IT
Flower power: Lotus flowers often grow in muddy waters and beautifully emerge at the surface—a great metaphor for Yendry: “I see myself in the lotus, as someone who went through a hard time and is now coming out of it.”

Name: Alfredo Zangara
Job: Business architect, Intel Architecture Group
Gemini tribute: The twin dragons on Alfredo’s forearms are in honor of his wife, who is a Gemini. He decided on dragon tattoos because “Chinese dragons signify creative energy and good fortune.”

Name: Keven Woo
Job: Product development engineer, Intel Architecture Group
Hawaiian princess: The gorgeous woman on Keven’s leg is his girlfriend of two years, Veronica, who is of Hawaiian and Columbian heritage. “I’ve always wanted a Hawaiian girl on my leg—why not use the real thing?” laughs Keven.

Name: Smitha Rao
Job: Visual platform group India operations manager, Intel Architecture Group
Fighting off evil: Smitha’s tattoo is a modified version of the Sudarshan Chakra (with a yin yang in the center instead of a “Om” symbol). According the Hindu mythology, the Sudarshan Chakra is called upon to destroy the enemy.

Name: Jenny Walker-Liddell
Job: Quality engineer, Intel Technology and Manufacturing Group
Geek chic: Jenny’s first tattoo—she got it in 2002—is a mathematical pun, a triangle with an eye over an equal sign. “It’s a way of symbolizing commitment to think for myself.”

Name: Henry Moreno
Job: Layout designer, Intel Architecture Group
Hey! That looks familiar! Henry worked on Intel's high-end enthusiast gaming platform code-named Skulltrail back in 2007. “I always wanted a skull, but after working on the layout, I decided to get a modified version of the Skulltrail logo tattooed.” Henry has numerous other tattoos, many of which reflect his Mexican and Native American heritage. “My tattoos are a like a walking Photoshop of my experiences, history, and culture.”

Name: TJ Topacio
Job: Fab 68 finance analyst, Intel Finance
Impulse buy: TJ—from Dalian, China—chose this design from a tattoo shop in the Philippines on a whim. It's a tribal sun with the eye of Horus—an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health—in the center.

Name: Beth Butrymowicz
Job: Global media manager, Intel Sales and Marketing Group
Coastal girl: Growing up on the New Jersey coast, Beth grew to love everything about the ocean, including traditional American sailor tattoos. She now lives on the other coast—in California—and continues to work on her full-sleeve tattoos.

Name: Mark Mahony
Job: Customer business analyst, Intel Sales and Marketing Group
Incubus inspiration: A fan of Brandon Boyd from American rock band Incubus, Mark's tattoo is inspired by the artist's work. "My tattoo was done on a small island in Indonesia while backpacking a few years ago in a tiny shack overlooking the ocean—the tattooist had a pet monkey called Captain Jack!"

Name: Emilio Diaz Zamora
Job: Server development engineer, Intel Architecture Group
Guardian angel: Emilio—who works in Costa Rica—got his tattoo two years ago. "That's my guardian angel; it represents all the people around me that care about me, my family and friends."

Name: Randy Huff
Job: Network engineer, Intel Architecture Group
Fighting real fires: After he fights email fires via Outlook, Randy leaves work and battles the real thing as a volunteer firefighter in Banks, Oregon. "I've been doing it for six years and I wanted to commemorate the work I do."

Name: Tatiana Afonso
Job: Facilities planner, Intel Finance
Fairy fan: "I'm crazy about fairies," says Tatiana, who works in Brazil's Sao Paolo office. "This tattoo symbolizes the youth that I will always carry inside me."

Name: Natalia Sanchez Orozco
Job: Costa Rica accounts payable, Finance
My favorite things: For this tattoo lover and art aficionado, sometimes you don't need a reason to get inked. Natalia's tattoos are of all her favorite things, including cupcakes, Hello Kitty, and, pictured here, a green squirrel from Happy Three Friends, a cartoon series.

Name: Michael Holthouser
Job: Advanced platform designer, Intel Architecture Group
The balance of things: Michael has seven tattoos; half are "hot signs," half are "cool." This praying mantis is a cool sign, as they are calculating and methodical, reflecting how Michael approaches his job and life. This praying mantis balances the "hot" scorpion that he has tattooed on his back.

Name: Giap Mai Hung (Leo)
Job: Vietnam Staffing account manager, HR
Go fish! Leo tattooed a koi— a symbol of aspiration and advancement—on his back as a constant reminder to pursue his goals.

Name: Saskia Van Tulden
Job: Assistant facility manager,Intel Amsterdam, Corporate Services
For a job well done: After successfully quitting smoking and exercising to lose weight, Saskia rewarded her healthy efforts with a floral tattoo in her favorite colors—pink and purple.

Name: Victor Duran Sanchez
Job: Costa Rica logistics customer service, Intel Technology and Manufacturing Group
Legs of steel: The tattoo on Victor's right leg is of a Viking sword with a parchment that reads "We miss you." It's dedicated to loved ones who passed away. His left leg features Thor's—the Norse god of thunder—hammer. The hammer represents power, strength and lightning in Norse mythology.

Name: Alexis Crowell
Job: Technical Assistant to Reneé James, Vice President and General Manager of Intel Software and Solutions Group
Not the type: "The best reactions are from people that never believed I would be the tattoo type—the disbelief is always a little fun!" Alexis got these Stargazer lilies for her birthday in 2010 as a reminder that loved ones are always close at hand, no matter where she is in the world.

Name: Gerry MacAuley
Job: Engineering technician, Intel Technology and Manufacturing Group
The romantic: The night before his wedding, Gerry surprised his wife-to-be—and the entire wedding party—with a tattoo of his nickname for her, "sweet bee.

Name: Brandon Kennedy
Job: Validation engineer, Intel Architecture Group
Happy St. Patrick's Day! An ongoing work of art, Brandon's malevolent leprechaun pays homage to his Irish heritage. Before becoming an engineer, Brandon managed a tattoo shop. "Tattoos are interesting—I like that they are permanent forms of expression."

Name: Renee Mueller
Job: HR Administrative Assistant
Tat trust: After she lost her husband to cancer two years ago, Renee decided to get this tattoo as a symbol of her Christian faith. "I'm just trusting in God's plan."

Name: Pablo Castro Mora
Job: HR Relocation associate
Dream on: A big fan of Sigmund Freud—who believed our subconscious comes to life when we sleep—Pablo chose a Maori mask to symbolize dreams.

Name: Matt Daily
Job: D1D Manufacturing technician, Intel Technology and Manufacturing Group
Itchy tats: A big fan of dragons, Matt's working on expanding his little monster to fill his entire arm. What's it like to work in a bunny suit with a fresh tattoo? "Itchy."

Name: Jayne May
Job: Supply network capability communications, Intel IT
All in the family: After Jayne's daughter, Rebecca, convinced her to get a tattoo, Jayne chose to ink her daughter's name on her ankle, along with a tiny paw print because she's always called Rebecca "little cat."

Whoa! You've got to be kidding: When we first heard about Damien Bayless, we strongly suspected Photoshop shenanigans. Nope, his tat is the real thing. Damien—ok, he's not an Intel employee, we made a special exception—is a service tech for Superior Computer Sales in Ontario, Canada. He picked up his tat in early March at an Intel conference in—where else?—Las Vegas.

"When people see it, their jaw hits the floor," Damien said. Intel's Megan Buechler, who was watching said she can vouch for the fact that he wasn't drunk when he had it done. "I can vouch for the fact…" she said. Any buyer's remorse? "Absolutely not," says Damien. "I am a real Intel fan boy."

World's First Computer May Be Older than You Think

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:45:14 GMT

The seeds of the digital revolution were planted with the invention of the transistor in 1947, which led to the integrated circuit in the late 1950s followed by the world's first microprocessor in 1971 that later gave birth to the personal computer.

Remains of the original Antikythera Mechanism, dated between 150-100 BCE, on display inside the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Credit & Copyright: Wikipedia

But according to archaeologists, the birth of the world's first computer was much closer to the dawn of democracy than to the digital age.

The so-called Antikythera Mechanism has become known as the world's first analogue computer after a century since its discovery and decades of scientific research, including the use of cutting-edge 21st century computer vision technology in order to truly understand what the original device looked like, how it operated and what it calculated.

It may be no match for modern laptop computers, which are fast, versatile, and built with digital brains, or processors that have more than a billion microscopic high-k metal gate transistors. By contrast, the Antikythera Mechanism is built with gears and moving mechanical parts more like wind-up watches than computers we know today.

Yet researchers who have studied the device say the Antikythera Mechanism would have been adept at calculating the movement of the sun, moon and five planets tracked by the Greeks. There was certainly no bios, firmware or software installed, but it did function like a calendar, and researchers explained to the international science journal Nature that the calendar was likely used to track the 4-year cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.

Scientist Leonidas Petrakis, a former director at the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently wrote an article about the device for National Herald, a weekly publication for Greek-American news and culture.

A visitor looks at a model replica of an ancient Antikythera Mechanism, at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Credit and Copyright: AP Photo.

"The mechanism is truly remarkable for the sophistication of its fabrication, miniaturization and complexity to a degree that did not appear in Europe again for 17 centuries until the advent of advanced clock making," Petrakis wrote.

The Antikythera Mechanism is named after the Greek island in the Ionia Sea from which it was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers, who found a sunken Roman ship that contained an enormous booty of bronzes, glassware, jewelry and pottery as well as a peculiar looking glob of metal with matching shards.

The rusty clump of metal, about the size but bulkier than a modern netbook computer, remained shrouded in mystery for decades.

It wasn't until the 1950s, when scientists really began to understand how the 82 original shards fit together. According to an article in Wired magazine, a scientist named Derek de Solla Price published his research in 1959 edition of Scientific America. He dated the mechanism to 100 BC and even created an early rudimentary replica of the original.

It took sophisticated X-ray and 3-D computer imaging technology to understand how it actually worked and what it was designed to do.

In 2005, a group of scientists started the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, which included researchers from universities in Cardiff, Athens and Thessaloniki and high-tech professionals from HP and X-Tek systems. They began using breakthrough technology to analyze the original materials and build an accurate replica.

Michael Wright, a former curator at the Science Museum in London, has re-created his version of the Antikythera Mechanism, which can be seen in this video from New Scientist.

Replica in action

Animation

Crunching Lunar Data

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:18:04 GMT

Think back to the Apollo moon missions of the late '60s and early '70s and the images they conjure up. Human footprints in the lunar soil. Helmeted astronauts kicking up grey dust beside the lunar module. Spectacular "Earthrise" photographs, and 10,000 computer tapes.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon, July 1969. Apollo 11 and subsequent missions produced a huge quantity of seismic data which is now being carefully re-analyzed with modern computing techniques.

10,000 old computer tapes? Yes. A little-known legacy of U.S. Apollo missions is the monstrous amount of data collected-a torrent of numbers so large that it simply could not be analyzed with the tools of the time.

Now, NASA-led researchers-using off-the-shelf Intel-based machines-have chewed through this trove of 40+ year old lunar data, and are making fresh discoveries about the Moon's geology.

Most notably, in a paper recently published in Science magazine, Dr. Renee Weber and colleagues have analyzed lunar seismic data and discovered that the Moon has a red-hot and partially molten core. The very center of the Moon is an iron ball with a radius of 150 miles, which is surrounded by a liquid iron shell with a radius of about 205 miles. Think the Moon is cold? Think again.

The discoveries reported by Dr. Weber and her team have been made possible by advances in computing technology that were unimaginable at the time.

"It blows my mind that these data, and the computers originally used to analyze them, literally filled rooms," Dr. Weber said.

Dr Renee Weber, NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center

She says that the seismometers the Apollo astronauts left on the Moon kept running for nearly eight years, radioing back 300,000,000 bits of moonquake data every day. Weber says the resulting 630 gigabytes of data-a modest amount today, but far too much to crunch with the mainframes of the day-sat on those 10,000 computer tapes for decades.

"Some of my favorite images of the Apollo program were of scientists hunched over looking at the seismic data-printed on reels of paper," Weber says.

Using a data technique called "seismogram stacking" the NASA researchers were able to eliminate the "noise" from overlapping seismic data and create a dramatically clearer picture of the Moon' s deep interior.

"All of my work is done on my standard-issue MacBook Pro, with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core processor which has 8 gigabytes of memory," says Weber. For the Moon research she just reported in Science, she says she left her Intel-powered machine running overnight to chew through a typical set of moonquake data.

Crunching the old data has revealed some 7,000 moonquakes, more than five times more than Apollo-era scientists thought they had captured.

With its molten interior and quake-rattled surface, the Moon, it turns out, is much more like Earth than we'd ever known before.

New research, based on crunching 40-year-old data with n Intel-based MacBook Pro, shows that the moon has a molten interior.

Wineries Uncork Advanced Technology

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:42:01 GMT

Wine drinking may not have changed much over millenniums, but the same can't be said for the winemaking process.

Chosen techniques for grape growing, fermenting and bottling of wine often distinguish winemakers, yet some technology researchers believe Moore's Law could help run vineyards of the future.

While many winemakers around the world have been experimenting with new approaches such as chemistry to fine-tune the taste of wine, computer technologies like wireless sensors are being used to control irrigation of some vineyards. Recently, researchers have been putting computer vision technologies to work in vineyards, believing that one day winemakers might even be able to use their mobile phones to actually see and help manage their crops.

Predicting a crop's yield has long been a common practice among grape growers, but a few, like Wente Vineyards in California, consider it an exact science.

Debadeepta Dey, PhD The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University is part of the research team using computer vision research technology at Cornell University's vineyard

Karl D. Wente is a fifth-generation winemaker at Wente, which claims to be the country's oldest, continuously operated family-owned winery in the country. His family blends traditional and innovative winemaking practices as they cultivate approximately 3,000 acres of sustainably farmed vineyards. Wente estimates annual yields with the naked eye, looking at the number of vines per acre and clusters per vine multiplied by an assumed weight for each cluster.

"It's actually become a running joke around the winery about how tough it is and how far off we are on our estimates," said Wente in a Future Lab podcast sponsored by Intel Labs. "We could be off 20 percent in either direction."

Wente creates wine from whatever amount of grapes he can harvest each year, but other grape growers, especially those dependent on selling their harvest to other wineries on the open market, could potentially benefit from being able to more accurately predict the amount of grapes their annual crop will yield.

"Being off 20 percent on the low side could mean that the grower might bring in 80 percent of planned income," said Intel Labs researcher Richard Beckwith, who has helped carry out technology research in agriculture areas for more than a decade, including wireless sensor technology at Oregon's Cameron Winery in 2003.

"In addition, fruit quality is a function of crop load," said Beckwith. "Many winemakers believe that you have to keep the crop load low to get the best quality. Being off by 20 percent on the high side could compromise the quality of the grapes. It is an important balancing act."

A team of researchers is putting technology to work at various vineyards around the country, including the Cornell University vineyard just off the shore of Lake Erie where Concord grapes are grown, and at Pinot Noir vineyards in Oregon.

The team, which recently applied for a Department of Agriculture grant, includes scientists from Intel Labs, Penn State and Cornell faculty, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute faculty and students, and experts from the grape industry. The team hit the field last fall equipped with digital cameras, laptops and sophisticated software, and began monitoring the vigor of grape vines and figuring out how computer vision can someday help grape growers estimate harvest yields more reliably than today's histrionic approaches.

"We use shape to distinguish between leaves, grapes and linear structures, and from that we can try to figure out how much fruit there is," said Lily Mummert, an Intel research scientist who collaborated with Carnegie Mellon U, Cornell and others on recent research.

Researchers capture pictures up and down the rows of vines then use a computer program to create a three-dimensional reconstruction that could accurately distinguish between a grape, stem and a leaf, before counting each and every one.

"There's the idea of a balanced vine that has a proper balance between the energy-producing canopy leaves and the amount of fruit," she said. "Measuring both helps us get a better balance."

Members of the research team say they collected some encouraging results, but it's said it's still early, with many challenges to overcome to create a system that is accurate and reliable. Work will continue as a group of viticulturists, engineers, scientists, economists, educators and industry representatives work together on efforts such as the Vineyard Efficiency organization and file for government funding.

"This project encounters many of the standard problems you run into with computer vision," said Mummert. "You have an unstructured environment, variations in lighting, you have occlusions. So one of the challenges we have is the fruit zone occluded by leaves, and we have to figure out how to deal with it."

Several colleges in the United States are offering art and science of winemaking undergraduate, with some even offering graduate degrees, including Fresno State, Sonoma State and UC Davis in California, Cornell University in New York, Virginia Tech and Washington State University.

James Kennedy, a wine chemist at the Australian Wine Research Institute, in an interview with Wired, said that looking across the continuum of basic science to applied science to technology, science is changing wine. "The easiest place to see this is if you look at the advancement of many of the world's newer wine regions, and the rapidity with which they have become world-class producers of quality wine. Much of this can be attributed to science and technology."

While it makes sense for well-known traditional vineyards and wine-producing regions to stick with proven winemaking methods, for many the future of winemaking may be about picking the right customs and innovations.

Researchers team up with Cameron Winery to test wireless sensor technology at a vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Acer's 'Last Gadget Standing' has more Intel Inside

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:19:49 GMT

Is it a laptop, a tablet, or both? After the din this year's International Consumer Electronics Show died down, we were reminded of the lively "Last Gadget Standing" contest, where the loudest cheers and applause determine the winning gadget by popular demand. Despite all the noise on tablets and phones and Smart TV, the "applause-o-meter" favored new device that looks an awfully lot like a laptop. Or is it a tablet? You decide.

With no space for a sticker, the Iconia has an Intel-first Core i5 soft badge that appears discreetly on boot and resume.

The Acer Iconia is a dual screen all-touch device clearly in a laptop form factor, but without a physical keyboard and with the two touch screens hinged together. It's based on the Intel Core i5 processor and as it turns out, it has a lot more Intel inside that just the chip.

The keyboard-free design was conceived over 3 years ago by a small team in Intel's PC Client Group, which then built a complete working prototype and licensed the design to Acer.

Here's the story of how the team brought this groundbreaking design to life, including some of the numerous obstacles and engineering challenges they overcame.

Users skew original 7-inch design for Windows, big screens
Starting in 2007, a skunk works team inside Intel formed to build a dual-screen, touch-capable device. According to several team members, the first iteration of the design - codenamed "San Rafael" - had two 7-inch screens similar to Toshiba's libretto concept PC. Ironically in mid-2008, lead software architect Steve Bateman recalled it didn't go over well.

"We tested it with users and people didn't want it," Bateman said.

The team had foam models of other designs and smaller form factors in these meetings but users always gravitated to the biggest, laptop-sized model, Bateman recalled. And at the time, users weren't willing to give up Microsoft Windows.

Based on this feedback, Bateman, a 3-D hobbyist, came up with usage models and mocked them up in a video. The general idea was to offer two major modes: laptop-sized multi-touch to enable dual-screen browsing or content navigation, and a traditional keyboard with a trackpad.

The team took the video and a new foam model to another focus group, and "it just blew them away," Bateman said. "We were surprised by how excited they got about it."

Motivated by this enthusiastic response, the team committed to building a working prototype, from the hardware on up to the user experience.

Obstacle #1: No large touchscreen exists
"We started this with no touchscreen," said Charlie Case, the team's lead hardware engineer. "That was a big risk on our part."

The 14-inch Iconia offers huge screen real estate without the bulk of larger 16-inch-and-up models.

Touchscreen vendors, with more business than they could handle, were only building up to 4-inch screens that were limited to two-finger multi-touch. The few large touchscreens that existed were too expensive and offered limited features. And vendors had little incentive to build a difficult prototype that might not work or even have any significant market.

"So, we went to Best Buy and bought an iPod Touch, pulled the screen off, and made our own touch controller in the lab," Case said. "Then we just begged, borrowed, and stole bigger and bigger screens until we got to the bigger [13-inch] one."

Case did the soldering, and Bateman wrote the firmware, which led to the second major obstacle.

Obstacle #2: No one has done all-points multi-touch on Windows
While the team had put together an acceptably low-cost hardware solution for the screen, the big variable was the software. Most touchscreens only handle two-finger input, allowing users to swipe, pinch or type with two fingertips. Any input bigger than two fingers is ignored.

But as a full-sized device, "it's got to be able to do everything your notebook can do now or else, why would you ever buy it?" Bateman said.

That means the machine needed to support a full keyboard that any user could easily adapt to. But Windows 7 includes only limited touch functionality.

A full-size virtual keyboard sounds straightforward enough, but Case and Bateman tried dozens of experiments and rounds of physical testing to make it work. "It's a bigger panel, which makes it exponentially harder" than a smart phone-sized screen, according to Case.

Users commonly rest their hands on the keyboard while reading, for instance, so the software needed to detect the difference between typing and resting.

The Iconia's virtual keyboard supports dozens of languages and opens the possibility of limitless input modes.

Obstacle #3: Virtual keyboard must be average user easy
After months of tinkering and testing and aid from Intel Labs in machine vision, the team coded the screen to capture input as a compressed image and send that image to a host for interpretation. Any shape, including complex 10-finger inputs or even non-finger input such as palm or thumb shapes, could be translated into commands for Windows.

At this point, the program's big go/no-go decision rested on a set of user studies to see if off-the-street users could handle the keyboard. While the team admits you wouldn't have wanted to bang out your first novel on this machine, users were able to type proficiently and the project was given the green light to continue. These user studies gave the team the confidence to more forward.

Obstacle #4: Get an OEM on board
The team built a complete working prototype using the Intel Core i5 with integrated graphics so they could understand all the complexities of integration and then showcase the end user experience.

In mid-2009, the team took its full working prototype into a meeting with Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini and leaders from Acer to pitch the project and show the working demo.

"So many times we've had demos fail, but for once the demo gods were shining on us," said team program manager David Mittelstadt.

Acer liked what they saw and signed on to buy the technology from Intel. Eighteen months and a whole new set of obstacles later - like getting a vendor to create the big, feature-packed touchscreen, modifying BIOS code to enable the virtual keyboard on bootup, and balancing tradeoffs for cost - the Acer Iconia is set to launch by the end March 2011. Pricing is not yet disclosed.

Caption: Acer's innovativenew Iconia laptop, designed with help from Intel engineers, does away with a physical keyboard and features dual-touch screens.

Innovation Takes Flight in Talk by Former Intel Exec

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:55:11 GMT

Practicing what he preached, Doug Busch, a senior executive with fledgling telehealth company Care Innovations, used an innovative analogy to drive his point on innovation.

"An analogy can be made between breaking the sound barrier in planes and breaking the innovation barrier in organizations," he told an audience of Intel employees recently in Folsom, Calif. "The rate of innovation in any organization or any business is roughly equivalent to the speed an aircraft is trying to fly."

In his first presentation at Intel since leaving the company in January to become senior vice president and chief operating officer of Care Innovations, a joint venture of Intel and GE Healthcare, Busch used charts, diagrams and formulas perhaps better suited for a class lecture at Caltech to illustrate his point on the pace of innovation and how to think about it systematically within organizations.

"I'm an aviation buff and I tend to think by analogy," Busch prefaced in his talk titled "Breaking the Innovation Barrier."

Opening his presentation with a chart illustrating different forms of drag versus airspeed, a visual met with chuckles and groans from the audience, Busch said, "When an airplane flies, one of the key things you have to worry about is the amount of force and thrust it takes to get to a particular speed. You've got to have the airplane at an angle in the air and there's a lot of drag that comes with that. As you speed up that actually drops off. You can flatten the airplane out and that drag reduces, but the form drag increases as you speed up."

Busch would eventually tie this back to innovation, but not before continuing his lesson in aerodynamics.

"So there's a crossover point between these two and there's an optimum which says that for any given airplane there's a speed you can fly at that requires the least amount of thrust, the least amount of energy out of the engine and the lowest fuel consumption and so forth," he said. "The optimum speed of the airplane if you're trying to be efficient is to run it right here."

Busch's premise is similarity exists between the physics and aerodynamics of an airplane and the problems of a good idea not getting into practice very easily. If innovation moves slowly in a company or division, he reasoned, the cause could be a penchant to rely on old practices within the group, its leadership, the general workforce or a combination of all three.

"As you speed up some of that goes away," Busch said. "By the same token, as you go faster and faster you start incurring more energy. As your rate of innovation increases you radically increase the amount of energy you have to invest to make change happen.

"Just like an airplane that has an optimum cruising speed, there is, in some sense, an optimum rate of innovation in an organization where a saddle point between these two factors happens."

In the middle, Busch said, there's a balance between the legacy being carried and the effort needed to create innovation, or as he phrased it, "cruising speed" for an organization.

"It's the place where it requires the least amount of energy, the least amount of risk, the least investment of money to run the organization."

That's a good thing, right? Not according to Busch, the former Intel vice president and chief technology officer in the company's Digital Health Group.

"It's very tempting to say that's where we ought to operate. If we sit right on that saddle point then life will be as good as it's ever going to get," Busch said. "Well, just as a fighter plane doesn't necessarily want to engage in combat at its cruising speed, I don't know that we want to engage in competition in cruising speed, either."

In fact, Bush added, "If you fall below that optimum point you're probably in danger of stalling from a business standpoint. That's a very dangerous position to be in. You have to be competing aggressively, which means you need to be innovating at a rate that's faster than what is comfortable."

At Care Innovations, which is just several weeks old, Busch said his new company is still figuring out how fast it wants to move from an innovation standpoint. A key to determining this is hiring people with multidisciplinary skills.

"It's really important that people have depth, but it's also important they have breadth when you try to create innovation because what it does is allow, for example, analogies to be constructed. If you've got folks who can sit in a meeting and talk about, 'Well, we've got a mechanical problem and an electrical problem, but here's a way we can solve the problem with finance by getting the solution through our cost structure,' that's an opportunity for innovation."

Likening the way NASA sent up planes that were instrumented to determine how the aerodynamics of Mach 1 worked, Busch encourages organizations to think about how innovation is happening and what the obstacles are.

"When you sit in a meeting, ask yourself, 'What am I doing during this discussion that's getting in the way of someone else's idea coming to fruition?' The notion of systematically thinking about the way your organization is structured, the way your people behave and the way you behave as an individual can change the design of the airplane you're flying through the innovation space. It can change the drag coefficient for innovation in your domain."

Getting great ideas is not the hard part of innovation, Busch concluded. "The thing organizations need to do to be more successful, for their workforce to feel more fulfilled, is find ways to get ideas into practice in a higher fraction and in a shorter period of time."

Guest Editorial: Post-PC Era? Not Again! Tablets Unlikely to Topple PC Sales

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:50:19 GMT

Editor's note: Linley Gwennap is one of the most respected analysts in the microprocessor industry who has closely followed the industry for more than 15 years. A prolific writer with tremendous insight, Gwennap has published hundreds of articles in a variety of publications including EE Times, Upside Magazine, Electronic Business, Nikkei Electronics, and the San Jose Mercury News. This editorial originally appeared as an editorial in The Linley Group's Microprocessor Report, an Insider's Guide to Microprocessor Hardware.

Pundits are positing a new era in which tablet computers and smartphones will become our primary method of computing, displacing the PC from our lives. Some even expect the PC to go the way of dinosaurs like the minicomputer and the mainframe, which, as we all know, were displaced by the PC itself. This coming post-PC era will, of course, be disastrous for Intel and other chip makers that depend on PC sales.

The only problem with this story is none of it is true. Whenever a new technology appears, the easy story is how it will take over the world: a story abetted by the vendors of said new technology. Tablets are the flavor of the month, but their effect on PC shipments remains in doubt.

The concept of a post-PC era is not new. The phrase first came into vogue a decade ago during the dot-com bubble. The shiny new Internet, they said, would obsolete PCs because it would connect to set-top boxes, cars, refrigerators, and other cool things. A few years later, someone noticed that cell phones were approaching a billion units a year-about five times the annual sales of PCs. Surely this incredible success meant that cell phones would replace PCs.

It didn't quite happen that way. Cell phones continue to sell like hot cakes, but PCs have been hot as well: shipments have more than doubled in 10 years. This growth has been aided by declining PC prices and a shift to laptops, which provide users with mobility for their computing. Sales have particularly increased among cell-phone-toting consumers, who use their PCs to access a wide variety of Internet services. The very things that were expected to kill the PC have only made it stronger.

Smartphones and tablets are the newest challengers. Unlike dumb phones, smartphones can access the Internet, reducing the need for traditional PCs, and they offer more mobility than laptops. Since the iPhone's debut in 2007, however, PC shipments have surged from 270 million units per year to 320 million.

Tablet computers offer a faster CPU and a larger screen than smartphones, providing a bridge between handheld devices and full-fledged laptop PCs. These capabilities give tablets a better shot at replacing some PCs. Indeed, in the most recent quarter, PC shipments rose "only" 3% from the previous quarter, just as tablet (iPad) shipments were taking off. I expect many PC users will purchase a tablet this year, mostly to get an extra machine to use around the house or when traveling. But even if only a few tablet purchases displace PCs, PC shipments could slow and eventually decline.

With their larger screens, physical keyboards, and more-powerful processors, however, PCs will continue to play an important role in content creation. Tablets, and their vast array of apps, are optimized for content consumption, which is all many of us want while we're lounging on the sofa. So who needs to create content? Just about any office worker, for starters; PCs are unlikely to disappear from businesses. Students are likely to prefer PCs for lengthy assignments. Even consumers are increasingly creating blogs, slide shows, and digital video-all tasks that are better suited to a PC than a tablet.

Keep in mind that mainframes and minicomputers never really disappeared. More than eight million minicomputers shipped last year; nowadays, we call them servers. The server market, in fact, is much bigger than it was when PCs first emerged, and it continues to grow strongly. Mainframes, you might recall, were big computers that connected to dumb terminals. Today's hottest trend is cloud computing, in which applications and data storage are moved out of the client and into the "cloud." That's right; the cloud is the new mainframe.

Similarly, PCs are unlikely to disappear no matter how successful tablets, smartphones, and other devices become. Their growth may slow, and they may become less important, but hundreds of millions will continue to ship every year. PCs might become obsolete someday if flawless voice recognition abolishes the need for keyboards, if pocket-size devices connect wirelessly and automatically to any nearby display, and if all of this can happen using a one-watt processor. Until then, Intel and other PC-chip makers will have plenty of business.

Otellini and Obama Share A Common Platform

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:24:28 GMT

As President Barack Obama prepared to meet Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini and tour Intel's state-of-the-art chip factory in Hillsboro, Ore., we took the opportunity to examine a couple of recent speeches both leaders have made in their respective areas and found some interesting comparisons.

Otellini, who has been a strong proponent of investing in education, R&D and innovation while pushing for favorable tax policies, made his speech at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum in August. Headlines out of Aspen at the time -- "U.S. Facing Looming Tech Decline," for one -- focused on Otellini's criticism of various government policies and priorities. Ironically, while not calling out the President by name, Otellini took issue with the then-Democrat-controlled Washington saying, "I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they're flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working."

And yet, a comparison of Obama's State of the Union speech in January titled "Winning the Future" carried many similar themes that Otellini talked about in Aspen 5 months earlier and, indeed, in several appearances over the past few years. To be fair, these are only two of many speeches each has made, and this is certainly not to say the President wasn't in the same camp generally on U.S. competitiveness and investing in innovation. However, the two speeches show some interesting comparisons a few months apart.

Read the following excerpts and decide for yourself. Otellini's is from August, Obama's from January. Either way, you'll see the connection in philosophies and perhaps get some context as to why Obama chose Intel to talk about the innovation economy, new jobs and the importance of education.

On R&D

Otellini: "We invest all over the world. Seventy-five percent of our sales, after all, come from outside the U.S. But 75 percent of our manufacturing and R&D spending continues to be concentrated in this country, where we attract talented scientists and engineers from around the world. But there's no guarantee that the U.S. will receive all of this investment in the future.

We need to address the fact that government policies can create disincentives to investing in America."

Obama: "This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race. In a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology – an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people."

On Tax Policy

Otellini: "Our combined state and federal corporate income tax rate, after all, is the second highest in the industrial world. It is precisely these high statutory corporate rates that punish the most dynamic and innovative firms and hinders their ability to compete globally. And, at a time when countries in Europe and Asia are clamoring to offer companies like Intel significant tax benefits to build factories, the national tax incentives for companies to invest here are few.

Then there's corporate tax policy. Any real strategy for future competitiveness has to address this issue. Comprehensive tax reform – from top to bottom – is an essential part of rebuilding the commitment among global business leaders to invest in creating jobs and running businesses in America.

There are two simple ideas that can help make this possible. The first is to adjust the U.S. corporate tax rate to a rate that is competitive worldwide."

Obama: "All these investments – in innovation, education, and infrastructure – will make America a better place to do business and create jobs. But to help our companies compete we also have to knock down barriers that stand in the way of their success.

Over the years, a parade of lobbyists has rigged the tax code to benefit particular companies and industries. Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and it has to change."

On U.S. Competitiveness

Otellini: "I believe we are the best-positioned of any country to successfully make this transition and generate continued economic growth.

"It begins with common understanding that good investments ought to lead to ideas and discovery … which spawn new businesses … that in turn creates new jobs … and ultimately leads to wealth creation and higher standards of living. The start of this cycle is investment, both large and small.

And perhaps the most important of these investments, are investments in the things that make innovation possible …."

Obama: "At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country or somewhere else. It's whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded. It's whether we sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.

To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I've ordered a review of government regulations. When we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them."

Editors note: On Feb 18, the White House announced that Otellini would be named to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a newly formed non-partisan board of experts designed to help advise the President on how to get Americans back to work and strengthen the economy.

On Education

Otellini: "At one time, the U.S. could boast about the best students in math, science and engineering. Our research centers were without peer. No country was more attractive for start-up capital or global investors. We seemed a generation ahead of the rest of the world in information technology. That simply is no longer the case.

Unless government and business take firm actions to improve education, create a culture of investment and job creation in this country, then the next Intel or the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here. And wealth will not accrue here. Ultimately, we will face an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we are witnessing today in Europe."

Obama:"Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us – as citizens, and as parents – are willing to do what's necessary to give every child a chance to succeed."

On Innovation

Otellini: "There's a fine line, however, between spurring and hindering innovation. We must resist the urge to pick winners and losers. I said it earlier and I'll say it again: The fundamental issue isn't the United States versus the rest of world. It's not a zero sum game.

So, what we need is a set of policies that takes down barriers overseas so American businesses can compete on their merits globally while also increasing competitiveness at home."

Obama: "None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be, or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn't know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do – what America does better than anyone – is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We are the nation that puts cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn't just change our lives. It's how we make a living.

On Broadband

Otellini: I'd like to spend the remaining few minutes discussing why national broadband and corporate tax policies should be key elements of our competiveness strategy.

Let's start with broadband. The FCC's National Broadband Plan is a good first step for encouraging broadband adoption in the homes of low-income and rural citizens.However, more focus, effort and money are needed to complete that task … especially if we're serious about bridging America's digital divide.

Underutilized spectrum is an opportunity for us all. As more Internet users come online and the number of people using smart phones and other mobile devices continues to grow, we need to be more progressive in the sharing of spectrum.

To do this, Congress should give the FCC the authority to set up "incentive" auctions. Just as important, though, is that Internet traffic is managed in a reasonable, non-discriminatory way. These are two necessary steps if we want to truly open up the Internet. They may not yield results immediately…. But, together they will create an environment for the pursuit of new businesses.

Obama: "The third step in winning the future is rebuilding America. To attract new businesses to our shores, we need the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods and information – from high-speed rail to high-speed Internet.

Our infrastructure used to be the best – but our lead has slipped. South Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do. Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do. China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation's infrastructure, they gave us a "D."

How to Protect Your Handheld Device or Laptop from Water Damage

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:20:46 GMT

Editor's Note: Intel's IT Department often creates and publishes articles for employees on a variety of information technology subjects, issues, and trends. We found a few that we thought might be useful for our readers including this one, on how to recover from water damage. Let us know what you think, we have more like this.

Contact with Liquid is not the End of Your Smartphone or PC

When a cell phone is wet, you have only a few seconds to dry it off before water seeps inside.

A TV ad shows a woman seated at a local coffee shop, surfing the web on her laptop for a last-second gift.A passer-by bumps the table and knocks the woman's hot coffee onto the computer.

If this has ever happened to you, you probably think it's time to buy a new handheld or computer.

Not so fast. While no computer or handheld is impervious to water or other liquids, you might be able to bring your workhorse device back from near-death in a few easy steps. It will take you about a day or so, but it could be worth the effort.

Here's what to do after a liquid-based accident involving your handheld or laptop.

Resurrecting a Smartphone or Cell Phone

In the popular crime scene/criminal investigation-type television shows, there's always an episode where a murder victim's phone is found in a swimming pool. The phone contains vital information to solving the murder, and the detectives somehow manage to dry the phone off and get it running again. Sound impossible? Not really. Here's how to bring your handheld back from a watery demise:

Get it out of the water as soon as possible. Plastic covers on cell phones are fairly tight, but water can still enter the phone within 20 seconds or less.
Remove the battery. Many circuits inside the phone will survive immersion in water if they are not attached to a power source when wet.

A vacuum cleaner can draw moisture away out of your phone, but only from a distance – too close, and the resulting static will do more harm than good.

Remove the SIM and memory cards, if your phone has them. SIM and memory cards survive water damage well, as long as you don't heat them. Just pat them dry with a paper towel and set them aside until you need to reconnect your phone to your cellular network.
Remove any covers and external connectors. This will open up as many gaps, slots, and crevices in the phone as possible to allow for more thorough drying.
Get the water out. Carefully shake the phone without dropping it, then use a cloth towel or paper towel to gently remove as much of the remaining water as possible. Dry excess moisture by hand.
Rinse carefully. If your phone falls into the ocean or another form of salt water, rinse it with fresh water before salt crystals can form in the phone after removing the battery.
If possible, use a vacuum cleaner. This will remove all residual moisture by drawing it away from internal circuitry. Hold the vacuum at least two inches away over the affected (and accessible) areas for up to 20 minutes to avoid problems with static.
Use a can of compressed air. Hold the air can straight up (holding it upside down, sideways, or at an angle will shoot out the customary freezing liquid) and shoot into the crevices, speaker, microphone, and keypad. Any excess water should come out.

Many laptops have died untimely deaths due to unexpected spills.

Use a water-soaking substance water to help draw out moisture. An overnight dry "soak" in a bowl or bag of uncooked rice or desiccant gel works well.
Let the phone sit on absorbent towels, napkins, or other paper. Check the absorbent material every hour for four to six hours. If moisture is evident, change cloth or paper and continue to let the phone sit.
Test your phone. After you have waited a day or so, make sure everything is clean and looks dry. Then reinsert the battery and try turning it on. If your phone does not work, try plugging it into its charger without the battery.
- If your phone works, you need a new battery.
- If not, take your cell phone to an authorized dealer. Don't try to hide the fact that it has been wet—internal indicators will prove the presence of moisture.

A Second Life for Your Laptop

Even though most laptops now have sealed keyboards to keep fluid from leaking into the computer circuitry (or at least slow its progress for up to an hour), spills are still one of the major causes of laptop deaths. Here's how to minimize damage if a spill occurs.

If it's water you're dealing with:

Immediately turn off the machine. If necessary, do a hard shutdown by pressing and holding the power button.

The key to saving your laptop after a spill is to drain it of as much moisture as possible. This will mean a lot of waiting for natural evaporation to take its course.

Use a soft cloth to blot up—not wipe up—excess liquid. A wiping motion will merely push the liquid around.
Remove any external cables, drives, network cards, and bays. Blot up liquid that may have gotten onto the removable media.
Don't take apart the casing. This can damage internal components and void your warranty, if applicable.
Tilt the laptop gently from side to side to allow liquid to drain out. Do not shake the machine.
Turn the laptop upside down to drain remaining excess liquid.
If you have one, use a blow dryer on the coolest setting and carefully dry the keyboard and any parts you have removed. Keep the dryer moving over all parts.
Let the laptop air dry upside down for at least one hour; 24 hours is preferred.
When the laptop is dry, reattach any removable components and start up the machine.
- If it starts with no problems, test-run several programs and try using the external media.
- If you see sparks or smell any foul odors, immediately power down the system. Take the unit to a repair specialist.

If you're dealing with a sticky or residue-based spill such as soda, juice or coffee:

Follow the above procedures, but carefully clean the surface of the unit after initial drying. Use a lightly damp, soft cloth with a diluted, 50-percent solution of isopropyl alcohol or watered-down window cleaner, a non-abrasive brand name cleaner or professional keyboard cleaner.
Don't forget to clean the touchpad in similar fashion.
Turn unit down and let it air dry for at least an hour; a day is preferred.
If necessary, take the unit to a repair specialist.

Remember to back up your laptop's contents following the spill. Even if you successfully revive it, the machine may be on borrowed time and could malfunction in the future.

Free Shot: Download the New Free Press Mobile App

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:37:37 GMT

Intel Free Press has gone mobile. Check-out our mobile news app available for free now at iTunes, the Android Marketplace and Blackberry App World.

All of our latest stories, photos, videos and tweets from the Intel Free Press team come together in an easy-to-navigate mobile app designed for sharing stories via email, text, Twitter and Facebook.

The app also includes geo location features like localized weather and traffic updates.

Intel Free Press is a mini-news bureau working inside Intel, developing news and feature stories. Rather than duplicating news or covering every major Intel milestone, we aim to share interesting behind-the-scenes stories that provide insight into what’s going on inside Intel and the tech industry from our perspective inside Intel.

You can also find our mobile app on the Intel Free Press site, where we encourage people to submit story ideas, feedback and follow us on twitter @IntelFreePress.

Computing and Communications Connect at Mobile World Congress

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:17:46 GMT

As the tech world's attention turns toward Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain from Feb. 14-17, the annual "who's who" in the mobile phone industry is about to take deeper dive into … the world of computing.

We've already seen a lot of speculation and pre-announcements from various companies hoping to get out ahead of the noise. Broadcom announced a new baseband chip for Android devices, HP showed off a new touchpad tablet and Qualcomm touted its new dual core Snapdragon that's powering it. Sony Ericsson is expected to show off a new PlayStation device with phone capability, LG is going 3-D, and Nokia shook things up by announcing a new strategic partnership with Microsoft just as Android is growing by "leaps and bounds," according to IDC.

Ironically, today's phones are becoming more like mini-computers that fit in your pocket that happen to have voice capability. Packed with more and more processing and graphics power, Internet functionality, applications, games and cameras, these new devices are taking the world by storm. Processing power is taking center stage too, with some phones such as the HTC Evo advertising a "1 GHz Snapdragon processor" at the top of a list of features, and many companies now talking about dual-core or even quad core processors in the very near future.

The mobile Internet is clearly the next big thing — the new computing growth driver according to many analysts. Everybody wants a piece of the pie and it is far more than just smart cell phones driving the growth. It's the iPad, and the tablets that are chasing it, its cell phones, car electronics, games, home entertainment and more.

Aside from the devices, the convergence of computing and communications will be evident at Mobile World Congress just by looking at the list of CEOs and companies in attendance. Amid all the usual suspects from leading mobile phone manufacturers and wireless companies such as TI, Qualcomm, RIM and AT&T are Internet and computing companies that include Google, Intel, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo!

In addition to phones, many of these companies will talk about how they can do tablets, too, and expect a lot of new innovation, partnerships, deals and speculation coming on winners and losers. Samsung is widely expected to talk more about the iPad's chief marketplace alternative, the Galaxy Tab, with new dual-core versions coming.

Dell-Windows 7 Phone

But to be clear, this show is mostly about the explosive growth in smart phones. In a milestone that was recently reported without much fanfare, IDC stated that Smartphone makers shipped 100.9 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2010, outpacing PC sales for the first time ever. IDC also said in December that the mobile application business would grow from 10.9 billion downloads to 76.9 billion in 2014 and a commensurate 60 percent per year increase in mobile application revenue.

Connected Planet, which closely watches the telecommunications industry, recently reported that 'within the next five years, 80 to 90 percent of US consumers will carry a Smartphone, up from around 25 percent today."

Globally, "smartphones will represent greater than 50 percent of mobile phone shipments, more than 75 percent of mobile phone industry revenues and around 90 percent of mobile phone manufacturer gross margins," they said.

All of these devices are causing a massive surge in mobile data traffic worldwide, which researchers at Intel, Cisco and several universities are trying to get ahead of now. According to Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index Forecast, mobile data traffic is expected to grow 26 times over the next 4 years. But that isn't slowing the march to smarter, more intuitive computing devices that fit in your pocket.

People are using their mobile devices more than ever to get stuff done on the Internet, like email, managing online accounts and sharing photos -- things that they typically did on Internet-connected laptops. Computing and communications functions are now being combined in new ways, with geo location, gaming, cameras, live video and more. And like everything else, social networking is having a significant impact.

As TechCrunch reported this week, Mary Meeker and Matt Murphy from Kleiner Perkins did a presentation on mobile computing trends at Google's thinkmobile conference. In addition to highlighting the rapid growth of Android devices, now outpacing iPhone sales, the two said mobile platforms have hit critical mass and have gone global (but not all platforms are created equal). They also noted that social networking is accelerating the growth, and change will accelerate with new players emerging rapidly.

Expect to see elements of all these trends play out at Mobile World Congress as new partnerships emerge and devices increasingly take on the look and feel of computers.

Industry Analysts talk Mobile World Congress 2011, what to expect, trends, and more.

Intel Senior Fellows: An Exclusive Club

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:03:30 GMT

They represent the highest level of technical achievement within the company – the cream of the computing crop. An elite group of individuals these Intel Senior Fellows are, and when Intel claims a leadership role in innovation and technology, their contributions are often cited as the foundation.

When Intel announced the first inductees in 2002, four men were immediately elevated from the rank of Intel Fellow, a role that was established in 1980, to charter membership in a club reserved exclusively for Intel's most senior and influential technical minds. There have only been a dozen Senior Fellows at Intel since the original four, two of whom have retired in recent years.

Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration, and Justin Rattner, vice president, Intel Labs director and chief technology officer, still wear an Intel ID badge from the founding four, which also included Peter McWilliams and Richard Wirt. They are joined by just six others who currently hang their hats within Intel Labs and the Technology and Manufacturing, Intel Architecture, and Software and Services groups.

For Rattner, the honor of being part of that first group of Senior Fellows was heightened by its impact to others present and future duly recognized for their technical leadership and outstanding contributions to the company and industry.

"What pleased me the most was the fact that the glass ceiling on Fellows, which prevented them from reaching the same [pay] grades as business unit GMs and other senior executives, was finally shattered," Rattner said. "It made the technical career ladder truly equal to the management ladder, by allowing Fellows to reach the same grade levels without the previous and rather artificial restriction."

Rattner being a vice president emphasizes his point. When he was made a corporate officer in 2007, Rattner followed Wirt as the second Senior Fellow to earn such a promotion.

"I'm the first to admit that it's a bit non-Euclidean, but the dual appointment serves to recognize those individuals who are both top technologists as well as senior managers," said Rattner, whose accomplishments include an instrumental role in developing the first computer to sustain 1 trillion operations per second, or what's better known in the technical community as a teraFLOPS.

Because Senior Fellows come out of the pool of Fellows, such promotions are more common than a Senior Fellow becoming a vice president. When a higher level of Fellow was bandied about 10 years ago, Bohr, for one, wasn't entirely comfortable with the concept.

"I admit that I had some reservations about creating separate Fellow and Senior Fellow job categories," said Bohr, who, like Rattner, is based in Hillsboro, Ore. "Fellows serve Intel best when we work together as a team, and I didn't want different job titles to change that sense of teamwork."

In that spirit, Bohr gave props to those who helped him achieve the ultimate technical honor within Intel.

"I got to this position only because I work with a team of very bright engineers in the Logic Technology Development group," said Bohr, who considers himself "lucky" to have been involved in some breakthrough projects over his career. Bohr ranks the 45nm high-k metal gate transistor project at or near the top.

"This was the biggest change in transistor technology in 40 years and it ended up being Intel's highest-yielding technology ever," Bohr said, adding that Intel started shipping 45nm high-k metal gate products in November 2007, "and to date, no other company is yet shipping HK+MG products in volume."

As with Fellows, selection of Senior Fellows is an annual process. It starts with the chief executive officer sending a call for nominations and business units identifying a short list of nominees who, in their opinion, have had extraordinary impact within the company and the industry. Vetting is done by a committee of current Senior Fellows and technical vice presidents, and top Intel management meets to assess the strategic impact of the nominees. The CEO, currently Paul Otellini, makes the final decision.

"The bar is intentionally set very high," said Andrew Taylor, Fellows program director. "In the 31 years of Fellows at Intel, there are only a few years when Senior Fellows were selected."

The most recent Senior Fellow inductee is Bryant Bigbee, director of systems software in the Software and Services Group, who in 2007 became the 12th bestowed with the honor. Recognized for his work designing and gaining support for Intel CPU features in Microsoft Windows from the Pentium processor through Intel Core, Bigbee said being the most recent Senior Fellow named makes it all that more special.

"I was humbled to be singled out among my esteemed peers, the extraordinarily talented Intel Fellows," said Bigbee, who was instrumental in the OS support of such features as hyperthreading technology, 64-bit, multi-core and security. "The Fellows' network and collective brain power has been the success engine for me personally as well as for Intel. The distinction of Senior Fellow hastened my advocacy on behalf of my area of expertise – software – rather than silicon or process technology."

A 3-year-long absence of new Senior Fellows could end when corporate promotions are announced closer to spring. At present, however, club membership remains at the same number as humans who have walked on the moon -- an even dozen -- in what is now the 10th year of the Senior Fellows program's existence. This exclusivity sits well with the one VP in the group.

"While the Senior Fellow ranks have grown very slowly, I think that's actually been a good thing," Rattner said. "A lot is expected of Senior Fellows and, thus, it should be a difficult ascent."

Rethinking Wireless Networks

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:36:15 GMT

When University of California San Diego Professor Sujit Dey looks into the future, he sees a world where "smart" wireless video clouds are filled with movies, TV shows and YouTube clips. In his vision, these clouds perform like a distributed network, invisibly feeding bits and bytes of data to mobile devices quickly and more efficiently than today's wireless networks, effectively lightening the traffic load on wireless networks.

Sujit Dey is leading a
team of researchers
working on next
generation wireless
networks.

Professor Dey's vision could be moving closer to reality. He and his research colleagues and students at the at UC San Diego's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department were picked along with those of other universities around the world to explore fundamental changes to today's wireless networks.

The multi-year, multi-million dollar research endeavor is led by Cisco, Intel and Verizon called the Video Aware Wireless Network (VAWN) project, as reported here earlier. "We now have resources to change how we see and use wireless networks," Dey said.

Dey said that as first-generation networks evolved from 2.5 to 3G and today's 4G technologies, advancements were primarily based on increasing capacity to meet the increase in subscribers. He sees the VAWN project as a catalyst for changing wireless networks from primarily functioning as voice and data transmission pipes.

Cisco, Intel, and industry researchers contend that demand for mobile TV and social media video is spiking the overall growth of mobile video traffic. According to Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, overall Internet traffic is expected to grow four-fold by 2014, with mobile video growing at over 15 times this rate.

"This research will raise consciousness and excitement about seeing wireless networks not only as links," said Dey, "but see them as a coexistence of computing and storage."

Dey said he believes cell towers and access points could be built up with processing power and hard drives. Rather than storing mega amounts of video content in a few CDN (content delivery network) locations, smart wireless networks would have a massively distributed disbursement of what Dey calls "smaller micro-caches," consisting of thousands of videos or gigabytes of information.

Content would be pulled off of the Internet servers and stored intelligently inside the micro-caches associated with the base stations and access points, close to where people are accessing the video.

One thing that he and his students are exploring is how to keep fresh, in-demand video in each micro cache, like the day's most watched videos or video-related to trending topics or even videos that are most likely to be accessed by the users in the associated cell site. This could help lower the amount of data that needs to travel across the network to get a video to play on a mobile device.

Intel Researchers have mapped out where computer intelligence can be built into wireless networks and devices to help meet the rising demand of mobile video traffic.

"For wireless network operators, revenue per bit of data will be low for transmitting video compared with more profitable services like texting. On the networks, video has higher and higher volume but is providing little revenue.

And Dey sees inefficiencies, like when many people in an area are viewing the same video at the same time, or even in the same hour, using their smart phones or mobile devices.

"What if those videos were stored somewhere in the networks versus being pulled from Internet servers?" asked Dey. "What if we could cache videos in the base stations or access points?"

Dey advocates building computer processing into base stations and access points, where people are tapping into their wireless service, whether it's 3G or 4G or even a WiFi hotspot. This way, video found in the micro-caches, but in different formats, bit rates, etcetera, can be locally transcoded/transrated.

Finally, Dey envisions building a "video cloud scheduler," which will consider the availability of multiple wireless links available to a user (cellular or Femto or WiFi), the availability of the requested video in a local micro-cache, and need and availability of processing, to schedule the resources optimally so as to increase the video capacity of the end-to-end network.

"This research project gives me a hybrid platform, almost the best of both worlds," said Dey. "First, the university is full of young, hungry talent and their passion can get turned into creating something impactful for the industry. Second, we try but cannotalways incorporate all the practical aspects, so Intel and Cisco can influence what's being done, how it's being done and how the research findings can be used."

Prior to teaching and being a founder and chief technology officer at Orvita Wireless, Dey was a researcher for several years at tech firm NEC. Dey knows what it's like doing research inside a big company. "Not every successful research got used, but some were and there was always lots of learning of how to make research results commercially usable," which, he said, could influence his thinking of future products and services.

Dey said the current project feels different than other industry-sponsored projects he's led.

"The VAWN project feels different from the other industry sponsored projects because of the tight interaction we are hoping to have with Intel and Cisco," he said.

Intel Manufacturing Veteran Retires after 32 years

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:08:35 GMT

Editor's Note: For 32 years Bob Baker lived in the storied hallways of Intel's massive manufacturing network, working in and managing chip fabs and at one point overseeing 10 of them at one time.

Baker, 55, recently retired from Intel where he was serving as senior vice president and general manager of the company Technology and Manufacturing Group. He joined Intel in 1979 in Santa Clara, California.

In an interview just prior to his retirement a few weeks ago, Baker talked about the similarities between Intel's current battle for tablets and smartphones with the come-from-behind battle for manufacturing leadership in the '80s, the Intel leader he learned the most from—and the skiing career that never was.

Q: Bob, you've been at Intel for more than three decades. What was going through your mind when you first entered the doors of Intel?

I was excited to go to work for Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce, and Andy Grove's company. I had followed them through my college years. I was a college grad out of Washington State University in Pullman just excited to move to California.

The first two months at Intel, I had five different bosses. But I was pretty excited until about the eighth week, and then I remember thinking, 'Oh man, what is this place?' [Laughs]

Q: Craig Barrett has said that he wanted to become a forester when he was a child. What did you want to be when you were young?

A ski instructor. I skied with the Mahre brothers, Phil and Steve [1984 Olympians in ski racing], when I grew up in White Pass, Washington. We'd set up bamboo poles and race each other. I was never that good, but I can say that I skied with them.

So I figured, okay, if it's not engineering, I can live on the hill, teach skiing on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then ski during the week.

Q: So what kept you off the slopes and at Intel for 32 years instead?

Intel allowed me to learn. It was this great technology sandbox. I could go any place in the company and sit down with an engineer and they could tell me about the most magical kind of products or devices or computer systems or software that they were writing. I was always able to find a job that I could find technical passion in, something I could learn about, something new.

It was always on the cutting edge, always a leading technology. We always had the best and brightest people to work with. What better company for a technically oriented engineer or manager to work for?

Q: What's the one thing you are most proud of when you look back?

In the mid-'80s, I was doing contract work because Intel manufacturing wasn't competitive, and we were outsourcing to Mitsubishi and Sanyo and Toshiba. There was this big Japanese semiconductor industry challenge, and, we were asking, "Could America compete?"

TMG's focus to overcome this challenge and become the world's best technology and manufacturing company—and to have played a part in that—is the area where I have the most pride.

Q: Are there similarities between the challenge you face with the tablet and smartphone market to the challenges you faced in manufacturing during the 1980's?

In the mid 1980's, the Japanese companies were leading in quality, technology, output and cost. The lead appeared insurmountable. To overcome their lead took many critical improvements.

First, it took a dedicated team of people—people who had the drive, passion and commitment to be the best, whatever it took.

It took continued sustained innovation and continuous improvement over a number of years.

It took a broad spectrum of disciplines working together, and making the right tradeoffs towards a shared vision and outcome. It took achieving and sustaining faster learning rates to outpace a competitor's achievements.

I believe Intel will rise to the challenge and overcome any early lead our competitors have in tablets and handhelds.

There was this big Japanese semiconductor industry challenge, and, we were asking, 'Could America compete?'

--Bob Baker

Q: Which Intel leader did you learn the most from?

Oh, that's tough. I've learned a lot from a lot of different people. I'd probably say I learned the most from Andy Grove, by watching how he blended execution with strategy, with an understanding of the marketplace, and his thought process for the direction he wanted to take the company. I learned a lot by watching how he handled himself, what he focused on, the energy and passion he brought to the job.

Bob Baker in the early 90's.

Q: You, Bill Holt and Brian Krzanich have had a unique three-in-the box situation for almost four years. What is the secret to making that work?

The three of us successfully managed TMG because we had clear focus and defined roles and responsibilities. Bill focuses on leading the technology development; Brian focuses on manufacturing output and meeting customers' needs via the factories and the supply chain team. My focus was on creating leadership in the NAND Solutions Group and the NAND manufacturing joint venture with Micron, along with developing new businesses in NBI.

With the day-to-day focus areas clearly defined, we were able to work together on developing and improving the group's culture and organization with common values and shared challenges like "Doing the Ridiculous" to make breakthroughs in performance, which applied to all parts of the TMG organization. This was also based on many years of working together within TMG, which gave us very common experiences over the past 25 years.

Q: What do you plan to do in retirement?

I get some time to spend with my daughter before she heads off to college. There are a couple of nonprofits I'm going to help out within the Phoenix area. I might help out with some small businesses. And I want to travel. I haven't had time to.

I don't think there's a peer in what we do in the world.

--Bob Baker

I want to go spend three months in the Alps and ski for a winter. I want to see what's different between the Swiss Alps and the Italian Alps and the French Alps and be able to spend enough time to get a sense of the community and not fly in, go to a conference room, then fly out.

So, very atypically, I don't have a plan. I've had a plan and been expected to deliver monthly, weekly, quarterly results for 32 years. Now it's kind of an open-ended list of things that I want to pursue and have enough time to pursue those passions.

I have a motorcycle. I want to go tour without an agenda.

Q: What are your favorite memories of TMG?

My biggest memory is the people. The amazing technicians and engineers and facilities people and planners who make our factories run. The people in Technology Development who take this amazing science and turn it into some engineered process or product.

Q: Any last thoughts?

It's been quite an amazing journey, and having relived it, you get to see that you had some impact on people throughout the years. I'll get notes like one from an engineer in Costa Rica saying, "Do you remember the time you stopped at our little improvement project and you quizzed me for 20 minutes about it?"

Or a technician recounting, "Do you remember the time you were so mad at us in the fab, it was 3 in the morning and the equipment wasn't coming up and we weren't being systematic about the way we did things. I'll never forget that, because you came out at 3 in the morning for the next six days to make sure that we got all the support we needed from the rest of the factory." Those kinds of stories have just been amazing.

Could Smart Phones Help You Live Longer?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:26:58 GMT

We've heard a lot about what smart phones can do for people, from connecting with friends to managing your business and finding places to eat. But can smart phones help people live a longer, healthier life? Researchers at the University of Washington think so.

Future Lab - Sleep

University of Washington researchers discuss their ShutEye application for Android phones in this Future Lab radio report from Intel Labs.

In a "Sleep Science" report by Future Lab Radio, sponsored by Intel Labs, professors and Ph.D. students explain how their ShutEye application for Android-powered mobile phones could make people more aware of what they call "healthy sleep hygiene," and the practices they believe promote improved quality of sleep.

"I think there's a great chance for us to extend our life spans," said Julie Kientz, assistant professor and director of the Computing for Healthy Living and Learning Lab at the University of Washington. "We can start mitigating some of the problems, especially early on … getting people aware of issues that affect their health negatively. And these sorts of technologies that are integrated into our lives really have the potential to make us more aware, even if it's subtly."

Researchers believe that people might take sleep more seriously and think twice about missing a few winks in order to be more productive.

"Getting poor quality sleep is associated with everything from the common cold to premature death," said Jared Bauer, a PhD. student in the Information School at the University of Washington.

"People who get poor quality sleep have higher rates of cardiac disease. Sleep is about as important as anything, but it's one of the few biological functions where you would see people actively try to resist it. As a culture, we resist it."

To help fight the resistance and promote better living and sleeping habits, Bauer and his team designed ShutEye, which fits into the larger trend of integrating computer technology into personal health.

The ShutEye application, which was used in a 4-week field study, tells the smart phone owner when it is and isn't the right time to take a nap, go for a jog, have a coffee or enjoy a beer. The application knows that even well-intentioned behaviors at the wrong time of day can rob you of a good night's sleep.

ShutEye Mobile Application by researchers at University of Washington advises how daily activities can impact sleep. Photo by UofW.

Another smart phone application being used at the university is Spot, which tests how awake or spaced out a person is by measuring their reaction or response time. Spot is based on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) created by Professor David Dinges, and is considered by many to be the gold standard for measuring wakefulness for the past 30 years.

One of the world's foremost sleep experts, Dinges is currently the chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychiatry. He believes that field tests run on smart phones can collect behavioral data while people are in the real world versus a controlled test environment.

"One of the challenges is to come up with tests that can be used in the real world, tests that are robust against those added [real life] variants," said Dinges. "But the bottom line is that if it doesn't test with accuracy, then it's pretty much useless."

Bauer explained a real-world use for the ShutEye application, when a smart phone can make its owner think – at least one, maybe twice – before having that late morning or afternoon coffee.

"Based on our literature, we found that caffeine can affect your sleep up to 14 hours before you go to sleep," said Bauer. "So if you have caffeine 2 hours after you're awake, you start getting to the edge of what could affect your next sleep."

Researchers seem to share the same end goal: to create useful mobile applications that help people be more aware of their daily habits so they can moderate or change health damaging behavior.If the applications can fit seamlessly into how people normally interact with their mobile phones, by sharing time-appropriate advice throughout the day rather than being more like a daily journal or nagging, alarming reminder, then these apps have a better chance to encourage mindfulness whenever and wherever people take their smart phone out of their pocket.

Free Shot: Demand for Demand Media

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:29:06 GMT

This week, CNN reported that Demand Media's Initial Public Offer (IPO) of stock put the new online content company's value at around $1.5 billion, catapulting it above the value of the "The Old Lady" – The New York Times Company. For many it was a sign that IPOs and investment in tech companies could be on the rise, while others saw it as more salt being added to the wound of established media companies struggling to evolve their businesses amid the continuing disruption in online media

"Unlike the New York Times, which is trying to adjust its business model to cope with the harsh economic realities of digital media, Demand Media was designed from the ground up for precisely this type of market," said Tom Foremski, a former Financial Times reporter and long-time media watcher.

Demand Media is an online media company that operates a variety of websites and is known for paying freelance writers, many of whom have no prior journalism experience, to create online news, "how-to" articles and other content based on consumer demand and anticipated clicks on the Web.

According to stock market analysis site Seeking Alfa, Demand (DMD) operates the 17th largest Web property in the United States, and attracted over 105 million unique visitors with over 679 million page views globally for the month ended Nov. 30. Growth is driven by Web content generation and distribution, and it has over 13,000 contributors. Demand competes with online content creators, distributers and aggregators such as AOL's Seed and Yahoo's Associated Content.

"Demand uses its algorithms to try to figure out what people are searching for and how much it can earn from a specific article," said Foremski. "It's very clinical and very sensible. Which is probably why Demand's investors are happy with its valuation being higher than the New York Times."

Foremski, who left the Financial Times to start his own technology culture blog called Silicon Valley Watcher several years ago, is credited with describing the disruptive impact of the Internet on established media companies and coining the phrase "every company is a media company."

Foremski said the demand for Demand Media shares is part of a growing appetite for shares in Internet businesses, much like the private demand in the markets for Facebook shares.

"It might shock the newspaper industry that an article is only worth, say, $50 over its lifetime, and $15 goes to the writer, but that's often the reality of the digital media economy today."

"The danger to Demand Media is if the value of any article, over a 5-year period, will change," he said. "If it goes up then Demand is laughing, but it could easily go down. It would then have to crank up the publication pipeline. How many 'how- to' articles can be written or videoed before you start into esoteric territory where the advertising gains are limited? "I would say that the value of each piece of media will go down over time."

Foremski predicted that the value for each piece of media will go down over time, as every story has to compete for a finite pool of readers/consumers.

"There's a media tsunami happening and so there is greater competition for attention from an ever greater amount of media," he said. "This is a trend that will accelerate for the foreseeable future."

More analysis from Foremski on this topic can be found at Silicon Valley Watcher.

The Origins of Wi-Di Technology

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:34:24 GMT

It wasn't incredibly difficult convincing computer industry executives and engineers at such companies as Dell, Sony and Toshiba that people would soon want to beam movies, videos and photos from their laptop screens on to a big screen digital TV. The tough part was making it all happen without adding hardware or extra cost to the manufacturing and selling of laptops.

WiDi Product Manager Kerry (second row from front in black sweater) and Intel VP of PC Client Group Mooly Eden with the team behind the making of Wireless Display technology when it launched in 2010.

It was 2006 when a team of Intel engineers began working on what would later be dubbed Wireless Display, or WiDi, technology, which allows people to wirelessly stream video and photos directly from their WiDi-equipped computer to a big screen TV with the use of a small companion adaptor.

"We wanted to create things that we had never done before," said Kerry Forell, who was then in Intel's Mobile Platforms Group collaborating with researchers and engineers inside Intel Labs, Software and Services and other parts of the company.

"We wanted to impact technologies coming in the next two years," said Forell, who was recruited by an Intel Sales and Marketing rotation program 11 years ago after earning his electronics engineering degree from the University of Washington. "We wanted people to experience something they've never done before."

That's what happened when WiDi first hit the market in 2010. Intel built the wireless HD media streaming technology into some of its laptop chipsets being coupled with first-generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors and sold exclusively at Best Buy. Dell, Sony and Toshiba were the first to sell WiDi-ready laptops, and they came bundled with a Netgear wireless adapter that connected to the TV. Local Best Buy stores were where many people first saw a laptop wirelessly beam 720p HD video to a big screen TV.

In those first few months of 2010, WiDi won a "Best of CES" award from CNET and favorable reviews from consumer tech experts at The Wall Street Journal, Engadget and publications. PC Magazine even called it the "hottest sleeper technology" of the year, stating that "the technology behind WiDi is very interesting" while hinting that it may end the year without being a huge hit.

WiDi may have been a "hot sleeper" in 2010, but it woke up at CES 2011 when a new and improved 2.0 version of WiDi was released as a standard feature with the new "2nd Generation" Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, allowing every new laptop to wirelessly stream 1080p HD video.

Laptops with 2nd generation Intel Core processors come with built-in WiDi , allowing them to stream high quality photos and 1080p HD video to a big screen TV.

"Essentially, WiDi can roll out anyplace where second-generation Intel Core-powered laptops are being sold," said WiDi Product Line Manager Forell, who estimates that by the end of 2011 about 50 different laptop models will be available in more than 15 countries and sold at 40 different retail outlets.

Significant technical changes were made moving from the 2010 to the 2011 version of WiDi, according to Forell. For one, WiDi was moved off of the chipset and is now built onto the processor, utilizing the CPU's integrated memory, graphics and media compression engine.

"Laptops have mobility, but small screens, so they're not ideal for sharing a rich HD experience," said Forell. "But WiDi unleashes that experience on bigger screen and on bigger speakers.

Forell said you can even have multiple WiDi laptops within a family or even allow visiting friends to take turns streaming to TV or stereo adapters inside a home.

"By adding a real-time media compress engine onto the processor and adding security in the media framework - the Intel Insider feature -- we can take real- time 1080p and project almost anything up to digital TV display," including Blu-ray and premium HD movies and entertainment.

Right Pieces at the Right Time

Gary Martz, product manager for Intel's My WiFi technology, recalls that since the beginning, WiDi was something that needed to be experienced in order to really "get it."

"None of our execs saw the real potential until after the WiDi team had an end-to-end prototype that they could actually get their hands on and try out," Martz said. "This was truly an example where PowerPoint wasn't enough."

After showing Intel executives what the technology could do, the next step was to talk with potential customers.

Forell and a few Intel coworkers traveled to Austin, Texas to meet the CTO team at Dell headquarters.

"When they tried it for the first time - when they saw a laptop wirelessly streaming video to a big screen TV - they stopped and said: "Wow ... we can actually see this working. Our family, friends, wives would actually use this."

Early on, Forell and Martz wanted to dream up applications to put on top of two areas of innovation. Those areas were the WiFi peer-to-peer development Intel engineers were working on, and hardware video compression technology work from the graphics and processor teams."

Logo indicating a computer has built-in Intel WiDi Wireless Display technology.

"We had early notions of using WiFi PAN [WiFi Personal Area Network, which are used for syncing and connecting PCs with gadgets, cameras, keyboards and printers] as a way to deliver a great video experience early on," said Martz.

But he and the team looked around the industry and ultimately chose to develop inside Intel, where there existed a clearer perspective of technology advancements that were in the works and getting ready to hit the market.

The wireless, video and end-to-end solution work for WiDi continues to be done by teams in and around Hillsboro, Ore., where Intel has its largest concentration of research, development and manufacturing.

Forell remembers how the 2007 WiDi prototype didn't quite have all of the necessary pieces.

A key advancement came when Intel My WiFi technology launched in 2009, allowing Intel WiFi cards to make peer-to-peer connections so laptops could connect an Internet access point as well as other device in an adhoc fashion. This same wireless card could be used to connect a laptop to a wireless receiver plugged into a TV.

When WiDi was first built into Intel chipsets in 2010, Intel processors provided enough power to do 720p video compression in software.

In 2011, WiDi was pulled off of the chipset and onto the second-generation Core processor, which also featured a built-in hardware media engine that does full 1080p video plus protected content.

"Fast processors, media engines and wireless," said Forell, were the killer combo of innovations that came together at the right time.

While WiDi is poised to add more excitement to computers, it's also generating new opportunities for other businesses.

WiDi Working with Many Devices

Forell mentions that later this year, Toshiba plans to release a TV with WiDi.

"WiDi is built for easy plug and play," said Forell, adding that this makes designing into new smart TVs easier. "Since they already have the hardware, smart TV makers can take our receiver software and port it to their hardware."

Netgear, D-Link, Belkin, IO-Data and Buffalo Technology also announced that they'd be creating and selling new adapters to work with the earlier and latest versions of WiDi.

Forell foresees WiDi soon moving inside Blu-ray players, game consoles and set top boxes, not to mention netbooks and even smart phones. In September, Intel publicly showed developers a prototype tablet running wireless display.

Audio-only WiDi is also coming, and was demonstrated on a netbook at the recent CES.

New Tech at CES 2011: Intel Shows netbook with Wireless Audio Distribution

"I drove this aspect of WiDi with another hardware engineer from our wireless team and an Intel Capital portfolio company named Ozmo Devices," said Martz. "We started hearing and seeing a lot people using their WiDi laptops and video adapter to stream music from Pandora, iTunes and other services. We also had a market need for a lower-cost WiDi adapter. We prototyped an audio-only adapter ... and got Logitech interested."

Logitech is expected to ship an audio WiDi adapter by mid-year.

"Our motivation beyond enhancing the WiDi ecosystem was been to help drive adoption of Intel's WiFi technology into Netbooks," Martz said.

Insiders believe netbook with WiDi will be out by summer.

"One thing that often goes unmentioned is the big impact that WiDi has had on Intel's WiFi business in the consumer space," said Martz. "This has been especially important since the Centrino brand went away."

Martz said there continues to be quite a few challenges, both technical and market related.

"From a technical perspective we need to drive down our latency between the PC screen and the TV screen," he said. "There are competitive challenges, but the economics, enhanced experience (1080p, HDCP2) and ecosystem development by Intel will lead to even better results in 2011."

Maestro Tablet Runs Three Operating Systems

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:03:13 GMT

With something like 80 new tablet devices introduced at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, there was bound to be a few that didn't get as much attention right away. But in the days following the tablet frenzy, a number of people took note of a little tablet from a small Australian company called Evolve III that was sitting quietly in Intel's booth.

As reported by Engadget, Geek.com, Electronista and many others, the Maestro tablet from Evolve III attempts to distinguish itself from the pack by running on multiple operating systems.

We had a chance to sit down with Dainter Warrick, executive director and R&D product development director at Evolve III, to talk about the Maestro which is being designed and built around Intel's dual core "Oak Trail" platform. At CES, the device in the Intel booth was running both Windows 7 and MeeGo operating systems, but when it initially launches it will run Android and Windows 7. Warrick said it could generate up to 16-hour run times running MeeGo.

Evolve III estimates that the Maestro tablet built with the dual core Intel Atom Oak Trail processor could last as long at 16 hour running MeeGo.
The tablet will be released later this year as a switchable device with Android, MeeGo or Windows 7 operating systems.

Intel Free Press: When will the Maestro Tablet be released?

Warrick: We plan to release the Evolve III Maestro in Q3-Q4 this year. It will initially ship as a dual boot - Android and Windows 7 - but we are aligning with the release of Oak Trail and the MeeGo operating system. So the Oak Trail device will ship with triple boot capabilities.

IFP: Is this the first tablet that can switch between Android, MeeGo and Windows operating systems?

Warrick: Yes, we believe we will be the first to offer a triple boot OS for customers. We have been working on the dual boot tablets for a long time, working to get the boot interface to run nice and smoothly. Now the hard part is over. We can offer MeeGo over to the dual boot tablet making it a triple boot really because of the in-depth work that we are going with Intel directly.

IFP: What version of Android are you running and are you working with Google's Honeycomb?

Warrick: At the moment we are offering Android 2.2, with flash. But as you can imagine, we are running the fastest processor to have android running on it: Intel Atom 1.83 Ghz processor. So Android is unbelievably fast compared to the older systems we worked on with ARM-based processors. Those were eventually dumped due to the slow speeds of the device we were developing on. We would like to work with Honeycomb, however we are devoting most of our efforts to make sure that MeeGo and Windows 7 is 100 percent supported, as we feel that the new MeeGo platform alongside Windows 7 is a more stable platform over the android platform.

Also, using the devices myself, I can't live without Microsoft's PowerPoint and Excel and Outlook while on the go. You can't beat a company dedicated to creating OS platforms as a main market share product (Microsoft/Win 7). These guys have helped us get through the hard parts of moving an OS ecosystem revolving around keyboard and mouse, over to complete touch integration.

We're getting 7 percent support on Android, compared to nearly 100 percent support from Microsoft and Intel for the MeeGo and Win 7 platforms.

IFP: How has it been working with MeeGo - what makes it different than Windows and Android?

Warrick: MeeGo has been fantastic. It feels great to me, as it's on the forefront of the platform. We also felt very proud to showcase the new MeeGo platform (at CES), as a lot of internal people - even the guys working at the MeeGo stand had never seen our version of MeeGo. This was the very latest, genuine version of the MeeGo platform. It is so flexible to work with, and the fact that Intel gives us a world of support to move ahead, is a giant difference to developing on the Android platform, where we're getting very little support.

Evolve's Maestro tablet has the capability to switch between three different operating systems.

IFP: What are some of the technologies or features you like most, ones that help set you apart from other new tablets?

Warrick: Some of the things we have been have been working on with Intel is to try to create the slimmest hard drive. To create a 4mm thick external hard drive, we have had to go through some serious R&D thinking to get around some of the issues associated with developing a product like this. For example, do we sacrifice speed for thickness (SATA port is 6mm thick, as opposed to a 1mm thick Micro USB port)? But in all, we want to deliver the best balance between speed and portability.

Once you get down to the nitty-gritty of things .... it's the ability to access the hard drive remotely via WiFi. I mean, let's face it, does everybody always want to be accessing their hard drive by plugging a USB into their SSD? Not really, so why not make it accessible via WiFi and USB? A WiFi-accessible hard drive is kind-of cool, but it's also something people will find useful.

Intel's support has allowed us to implant the Intel memory wafer directly into our own transistor with our own driver in the chip rather than an external chip, allowing us to create smaller packaged devices, revolving around a completely customized product, rather than taking an existing product and modifying it.

IFP: Why create a custom hard drive?

Warrick: Business is tough in the hard drive market, so we are in tune to be different, and this has evolved from a need for these devices to exist. Memory constraints for devices such as tablets and mobile phones are getting smaller and smaller because everything is getting held on the cloud. We see the need to still be able to store our data locally, but we want this data to be available to all of our devices, not just the one you plugged into.

The Original 'IPAD'?

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:27:51 GMT

It had a touch-screen display, was powered by an ARM processor, featured a built-in MP3 player and it let you surf the Internet on your couch. Sound familiar? Think again. This was the Intel PAD or, as it was known internally at the time, the IPAD. It was officially branded the Intel Web Tablet, but it never made it to market.

Amid the tablet frenzy at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show where some 80 new tablets were announced (how many of these may not make it to market is anyone's guess), we took a stroll down memory lane with some of the Intel employees who developed Intel's tablet over a decade ago.

The Intel Web Tablet utilized a touch screen design or a stylus for navigation

The Intel Web Tablet let users connect to their PC and surf the Web from anywhere in the home using Intel's Anypoint wireless home networking solution. It was not a stand-alone PC but an extended browsing device with some additional applications.

The Intel device ran on an Intel StrongARM 1110 processor, a derivative of the family of ARM microprocessors originally developed by the Digital Equipment Corporation and acquired by Intel under the terms of a 1998 legal settlement. Intel replaced the StrongARM design with a new family of ARM chips aimed primarily at the cellular market under the XScale brand, but then sold off the business to Marvell in 2006 as part of an effort to focus on the core PC and server businesses.

Anywhere in the Home

The idea for a tablet grew out of an initiative in the Intel Labs in the late 1990s called "Anywhere in the Home," based in part of some ethnographic research the company was just starting as a way of guiding product development.

"We were looking for ways to associate Intel with the Internet and we saw this as an ideal way to make that happen," said David Cobbley, who headed up engineering on the device and was one of the original three employees who established a start-up inside Intel – the others being David Andersen and Ed Arrington. They became known affectionately as the "Three Amigos."

"I can remember sitting in the Labs looking at the ethnographic research and kind of yawning, until I saw this pad concept," said Arrington, who led the marketing effort for the tablet. "I remember seeing the concept of how it could be used in the home, moving it around, using it for content consumption. That was a wake-up call for me. I said 'Hey that may be an opportunity.'"

The Intel Web Tablet let users connect to their PC and featured innovative designs that were ahead of its time.

Cobbley, Andersen and Arrington went off and developed a business plan and were funded by a nascent group inside Intel designed to help fund and grow new ideas like this one. The year was 1998.

At first, the team worked quietly around an OEM model, in which Intel would develop a reference design for a customer who could bring it to market. But then something happened that raised the stakes and changed everything.

"One of the local TV stations in Portland showed some video from one of our early trials in a local area home," recalled Andersen, the original general manager and later chief technology officer for the tablet group. "Somehow, that got picked up by an affiliate station in California, where Andy Grove saw it."

Grove, then Intel's chairman, wouldn't necessarily have known about every new business initiative. It was the first he had heard about it, and the next thing they knew, Grove was in Oregon getting a complete download on the project.

"We told Andy our next step was to show it at the Intel Developer Forum," Andersen said. "Andy said no. He said we're going to make this an Intel-branded product. We didn't want to do that, we wanted to go low under the radar and make this an OEM product."

So the course changed as Grove weighed in. Now, the tablet would be an Intel- branded product. At the time, Intel was also designing and building a host of other branded products, including digital cameras, wireless keyboards and mice, and a line of connected toys with Mattel. Grove saw this as a natural extension of the business that would help sell more PCs.

All of a sudden, the tablet group had a new general manager and considerably more funding. And along with it, a higher profile and higher expectations.

Content Consumption Model

Cobbley said they knew at the time that the cost of LCD displays and Li-Ion batteries would make it an expensive product, so they developed a "walled garden" approach. They struck deals with the likes of Disney and ESPN to help subsidize the device by offering individual landing pages. The tablet had only a few large buttons, each of which would take users to a starting page sponsored by the content companies.

"We didn't have the concept of apps, but that was as close as we could get. We had a dedicated browser, and that first turn-on led to a dedicated home page and we made it a content play," Cobbley said.

The tablet incorporated five large buttons at the top, each of which could be customized for individual family members to have their own starting pages.

The similarities to today's iPad and other tablets went beyond content consumption as a key usage model. You could also use touch or a stylus to navigate. It had a soft translucent keyboard design that Intel patented.It played music and videos, and served as a digital picture frame before digital picture frames went mainstream.

"It was ahead of its time," Cobbley said. "We had a lot of debates about the user experience and put a lot of emphasis there."

The software package included Wind River's WindStorm (from the company Intel would acquire several years later), the VxWorks real-time operating system, an embedded browser and software for rich audio. It also used Intel's low-power Strataflash memory for code and data storage.

When it was time to preview the device in January 2001, then-Intel CEO Craig Barrett took center stage at CES and described a vision of an "extended PC era," where devices like the Intel Tablet would allow consumers to take their Internet experience beyond the PC.

"As digital consumer devices evolve, they will migrate toward more of the PC's capabilities and blend into the PC environment," Barrett said. "Consumers will be at the center of their own Internet experiences."

At the time, market research company IDC predicted that Web tablets would account for only about 1 million of the 89 million so-called Internet appliances that were expected to ship in 2004.

"We were the big stars of CES in 2001," Andersen recalled. "We were outselling with mock-ups even before we had the device and the response was good. It was all about the Internet and the tech boom was crazy. It was a good time to be selling."

Shut Down

By September 2001 everything would change, again. It turned out that Intel's foray into branded devices was causing tension with Intel customers, according to Andersen. It may or may not have been the tablet itself, but there had been a lot of publicity about Intel's consumer products push that year, and OEMs were apparently not pleased.

There were other issues. The software had been late, which meant they were late to launch, and the cost was going to be over $500 once they reached the market. Cobbley said they knew the initial version would be more of a concept and they were already working on a more robust second-generation product.

The Intel Web Tablet had a docking station for charging and is seen here with the original box. The product never made it to market.

Perhaps it was an idea whose time had not yet come. Or perhaps it was Intel's well known impatience for any business that couldn't project sales of a billion dollars or more in a short time. But they were boxed and ready in the fall of 2001 when the axe came down.

"We were at the beach celebrating, the trucks were rolling," Andersen said, when the call came to shut it all down.Circuit City was signed up to sell them, there was even an ad that ran in the New York Times, but not a single one of the tablets ever made it to stores."

So how did they feel years later when the iPad was launched and tablets became the hot new thing?

"What made it so interesting to me was to realize how cutting edge we were from a usability perspective," Arrington said. "It was gratifying to say we were right."

Cobbley said what's disappointing is that Intel had just started to figure out not only the design and the usage model, but the ecosystem for an entirely new business. He said the decision to shut down the tablet group and the entire consumer products division led to lost opportunity. He wonders what could have been -- if Intel had stuck it out.

"We actually had started to figure it out, the retailers, channels, relationships, OEMs," Cobbley said. "We also lost a major cadre of very talented software people who were associated with these projects. Some say Intel's seventh value is impatience. We should have come back or kept some of it going."

CES: The Day After

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:26:31 GMT

When talk of tablets and 3-D TVs changes to stucco basecoats and acid staining, you know the International Consumer Electronics Show is over.

Carpet is rolled up during teardown at Intel’s CES booth.

With CES 2011 all but a flash-based memory, the World of Concrete is about to move in. So that 55,000 representatives of the commercial concrete and masonry construction industries can have their show, every last trace of CES must be removed from the Las Vegas Convention Center by midnight Thursday. So as the army of attendees estimated at 140,000 leaves town, another small army moves in to clean-up. This year's deadline is set in – ahem – concrete as many of the same Teamsters helping tear down CES will be back 6 hours later to build the city's second-largest trade show of winter. Goodbye in-car infotainment systems, hello cement mixers.

Teardown at Microsoft’s CES booth was at a feverish pace the day after CES.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 2,700 technology companies occupied about 1.5 million square feet of exhibition space at this year's show. That equates to a massive effort to get everything packed up and ready for the next show. Intel alone, which used about 12,000 square feet of prime space, has about 26 to 30 truckloads to pack up. This tedious job requires about 40 Teamsters, movers, electricians, glass installers, air conditioning laborers and others working for a handful of Intel-hired agencies, according to Matt Lush of The Taylor Group, a Toronto-based exhibit design company.

"There are thousands of pieces on this booth, but no matter how massive it gets we've never missed deadline," Lush said.

Central Hall looks like a war zone the day after, as multiple exhibitors dismantle their space simultaneously.

The greatest challenge during teardown isn't time, but space.

"We have lots of large booths in Central Hall and we're all sharing aisle space and forklifts," Lush said as teardown activity was just as frenetic for Intel's immediate neighbors, Microsoft and Dolby.

The foreman of Intel's exhibition moving company agreed that wiggle room is the No. 1 hurdle to overcome as 2,700 companies are all trying to close shop at the same time.

A trash can outside the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center signals the end of CES 2011.

"Space is at a premium, and it takes a lot of cooperation with our neighborhood," said Andy Ocon of San Francisco-based S&M Moving. "We work hand-in-hand with [event manager] GES to make sure that we all get equal amount of space, or space as we need it."

Familiarity is a plus, according to Ocon, adding that Intel and Microsoft being long-time next-door neighbors is mutually beneficial.

"We have grown an attachment to one another," Ocon said. "We know each other's systems."

Once the two dozen-plus 16-wheelers are loaded up, the dismantled Intel booth will be shipped "all over the place," noted Rick Holley of Georgia-based exhibit management company Nth Degree.

"Trucks will be headed for Intel campuses in Portland, Ore. and Santa Clara, Calif., while others are en route to Southern California, Chicago and various Canadian destinations," Holley said.

As for the contents of these trucks, Lush of The Taylor Group noted that about 90 percent will be refurbished or modified for future use. "We're completely recycling friendly," he said.

Postcards From CES 2011 - Black Eyed Peas Star will.i.am In The House

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:56:13 GMT

International pop star will.i.am, seen here entering the Intel booth behind the scenes with Intel's Christine Vermes, got a bear hug from Johan Jervoe, Intel vice president and director of Creative Services and Digital Marketing. The front man of supergroup Black Eyed Peas, much of will.i.am's music involves computers, and he says he's always on the lookout for tech innovations. "Everything I do involves processors and computers," he said, "and Intel is making the most exciting innovations in this processor field – they are the best." The Black Eyed Peas also headlined an Intel party at CES a few years ago.

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini talked one-one-one with one of the most influential names in entertainment, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation. They huddled in a hallway off the CES booth while Katzenberg's aides hovered in the background. Otellini and Katzenberg have forged a strong relationship between the two companies, and Dreamworks is now using Intel technology to create some of the world's most successful animated films. See more on the relationship that led to recent advancements with the film Megamind.

Angry Birds, the massively popular game arrived in the Intel AppUp center this week. Within an hour of the announcement that the blockbuster hit was coming to netbooks and laptops, AppUp downloads of the game spiked by 20x, according to Peter Biddle, who leads AppUp products and services in Intel's Software and Services Group and isn't really as angry as he looks.

Intel's social media strategist Bryan Rhoads shows off an Intel-designed app that tracks CES social media activity, from mentions on Twitter and Facebook to who's checking in to the Intel pavilion. Cool facts: Intel has 289,139 "friends" on Facebook, and is the 10th most mentioned Twitter "handle" at CES this week. "Social media builds awareness for Intel, builds community and connects us to users wherever they are, in the medium of their choice," explained Rhoads. "It's expanding Intel's voice everywhere."

Intel's futuristic-looking, 12,000 square foot pavilion houses 30 Intel tech demo kiosks, with a heavy emphasis on Intel's new 2nd generation Core processor-based products. Though the Intel "booth" is 30% bigger than last year, Intel is focusing on just three areas: 2nd Generation Core, Smart TV, and Atom-powered devices. The booth was packed on day one and some 60,000 visitors are expected to come through by the time the show is over. See our previous story on the making of the booth here.

Tablet mania. Tablets are all the rage this year and Atom processor-based tablets were drawing large crowds a the Intel booth.One financial analyst firm said the tablets they saw at Intel's booth would go a long way toward alleviating investor concerns weighing on Intel in the tablet market and issued a positive trading call as a result. Here, Intel's Maulik Shah demos an Intel Atom-based tablet from Viliv used for home environment control. This little 7-inch model is running Intel's Oak Trail platform and Windows 7.

Free Shot: An E for Everyone - ASUS Unveils Powerful Eee Pad at CES 2011

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:21:07 GMT

Amid all the tablet frenzy at CES, one of the most compelling devices comes netbook pioneer Asus. Asus unleashed a line of pads including the Eee Pad EP121 which seem to take the tablet functionality to a new level.

It’s a little pricier than the iPad but a quick check of the specs reveals that this thing is a full blown PC in tablet form that solves many of the shortcomings of the iPad, including flash 10.1 support, multi-tasking, and productivity. With 32GB or 64GB of memory in a package that is less than 1-inch thin. Ironically, the EP121 is not powered by an ARM processor or even Intel’s tiny Atom processor. It brings the full power of an Intel Core i5-470UM CPU to bear in this little package with a 12.1” capacitive touch screen display, 2 USB 2.0 ports, mini HDMI, and a 2-in-1 card reader. You can preorder ASUS Eee Pad EP121 for $999 (32GB) or $1,099 (64GB) from Amazon.com

Celebrities Converge in Vegas for CES 2011

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:06:05 GMT

If it weren't for all the gadgets and gizmos, you'd swear CES stood for Celebrity Exhibition Showcase.

What the commercials are to the Super Bowl and the red carpet is to the Academy Awards, celebrity sightings at the Consumer Electronics Show are becoming a spectacle within a spectacle. Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award winners, NBA players, Olympic champions and countless others among the rich and famous will grace the Consumer Electronics Show that officially gets underway Thursday in Las Vegas.

Music superstar Lady Gaga is scheduled to make her second straight CES appearance for Polaroid.

Tweeters should limber up their digits now because the 2011 show promises to be prime for celebrity gawking. You can already hear the collective sound of imitation camera clicks from all the mobile phones.

While many A-list celebrities don't make their CES presence known in advance, and some being kept a secret until a keynote or when word gets out organically, we have some confirmations and buzz on who will be in the house. For those attending the show, check the

CES website for specific program information.

Lady Gaga is expected at the Polaroid booth for a second straight year to reveal the next-generation instant photography experience. Rapper 50 Cent will help introduce the Sleek by 50 Cent headphones at the Sleek Audio booth. Alternative rock band Bare Naked Ladies will make music for AT&T Wireless at a private reception at Palms, and legendary R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire will headline the annual Monster Retailer Awards and Concert at Paris.

Other artists worthy of noting but perhaps not as well known include cellist and composer Zoe Keating and the man dubbed the one of the world's fastest guitarists, Tiago della Vega. Both will perform at Intel's booth. Members of the R&B/pop group Full Force will be in the Gulpfish booth while hip hop artist and actor Common help attract crowds at BlackBerry's booth. Popular New York radio personality and "mixtape master" DJ Envy will make his own brand of music at the NOX Audio exhibition space.

Rapper 50 Cent will help introduce the Sleek by 50 Cent headphones at the Sleek Audio booth.

From the TV world, Jeff Probst, the three-time Emmy-winning host of "Survivor," reportedly will walk the show floor, as will Aubrey O'Day, star of the Oxygen doc-reality series "All About Aubrey." Appearances by a King and his heir apparent, of sorts, will be in the form of Larry King making a scheduled CES visit fresh off retirement from his long-running CNN talk show, and Piers Morgan, the man taking over that interview slot, waxing about life at the BlackBerry booth.

A-list movie stars will no doubt make the scene, but as for the Hollywood types known more for work behind-the-scenes, or more accurately behind the camera, you've got three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone ("Platoon"), Michael Mann ("Ali") and Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge!") participating in a panel on Blu-ray Disc's influence on the home theater industry. Director Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black") also is confirmed as a CES attendee.

The sports world will have two-time snowboard cross gold medalist Seth Wescott signing autographs at the DeLorne booth before discussing the role technology has played in his career at the Sports and Fitness Tech Summit. NBA superstars Bill Walton and Rick Fox will make separate appearances at Haier America's booth, and NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice will promote the new "Jerry Rice & Nitrus' Dog Football" game in Nintendo's exhibition space. No word whether Fox will challenge fellow "Dancing with the Stars" alum Rice to a friendly rumba competition.

Free Shot: Analysts Say Companion Devices Primed For a Big Year

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:41:21 GMT

As we head into the 2011International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we spoke with a few technology industry analysts and combed through fresh predictions from research firms to see what the hot technology trends would be for 2011.

IT Techknowledge Research Analysts Mike Feibus said consumers and technology companies will make 2011 the year of companion devices. Things to look out for, according to Feibus, are lots of experimentation with tablet design, smaller screens, larger screens and even hybrid versions with swivel screens and keyboards -- the Dell Inspiron Duo tablet/netbook, for instance.

Scott-Page chief research officer Peter Kastner said with tablets essentially going from zero in 2009 to a projected 50 million in 2011, tablet makers will be vying for differentiation. Kastner says we'll see device makers mix and match their favorite operating systems, touch screen interfaces, processor technology, rich media capabilities and features such as built-in cameras and keyboard technologies. Another area is in providing easy access to application stores where consumers can download their own favorite programs and customize their tablet experience.

Video - See more on this from Feibus and Kastner

Even as many experts are calling tablets a "companion" device meant mostly for consuming content,there is growing debate from some like Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst from Creative Strategies, who recently wrote that he believes tablets will eat into laptop sales in 2011.

Despite all the tablet buzz, laptops continued to top holiday wish lists, according to a recent survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association. And a late-2010 report by IDC showed that PC sales are projected to grow steadily over the next 4 years, reaching nearly 400 million units by the end of 2011 and rising to about 550 million units by 2014. Gartner estimates that 1 million PCs were sold each day in 2010, and that sales are expected to reach 1.5 million a day by 2014.

For more on Gartner's predictions, see here:

For more on IDC's predictions, see here:

Free Shot: Intel trivia on National Trivia Day

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:43:51 GMT

An early consumer electronics venture that didn’t work out for Intel was the Microma watch foray. As reported recently in an internal blog post by long time Intel employee Logan Sage, who worked on the project, digital watches were all the rage in the early 1970’s. Given their popularity, Intel created a chip especially for the watch. For trivia buffs out there on this, National Trivia Day—it was the Intel 5810. Some say it was really Intel’s first SOC. A factory opened in Cupertino, CA to assemble liquid crystal watch displays under the Microma name, but with the demand for digital watches came competition, excess supply and tiny margins. Intel eventually sold the company and exited the watch business, but that didn’t keep founder Gordon Moore from wearing one for many years afterwards, to remind him he often said, to never try it again.

The Man Behind 'Sandy Bridge'

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:45:05 GMT

Editor's Note: With the imminent launch of Intel’s next-generation Core processors at the International Consumer Electronics Show on Jan. 5, we thought it would be interesting to hear a perspective from the person who has been leading the chip design teams responsible for Intel’s latest flagship product. Ron Friedman is vice president and general manager of Intel’s Microprocessor and Chipset Development group responsible for microprocessor design teams in California and Israel, including Intel’s new “Sandy Bridge” architecture.

Previously, Friedman was design manager for the original Pentium M processor, He was also involved in the design of the next-generation mobile processor code named “Merom” — which would become the first mobile variant of the new Intel “Core” architecture, sold as the Intel Core 2 Duo.

As you and your teams worked on the new microprocessor architecture, what unexpected challenges did you run into?
Sandy Bridge was new to us in many ways. It was the first time at Intel that we were doing real integration of graphics and the IA core in the same die. And we were trying, at the same time, to prepare up-front for multiple permutations of the product — to allow the best optimization of cost and performance.

And finally, the team had to work with groups we hadn’t interfaced with before — but it was essential to establish good working relationships and close cooperation. Those were the main challenges in bringing Sandy Bridge to product release qualification.

Can you give an example of one of the unexpected technical challenges that arose?
As we integrated the graphics and the Intel Architecture on the same die, we had to figure out ways to validate the interactions between the compute core and the graphics — interactions that didn’t exist before, because they had been on two separate dies.

Debugging got much more complex, too. That’s because when you have functions on multiple dies, you have more interfaces exposed outside the silicon, which makes it easier to debug. When you are integrating everything on one die, you improve the cost and power envelopes — but the debug gets harder because there are fewer places to test.

If it was hard bringing the silicon together, how difficult was it to bring together teams from Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere? How do you handle cultural differences?
Absolutely, I think that there are differences between, let's say, American culture and Israeli culture. For example, in Israel, we are very accustomed to have heated discussions on everything.

Here in Israel, people interpret this as, “We care, and therefore we express our opinion openly.” And when we debate, it’s not because we want to offend anybody but simply because we care.

But in the U.S., sometimes it can be interpreted by people as “arguing for the sake of arguing.” So you have to educate the people both in Israel as well as the U.S. that, yes, they may witness different behaviors, and they need to interpret it correctly. And people need to be sensitive to the fact that interpretation may be different.

Are there ways U.S. team members might be misinterpreted?
For example, in the U.S., when they tell someone, "Hey, you may want to consider looking at X, Y, Z," it actually means, "You need look at this because maybe there is a problem there.”

But in Israel, they will hear that to mean it as simply a suggestion, like "Hey, I’ll think about it if I have time."

So how do you manage these differences?

Some of the people, of course, are experienced in working across cultures. But for those that are new to it we have cross-culture education classes. And we make sure that people that are in those interfaces are going through these classes and are aware of the cultural differences so they don't run into them unprepared.

How would you characterize your management style?
I talk to a lot of people in one-on-ones, in corridors trying to see how they feel, what problems they face, and how we can help them. I also believe that managers need to be technical at all levels. Our first-line managers, second-line managers, project managers, and even at my level, they need to be technical enough so they ask the right questions, make the right tradeoffs and identify problematic trends.

I believe in a learning organization. That is why in my groups, people view post-mortems and after-action reviews as a way of life, not as something that is threatening. It is simply a way to get group learning and continuous improvement.

Where did your management philosophy come from — did you have a mentor or did it come through all the experiences you’ve had?
I’ve worked with multiple managers — I learned different things from different managers, so I cannot say it was a single manager who defined my management style.

But I would mention two events in my career that really had a deep influence on me and the way I manage products.

The first was when I was a junior manager, working on the Pentium with MMX technology.

We were trying to adopt some new methodologies, which were supposed to be revolutionary and buy a lot of productivity. For various reasons the methodology didn't really lead to any improvements. But for a very long period of time, we kept blindly believing that the methodology would eventually pan out. And we weren't really looking at the mirror, comparing our progress to other similar projects and figuring out that we were really late.

At the end of the day, we were late with the project by six months. Pentium MMX did turn out be very successful in the market. But I did learn that you can’t simply, blindly believe something without doing benchmarking, comparing to other projects.

The second was when I was working on a project called Timna. I was responsible for the design of the second half of the project. We were ready to bring these products to market — but it turned out the marketing team didn’t really know how to sell it. So we brought the product to market — it was already in production — but it got cancelled.

That was a really traumatic experience. And what I learned from this experience is that our job as a project manager or engineering manager is not just to design the product, but to be involved in the goodness of the product and the way that it will be marketed and sold. Because if you don't do that, you may end up with a product that is great engineering-wise, but that the marketing team doesn’t really know how to sell.

How do you keep a balanced life?
I can't say that there is a simple recipe. I'm traveling to the U.S. and to other geographies every month where I have teams.

It certainly takes a toll. I think you need to define the boundaries. You need to say, “OK, I'm willing to have meetings in these hours and not in other hours. I'm willing to have a two-hour meeting during my weekend and not more than that. I'm willing to travel to the U.S. once a month and not once every three weeks.”

You really need to set the boundaries — because there is always more work and more meetings to attend. And of course when you have a family that is supportive, it's of course very helpful.

What do you and your family like to do when you do have down time?
We like to travel, even though I fly a lot and I hate airports. We like to do a lot of sports together — water sports, playing tennis together, doing active vacations.

Maintaining that balance was tougher when we had smaller kids. My children have already finished their high school. So today, it’s easier.

To be open, I am probably addicted to work. I always travel with my laptop. So down time is when the mail server is down.

'Sandy Bridge' Breaks the Mold for Chip Codenames

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:58:08 GMT

Politics makes strange bedfellows as the saying goes, but when it comes to naming microprocessors, politics can sometimes change the course of codename history.

When Intel’s 2nd Generation Core microprocessors are launched at the International Consumer Electronics Show on Jan. 5, the codename “Sandy Bridge” will officially be retired. Ever since the early 1990s Intel has used existing geographical, non-trademarked places in the United States or Canada that can be located on a map for codenames. This is thanks, in part, to Frank Zappa, or at least, his estate. More on that in a minute.

Sandy Bridge sounds like a place found on a map that can’t be trademarked and hence satisfies Intel’s trademark and brand lawyers who have final say on such matters. Despite sharing its name with a bridge in Singapore and a historic town in West Tennessee, Sandy Bridge isn’t named for an actual place. Instead, it’s a result of a switch, and a suggestion from upper management following a meeting with analysts.

The original internal logo for “Sandy Bridge,” formerly codenamed “Gesher.”

Originally the project was called "Gesher," which in Hebrew means “bridge,” explained project manager Shlomit Weiss from Intel’s Israel Development Center in Haifa where the new chip architecture was designed. “During a meeting with analysts, Sean Maloney was asked, ‘How come you have a project named Gesher? Do you want it to be unsuccessful like the former Gesher [political] party in Israel?’”

Shortly after the meeting, Maloney, Intel executive vice president, asked the legal department to change the project name, wanting nothing to do with a failed breakaway political party that eventually dissolved. And so was born, in short order, the codename “Sandy Bridge.”

"Bridge” being part of the name makes sense with the translation of “gesher,” but where does the “sandy” part derive from? That silicon comes from common beach sand perhaps? Well, not according to Intel legend.

"The reason I heard is the ‘bridge’ signifies that we’re bridging the chasm to the next big thing,” said Nathan Smith, a CPU strategic planning manager based in Hillsboro, Ore. “That’s a bit of a reach, but that’s the story.”

Inherent with their jobs, Smith and his report, Russ Sampsten, are regular players of the product name game.

"It’s the most thankless job you ever do,” Hampsten said. “You’ll never make everyone happy. People always crap over the name.”

The Next Generation

Take “Haswell” for example. The road to naming the next processor microarchitecture after Sandy Bridge felt more like a trek for Smith and Hampsten.

"Russ has poured his heart and soul into Haswell for the past several years,” Smith said, adding that over 100 names were submitted for the project before Trademarks & Brands gave the thumbs up."

Ironically, one name among the long list actually got the green light from the legal department, but Hampsten reconsidered, nixing it based on personal criteria.

"When it comes to codenames, I want something simple to pronounce and spell,” Hampsten said. “So when I saw we got ‘Molalla,’ a town in Oregon, I started looking for a better name. I wasn’t going to go there.”

His boss agreed. “When you’re picking out a name, you’re thinking, ‘Will the team be able to stomach saying that 100 times a day for the next several years?'”

Sandy Bridge Wafer

Declaring his team a “Molalla-free zone,” Hampsten looked up names by zip code starting with the Western states. His quest yielded a list he submitted to Intel’s nomenclature gods and Haswell, a town claiming the country’s smallest jail, got the nod.

"I had to go all the way to Eastern Colorado and a town of under 100 in population to get a tolerable name not taken or trademarked,” Hampsten said.

"By the time the project ramps up more people will be working on Haswell than living in Haswell,” Smith laughed. “But one thing is certain, Haswell is a lot easier to say than that unpronounceable town in Oregon.”

Poor Molalla is still up for grabs, as are many other names -- obviously of varying degrees of acceptance -- that meet Trademarks & Brand’s first proviso: codenames must be names of existing geographical, non-trademarked places in the United States or Canada that can be located on a map.

Exceptions exist, mostly because they were named before this top-line condition was enforced or, in the case of Sandy Bridge, there’s heat from above. Before Trademarks & Brands became the naming sheriff in the early 1990s, engineers picked handles that encouraged fun and team-building. One group worked on projects named “Bart” and “Lisa” to pay homage to TV’s “The Simpsons,” while another team was busy on a “Dead Rock Star” series of motherboards. You had “The Joplin” and “The Morrison,” but it was the success of an Intel Advanced/ZP motherboard codenamed “The Zappa” that contributed to the policy change to geographic names. The internal naming party ended soon after the very external Frank Zappa estate got wind of an “Intel Zappa” that was written about by media covering the now-defunct Comdex tradeshow. The estate, according to reports, wasn’t too pleased, prompting Intel’s legal department to step in.

So gone is the day when Intel platforms were named after Disney movies (“Aladdin”), solid state drives after biblical figures (“Ephraim”) and chassis after explorers (“Magellan,” “Balboa”). And, of course, there was “The Picard” because what decent company with a geeky workforce would be without at least one project named for a “Star Trek” character?

"There’ve been all sorts of names,” Hampsten said. “We used planets, moons, cartoon characters -- we even had a dinosaur series of codenames around the time ‘Jurassic Park’ came out. My all-time favorite was probably ‘The Raptor.’ It was interesting, fun and it sounded mean.”

Surveys Show Battle for Screen Time Heating Up

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:50:11 GMT

Analysis from two recent research reports show what many of us already know – that people are spending less time with offline media such as radio, newspapers and magazines. But a side-by-side comparison of these surveys reveal conflicting results about where people are spending more of their precious time: in front of the TV or engaging with the Internet.

According to a study released last week by Forrester, North Americans are spending 13 hours a week online and the same amount of time watching TV, while eMarketer reports that the average adult is spending 30 hours per week watching TV compared to an average of 18 hours per week.

“While consumer usage of digital platforms is growing at a rapid pace, television is still consumers’ most-used media channel,” said Haixia Wang, forecasting director at eMarketer, in a blog post found on her company’s blog.

Both reports show the growth of Internet popularity rising faster than that of TV’s, indicating that people are spending more time in front of computer and mobile device screens than ever before.

One recent study said people are now spending an equal amount of time surfing the Internet and watching TV, another seemed to say TV was still king.

eMarketer estimates that time spent online grew 6 percent this year, compared to a 1 percent decline in time spent watching TV. Forrester discovered dramatically different results; time spent watching TV has climbed 5 percent while time engaged online shot up 120 percent since 2005.

Just over 6 hours a week are spent offline tuned into radio, which has declined by 15 percent since 2005, according to Forrester. Less than 3 hours are spent reading newspapers, down 26 percent in the past 5 years. And time spent reading print magazines is now at 2 hours per week, a decline of 18 percent since 2005.

According to another eMarketer report published in The Wall Street Journal this week, this is the first year that advertisers will spend more money on Internet ads than on print newspaper ads, reaching an estimated $25.8 billion online versus $22.8 billion on print in the U.S.

As more people sign up for broadband connections at home and wireless Internet service in their laptops, it would appear that PCs and mobile device could soon become the screens of choice for staying current with the world and with what’s important in people’s lives, especially if researchers factored in on-the-job time spent connecting to the Internet.

Forrester’s report showed that the top activity for most people online is shopping, while Facebook has become one of the fastest-growing attractions online.

Another growth area bringing more people to the Internet is mobile technology. According to eMarketer, time spent on such mobile devices as smartphones and tablets grew 28 percent in 2010 to reach an average of 50 minutes per day. Meanwhile, time spent reading print magazines and newspapers decreased 9 percent in 2010.

Free Shot: PC Gets Into the Groove

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:23:58 GMT

In our quest to find new computer intelligence, we turn to the UK, home of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Orange Amplifier Company, long time maker of guitar amplifiers used by legends like Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and modern hit makers Black Eyed Peas.

This year, Orange created the nifty OPC, a full-functioning amplifier fitted with full-blown computer. Some might think of fusing a computer with an amp some kind of a Frankenstein contraption, people who are creating homemade digitally recorded and mixed music see this as a match made somewhere along the stairway to heaven.

Intel Free Press spotted one in action, connected to a guitar and a large flat screen, during a tech demo preparation for the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. The built-in software allowed the guitar player to change the sound from classical to grunge guitar on the fly, or record and edit multiple tracks of music.

This looks like any portable Orange amplifier until you turn it around and see the neatly integrated computer tucked in behind the front speaker.

Orange claims this is “the first computer of its kind that you can connect yourself and your music to the digital world simply by plugging in your instrument,” according to the company’s Website.

By first, Orange says it means that the OPC is the first computer of its kind to have a built-in high powered speaker delivering full-range, hi-fi quality sounds as well as vintage guitar sounds, which can be changed around with a click of a mouse. Orange says it’s the first computer to have a universal input jack for a multitude of musical instruments, like guitars or keyboards, and jacks for peripherals such as the iPod, MP3 players and microphones.

Updates are expected to be released at CES, but current OPCs is priced at $1,499 and run Windows 7 x64 home premium, an Intel Core i3 processor, with on-board graphics, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 500GB Hard Drive, eight USB2.0 ports, built-in Wi-Fi, and HDMI and DVI outputs for plugged into HD monitors.

Zuckerberg, Grove, and the PC

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:42:23 GMT

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was just named Time's 2010 Person of the Year, reviving a decades-long theme that the magazine itself appropriately recognized way back in 1982. It was that year when Time named not a person, but the personal computer as a precedent-setting "Machine of the Year."

Time 1997 "Man of the Year" Andy Grove (Flickr image)

"The 'information revolution' that futurists have long predicted has arrived, bringing with it the promise of dramatic changes in the way people live and work … perhaps even in the way they think," said the 1982 cover story. "America will never be the same."

Since that time, ironically, only two people from Silicon Valley have been chosen to grace the venerable year-end cover as person of the year: Zuckerberg and Intel's Andy Grove in 1997. Indeed Zuckerberg, Grove, and the PC are inextricably linked. All three have made a mark and truly influenced the way people live, work and play.

Zuckerberg, 26, launched Facebook in 2004 and some estimate that his thriving social networking site is worth $35 billion. In under seven years, according to Time, Facebook has connected a twelfth of humanity into a single network, creating a social entity almost twice as large as the United States. Time concludes that if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest, behind only China and India.

When Time named Grove "Man of the Year," the story began by pointing out that the "digital revolution" was officially born inside Bell Labs in 1947 when what would later be called a transistor first switched on and off. Fifty years later, microprocessors from Grove's company packed with millions of fast--switching transistors had become the "dynamo of the new economy."

In 1997, Time said that this new "digital economy" had several features: It was global, networked, based on information, decentralized power, rewarded openness and specialized to meet particular needs. The high-tech industry, which accounted for less than 10 percent of America's growth in 1990, made up about 30 percent in 1997. Today, in many respects, it is the legacy of Grove's vision of billions of connected PCs that serves as the foundation for companies such as Facebook that are truly connecting the world in new and different ways.

And as Grove told Time back in 1997, "Technology is not inherently good or evil. It is only a tool for reflecting our values." Decades and billions of PCs and connected conversations later, Zuckerberg talks about using technology "to make the world a more open place."

Other quotes from Time’s “Machine of the Year” issue in 1982 and “Man of the Year” issue in 1997:

“The most visible aspect of the computer revolution, the video game, is its least significant. But even if the buzz and clang of the arcades are largely a teen-age fad, doomed to go the way of Rubik's Cube and the Hula Hoop, it is nonetheless a remarkable phenomenon.” - Time, 1982 Machine of the Year issue

“Marvin Minsky, one of M.I.T.'s computer experts, believes the key significance of the personal computer is not the establishment of an intellectual ruling class, as some fear, but rather a kind of democratization the new technology. Says he, "The desktop revolution has brought the tools that only professionals have had into the hands of the public. God knows what will happen now." - Time, 1982 Machine of the Year issue

“Andy thinks faster than most people, certainly than me.” - Arthur Rock, an early investor in Intel in 1968, 1997 Time Man of the Year issue

“I’m not sure I could get a job here (at Intel) today.” - Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder, 1997 Time Man of the Year issue.

Free Shot: “Mad Money’s” Jim Cramer Mad About Security

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:30:35 GMT

On his Thursday broadcast of CNBC's “Mad Money,” host Jim Cramer named Intel and EBay as the “two best overlooked cyber-security stocks.” Although security makes up only a small portion of these global giants, Cramer didn’t hide his bullish stance. He said that Intel’s pending acquisition of McAfee will enable the company to charge a higher price once it makes chips with built-in security software. As for EBay, its PayPal division, which generates 5 percent of the parent company’s revenue, could account for 20 percent of all online payments globally by 2015, according to Cramer, adding, “I would buy either one of these stocks.”

CES: Generating Buzz Amid the Swarm

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:45:17 GMT

With 2,700 companies about to vie for the attention of 126,000 people across 1.5 million square feet of meeting space, all at the same time over four frenetic days, next month's International Consumer Electronics Show promises to be a gizmo dog-and-pony circus worthy of being held in the so-called Entertainment Capital of the World.

From Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas, hot models and even hotter A-list celebrities will share the show floor with branded tchotchkes and convention totes to carry them in, all to attract attendees to a company's booth, meeting room, or special event.

CES has proven that with the right product and marketing strategy, it's not how much space you take up, but what you do with it. Asked to cite a company last year that made a splash despite modest physical show presence, Tara Dunion, senior director of communications for the show-hosting Consumer Electronics Association, named Parrot, a wireless device company that debuted its iPhone-controlled A.R. Drone quadricopter at the CES Unveiled press event.

Intel’s booth at the 2010 CES featured a large display with 576 cubes hooked up to 20,000 info sources, including 20 live video feeds – all running on a single Intel® Core™ i7 processor. It was one of the most popular features at the booth.

"The buzz they generated at that one event put them on the map," Dunion said. "They got a tremendous amount of play and the buzz brought hordes of people to their booth."

On the opposite side of the spectrum were Panasonic and Monster that spent big bucks beyond having elaborate booths on appearances by pop sensation Lady Gaga. Rumors are flying that Lady Gaga will show up again, and Monster has in fact booked Earth, Wind & Fire to headline its annual Monster Retailer Awards and Concert.

What companies going to such great and expensive lengths are hoping for, obviously, is that people stick around and get informed.

The companies that do it right grab them with a compelling draw and keep them to actually hear the business message," Dunion said.

Intel will be among the 2011 CES exhibitors, occupying 12,000 square feet of prime real estate in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center where Intel will unveil and showcase its 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family. Adding to the cost will be a celebrity appearance at a special event if negotiations are successful. Although Intel has dipped into the celebrity world's talent pool over the years to make a bigger splash at CES keynotes and parties, the company will focus its spotlight this year on Booth #7153.

"We want our products and people to be the celebrity," said Victor Torregroza, Intel's program manager for a 10th straight CES. "We don't want to be yet another company giving out a lanyard, a pen, a squeeze ball. There are a lot of tire kickers who attend who just want a gift. They don't want your product, your message or you."

Celebrities at the booth? "Not necessary," he said. Food? "It makes a mess."

For Intel, it's about having products at CES that are relevant and being innovative in how they are staged.

"You need to cater to significant types of people," Torregroza said. "You have people who want to talk to the engineer or product marketing person. You also have people who want more of an experience. And you have to offer something that resonates with press, social media and other influencers.

Torregroza said the Intel booth is designed to "surprise and delight, engage and inform." With those four words, he said, an emotional connection with key attendees is likely.

The CEA is expecting attendance to be flat to slightly higher from last year's 126,000 figure.

"The show is looking extremely strong," Dunion said. "We came back to health attendance-wise last year, but we're not yet at the level of 2006 when we had 152,000 and 1.69 million square feet."

Intel’s booth at the 2011 CES will include a “Visibly Smart” Interactive Zone where the company will showcase its latest Core processors.

Record attendance or not next month, that's still a lot of people to woo.

"If you want the most grandiose display you can get that, and some that can't afford to do a compellingly visual booth will get just a meeting room, Dunion said.

Intel and other companies spend millions for a presence at CES, and are anxious to show off their best products in a way that attracts the most visitors.

"The average CES attendee attends only two or three other trade shows a year," Torregroza said. "Whatever new product, benefit or technology we want to show, we have to go the extra mile.

Make that the "extra extra mile," he added, noting that with Intel being an ingredient brand, meaning it doesn't sell its products directly to consumers, a greater challenge exists to pique the interest of an attendee who might only give the booth one ear or one eye.

Among those successfully piqued over the years include Bill Gates and Jeffrey Katzenberg from the CEO world, Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise and wife Katie Holmes from Hollywood, comedians Sinbad and Tom Arnold, and recording artists MC Hammer and Steven Tyler.

Famous and otherwise, an estimated 68,000 people visited Intel's booth last CES. The space was 25 percent smaller than previous years, and yet still took top honors in its category by Event Marketer Magazine. For the upcoming CES, Intel is going back to its more customary 12,000-square-foot space.

Besides showcasing the visual experiences of its newest Intel Core processors, to be announced at the show January 5th, Intel will display Atom processor-powered devices, including smart TV products, home automation devices, netbooks and tablets from leading manufacturers.

"What works best is when you involve people," Torregroza said, citing as a prime example a dance booth in 2007 where participants "multiplied their groove" by making a multi-camera commercial for the then-new Intel Core 2 Duo processor. More recently, a demo run on a single Intel Core i7 processor had two 7-foot screens displaying 576 cubes hooked up to 20,000 information sources, including 20 live video feeds. When a cube was touched an infobox displaying that content opened up. "Many said it was the most spectacular demo at the 2010 CES," Torregroza said, hopeful that 2011 CES will also be met with rave reviews.

Intel’s Joe English showing off Intel’s 2010 CES booth that drew in almost 70,000 visitors and was cited as tops in its category by Event Marketer Magazine

Tech Companies Tackle Wireless Traffic Jam

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:53:43 GMT

Intel, Cisco and Verizon have teamed up on a joint research project aimed at how to deal with the rapid growth of video on mobile devices and the expected flood traffic that could grind mobile networks to a halt.

While today's 3G and 4G wireless networks are bringing voice, data and rich media to souped-up smartphones, the companies are trying to look ahead and prepare for what could be a meteoric rise in mobile video demand. If it continues as it is trending today, smartphone owners may be looking as significant network traffic jams in the near future.

The multi-year research project, called Video Aware Wireless Networks (VAWN), also includes projects at several leading universities.

"We're hoping to develop innovations that give networks new abilities to understand and adapt to the quality requirements of various devices," said Jeffery Foerster, a principal engineer at Intel Labs. "We want to maximize both total capacity and an individual's quality of experience, whether it's live video entertainment, video conferencing, video sharing or live streaming on location."

In addition to financial backing from Verizon on the overall effort, Cisco and Intel are each funding $1.5 million worth of related academic research over three years at the following universities:

Cornell University will focus on video coding for heterogeneous networks, predictive video streaming and quality-aware routing.
Moscow State University will explore 2-D/3-D video-quality restoration.
University of California, San Diego will research 2-D/3-D video coding and error concealment, fast mobile adaptations and network resource management.
University of Southern California will look at novel device-to-device video network architectures.
University of Texas, Austin will work on automatic video-quality monitoring, wireless video interference management, video network adaptations.

Research by Cisco and ABI show that video and social media will dramatically increase traffic on wireless networks in the near future.

Cisco and other researchers say demand for mobile TV and social media video is spiking the overall growth of mobile video traffic. According to Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, overall Internet traffic is expected to grow four-fold by 2014, with mobile video growing at over 15 times this rate. Add in Morgan Stanley's recent prediction that says more than 620 million smartphones will be shipped by 2013, outpacing PC shipments, and you have the potential for mobile network meltdown.

With wireless networks already constrained by the onslaught of new iPhone- and Android-based smartphones, researchers behind VAWN are convinced that infusing video-smart technologies into the wireless networks and phones may be the answer to fast and stutter-free video.

"The demand of over-the-top video is growing explosively and it is imperative that the industry be able to find technical solutions to manage this video effectively," said Brian Joe, senior planner of content distribution at Verizon Communications in an October statement to Cornell University.

Today, data from the Internet often needs to be broken up and sent down circuitous routes to reach our mobile phones. Flying through these wireless airwaves may be more like chugging through a metropolis grid of stop-and-go streetlights instead of zooming past intelligently timed traffic lights that account for a smooth, efficient ride that saves time, fuel and frustration.

Switching from 3G to 4G might not provide nearly enough capabilities to accommodate the expected rise in traffic as millions of more people keep piling on to the Internet with their mobile phones, Intel's Foerster says. And smartphones aren't the only devices causing traffic jams on wireless networks. iPads, tablets and more sophisticated mobile computing devices such as laptops and netbooks are all pulling data through wireless networks.

The researchers are also trying to figure out how the mobile Internet needs to change to address the traffic and the number of devices coming in the next 5 to 10 years. After faster networks, the research may lead to the need for "smarter," more efficient networks, Foerster says.

Plans call for research teams to answer such questions as: "What gains are possible and practical by optimizing the end-to-end mobile Internet specifically for video content?" and "What new technologies need to be created in order to realize these gains?"

According to Salman Avestimehr, Cornell University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), the past 2 decades of research in this area have focused on the art of coding to transport bits more efficiently and reliably over networks. But times are changing.

"In contrast, we aim to understand how awareness from the content and users' perception of those 'bits' can revolutionize our networks," Avestimehr said upon announcing the Cornell grant last fall.

Cisco, Intel and Verizon are exploring how to build video intelligence into wireless networks and mobile devices to help handle the wave of video traffic that could overload today's 3G and 4G networks.

Aaron Wagner, an assistant professor at Cornell, also said there is a lot of room for improvement when the grant was announced. "There are many opportunities for efficiency improvements in current networks," Wagner said. "For instance, two people watching the same video on their cell phones currently receive separate copies of the video. It is very inefficient."

Researchers are aiming to make video play smoothly and clearly on mobile network connected devices by building intelligence into the delivery and playback of video. Rather than just focus on speeding up data transmission frequencies, researchers want to embed processing intelligence into the wireless network and design software that can help devices detect video quality as seen by the human eye. These video-smart mobile devices and networks would work together, continuously optimizing how data is received and played.

Video aware networks could also talk to the smartphone and constantly adapt to send the right amount of video data to meet the device owner's needs. The smart device and smart network combination could also be tuned for efficiencies that either help the wireless carrier to lighten the traffic load, or help the subscriber lower the amount of data consumed.

Foerster also explained that having intelligence built into mobile devices and wireless networks allow them to "see" and "know" more precisely how best to send the highest-quality video to the most individuals while using the least possible network bandwidth.

In addition, software on mobile devices can allow the device to take as little video data as possible and restore, correct or enhance the video so it can be viewed in the best quality even in the worst of connection circumstances, like when you're driving through a tunnel and receiving low network signal.

If the VAWN research bears fruit, Foerster believes everyone who has a smartphone or has a business that runs on wireless networks will benefit.

"Consumers would get a better experience," he said. "Carriers could increase the number of video applications it can support at one time. And content owners could benefit from providing better customer experience and would gain access to more users."

Free Shot: Intel Confirms Establishment of a New Tablet Group

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:42:24 GMT

Intel has confirmed the formation of a new netbook and tablet computing group and shifted Doug Davis, Intel vice president and general manager of the Embedded and Communications Group, over to lead the effort. The move happened several weeks ago, but was only confirmed officially today by an Intel spokesman in a New York Times story. Ton Steenman, currently vice president and general manager of the Low-power Embedded Products Division, will become the new general manager for the Embedded Computing Group. Intel President and CEO also said today the company was tracking 35 tablet design wins and said he expected more news at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, see related Intel Free Press story.

Intel CEO Defends PC Amid Growing Tablet, Smartphone Growth

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:45:40 GMT

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini defended the PC market today and said the company is still on track to have the "best year ever" amid the rapid growth of tablets and smartphones where Intel is currently behind competitors.

Speaking to investors at a Barclays Capital event in San Francisco, he said demand for the company's latest Core microprocessor line, codenamed "Sandy Bridge," is "very very strong" and is shaping up to the "best product we've ever built."

"It's fashionable to write off the PC but it just keeps going," Otellini said, invoking a term former Intel CEO Andy Grove once used, calling the PC a "Darwinian device." In terms of sheer scale, PCs are also shipping in the millions per day, compared to a several million per quarter for the iPad.

Otellini said what is driving PC growth, in addition to a strong corporate refresh cycle buoyed by sales of Microsoft's Windows 7, is the trend toward higher incomes and multiple PCs per household even outside the United States. He showed data that indicated the cost of buying a PC over the past several years has gone from about 5 weeks of income to less than half a week of income in the United States, and from 30 weeks to 7 weeks in China. He said the company is seeing similar trends in Eastern Europe and Brazil, Latin's America's biggest market.

"Going forward the PC will get more affordable not because the price is coming down but because incomes are going up," Otellini said.

Similarly, the trend toward multiple PCs per household, already above one per home domestically, was trending the same way in Eastern Europe and other geographies.

He was bullish on the company's upcoming Sandy Bridge launch.

"This is the best product we've ever built, demand is very, very strong, and our customers are excited," he said. "It has better energy efficiency, better floating point performance and better visual performance. This is the first time we've used our leading-edge manufacturing technology to build the graphics directly onto the silicon die. "

Otellini said the result of integrated graphics, leading-edge manufacturing and built-in accelerators meant Sandy Bridge graphics would now outperform low-end discreet graphics cards and result in lower cost for Intel's customers. He also hinted at additional features the company would disclose at the official product launch next month at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"We are very excited about this product and we are shipping for revenue as we speak," he said, foreseeing high volumes but stopping short of offering specific numbers as the company is in its traditional quiet period and the product hasn't launched yet. "This will be our fastest ramp ever; the product is very healthy."

He also addressed some of the tension around tablets and smartphones, where Intel is behind other competitors and has yet to make significant progress in terms of volumes and design wins.

"On tablets, our strategy is very simple: We're going to offer best-in-class hardware and support all the viable operating systems," he said, predicting a series of demos and announcements from customers at CES. He said the company is tracking 35 design wins and listed a few devices currently shipping with Intel processors, including the Cisco Cius for business. But he said the real shift to Intel architecture in terms of consumer devices would come next year and for now, the iPad isn't hampering sales of notebooks as some have suggested.

"I don't think tablets are cannibalizing noteboooks, but they are a competitor for discretionary income," he said. "On the other hand, I have not seen a kid who takes a tablet to school versus a laptop. So I see [the iPad] as a fun device that is additive to the market."

On phones, Otellini reiterated statements made to investors earlier in the year that the company is viewing the challenge in terms of a marathon and not a sprint, yet still promising smart phones with Intel silicon by the second half of 2011. He went on to talk about important chip architecture transitions over the years, and predicted Intel would eventually gain a competitive advantage. This comes amid growing criticism from ARM and its licensees that Intel won't be able to get power down far enough to compete in smartphones.

Dr. Herman Hauser, a co-founder of ARM, even suggested that Intel's business model might be flawed in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. "The reason why ARM is going to kill the microprocessor is not because Intel will not eventually produce an Atom [Intel's low-power microprocessor] that might be as good as an ARM, but because Intel has the wrong business model," Hauser said.

"Typically, these architecture transitions take a decade, "Otellini said. "But we have the best silicon technology, a persistent and consistent architecture, a large ecosystem of customers, and global scale. We can do it big, we can do it over the long term and we can do it on a big scale. No other company has this capability and that's what makes us unique."

Otellini was asked whether there was anything that Wall Street misunderstood about Intel and its strategies, given the sluggish growth in its stock amid record revenues and financial performance.

"To make this much money and have the stock where it is is disappointing," he acknowledged. "We said we'd have double-digit growth over the next several years and we've never done that. So you can wait until the stock goes up or you can buy it now."

And speaking of buying stock, Otellini said the company had resumed buy-backs of its stock after more than a year.

Lucky Contest Winners Blast to Edge of Space

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:48:06 GMT

Consumers who bought Intel Core i5 or Core i7-powered PC’s and completed a short online entry recently earned a spot in a random drawing for a trip to the Sokol Air Base and MiG manufacturing plant in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and a flight in a MiG-29. The jet took each of the winning passengers on a one-hour flight achieving speeds of Mach 2.5 (about 2,000 mph). Singapore photographer Raymond Phang was one of lucky winners of the Intel promotion in Asia and snapped this shot at 85,000 above the Russian hinterland at the edge of space. - Photo courtesy (and copyright) Raymond Phang

What is ‘Turbo Boost’?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:37:03 GMT

One of Intel's big selling points for its Core i5 and Core i7 processors is something called Turbo Boost Technology. It's a feature that dynamically adjusts processor speed if the user needs additional performance, and then saves energy when he/she doesn't.

With Turbo Boost heavily marketed since it debuted with the Intel Core i5 and i7 in January, we wondered how the marketing campaign is coming along as these products enter their first holiday shopping season. So we recently asked salespeople at the computer departments of several Sacramento, Calif. area retailers a simple question: "What is Turbo Boost?" Responses ranged from impressive to yikes. Always purposely standing in front of an Intel Core i5 when the question was posed, here's what we got:

"Turbo Boost is on the i5 and i7. It makes your computer go a lot faster when you need it," said Steve with accuracy at the Best Buy in Roseville.
"What is Turbo Boost? Good question. None of these have them, but that one does," said Scott at the Office Max in Roseville. (Among the array of laptops he said didn't have Turbo Boost was an Intel Core i5 and the one he said did was a Core i3, which doesn't.)
"Turbo Boost is kinda like a safe way to overclock your processor. It's on the i3, i5 and i7," said Kenneth at the Best Buy in Citrus Heights. (Accurate response except for the i3 part.)
"Turbo Boost? Yeah, I heard it's on the i7. I know they're making it for Windows 7 and the i3 and i5. They're working on it now," said Joe at the Costco in Roseville. (Again, not on the i3 and the i5 already is being sold at Costco.)
"You mean ReadyBoost? I don't know what Turbo Boost is. I think you mean ReadyBoost," said Ron at the Sam's Club in Citrus Heights. (ReadyBoost is a disk cache component of Microsoft Windows and unrelated to Turbo Boost.)
"It's like having turbo in your car. When you need the extra power you get it. Turbo Boost lets you run big programs at once without noticing a differentiation in power," said a spot-on Paulo at Fry's Electronics in Roseville.
"Turbo Boost gives you extra speed when you need it. It's on the i5 and i7, but the i7 is so powerful you really don't need it. When you play big games like 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' you will really appreciate it, especially on the i5," said a manual-quoting Matt at the Best Buy in Folsom. (We swear he doesn't work for Intel.)
"It's on the i3, i4 – that series of processors," said Curtis at the Staples in Roseville. (As noted, Turbo Boost isn't in the Intel Core i3, and Intel doesn't make an "i4.")
"Turbo Boost enhances the speed of our computers. It's for more efficiency when running multiple programs. It's on Intel's i3, i5 and i7," said Ron of the Fry's Electronics in Sacramento. (So close.)
"I don't know what 'Turbo Boost' means," said Joseph at the Walmart in West Sacramento. "Sounds like something new."

We asked holiday shoppers the same question. Check out what they said in this video.

Turbo Boost? Holiday Shoppers react to the question; what is it?

Revolutionizing the Radio Business, Pandora’s Tim Westergren on the Next Big Thing

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:35:54 GMT

Tim Westergren is having the time of his life. Not long ago he was a struggling musician, trying to earn a living traveling from town to town building a fan base one venue at a time. Today, he’s holding town hall meetings across the United States, lobbying congressmen on Capitol Hill, and negotiating high-stakes deals with the powerful Recording Industry Association of America.

Oh, and revolutionizing radio along the way.

Revolutionize is a term often overused in the technology industry, but when you see what Westergren is up to and recognize the potential it has to disrupt the traditional radio business, you get a sense this one might qualify.

Westergren is the chief strategic officer and founder of Pandora, the fledging Internet radio service that began initially as a music e-commerce site 10 years ago but only in the last 5 has blossomed into an Internet radio phenom with over 65 million listeners.

“This is radio writ large,” as Westergren likes to say, whether talking to the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, TV personality Stephen Colbert or a group of listeners at Babb’s Coffee House in Fargo, N.D.

Revolutionizing the Radio Business: Pandora’s Tim Westergren on the Next Big Thing

Westergren, 44, is like the Pied Piper of Internet radio these days, appearing in dozens of newspapers, magazines, TV outlets and online interviews with his boyish good looks and his signature gray T-shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes. He looks more like the laid-back jazz pianist he was and still is, if not the guy-next-door, than one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2010.

Radio is at the beginning of a period of extremely rapid change and I don’t think the traditional broadcast radio business knows that yet,” he said. “Technology is changing what radio means and what people’s expectations are.”

Pandora is like your favorite radio station on steroids, where you decide what you like -- an artist, genre or theme -- and they serve up that and more all subscription free. It involves discovery and “serendipity,” as Westergren says, and that is key to what distinguishes it from other music experiences. You may have a thousand songs in your pocket with iPod, but you aren’t getting regular recommendations for new music as you listen to your own library. You may be listening to Internet radio, but you don’t have a bunch of people in a room somewhere helping deliver a more refined and personalized version of radio based on your likes or dislikes of every song you hear.

Pandora uses a sophisticated template to define and “score” songs using distinct musical characteristics. Every song ends up with unique attributes -- a musical DNA -- that allows Pandora to serve up songs you may like based on your preferences. It’s a laborious process but it’s Pandora’s core strength; 800,000 songs are in the database and 10,000 new ones are added each month, all scored manually.

“Delivering targeted, personalized radio is incredibly hard to do,” Westergren said. “We try to make it look easy, but we have a decade of experience and 30 to 50 people doing it manually day in and day out,”

This unique algorithm and capability is what allows Pandora to deliver a highly personalized radio experience. And this mix is working across musical genres, attracting new people to the service at a rapid pace.

Tim Westergren, has come a long way from the days of being a struggling musician. The Pandora founder now finds himself in an enviable position as one of the leaders defining the Internet radio experience and bringing personalized radio to life.

According to the New York Times, Pandora may generate something on the order of $100 million in revenue this year from various advertising and licensing deals. Not bad for a company that has never advertised its service. But Westergren doesn’t like to talk about revenue and growth projections, preferring instead to focus on the artists, the experience and the listener.

Altruistic perhaps, but it hasn’t always been easy. Westergren started the Music Genome Project in 2000 as an e-commerce site making music recommendations just as the dot.com implosion happened. He found himself “wandering around in the wilderness,” often with no salary, searching for venture capital believers and trying to stay true to the music.

After re-launching as an Internet radio site in 2005, Westergren almost pulled the plug a few years later due to a federal Copyright Royalty Board decision to double the performance royalty that Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies. After mobilizing listeners, orchestrating a grass roots campaign and getting a crash course in how to lobby Congress, the ruling was reversed and the company survived.

At a recent meeting in Portland, Ore., Westergren displayed a graph showing the rapid growth in listeners just over the last year, from 49 million to 65 million. “Broadcast radio doesn’t really have an answer for this,” he said. “You can’t just take KFOG and make KFOG.com and stream it online because people are looking for something different, they are looking for a more personalized experience.”

As those listeners flock to Pandora, Westergren says broadcast radio is slowly losing share.

“I don’t think the broadcast industry really knows this is happening yet, but two years from now it’s going to look like a tornado hit,” he said at the Oregon meeting, and then paused to show a picture of an iPhone on the screen behind him. “And it’s because of this.”

Like so many other services, the iPhone has transformed Pandora’s business. According to Webcast Metrics the number of people listening to Pandora shot up 50 percent after the launch of the first iPhone App, and the company is now activating something on the order of 100,000 new listeners a day on smart phones alone.

Pandora’s listenership skyrocketed following the first iPhone app and the company is now activating about 100,000 new smart phones a day.

“Overnight we went from a stationary computer-based experience to being radio, period,” he said. “ You could buy a $3 jack and plug it into your car stereo and people began doing that. More than 50 percent of people who have iPhones have used Pandora in their cars, and that’s a big growth area for us.”

Indeed cars are the next “holy grail” for Pandora, and it’s easy to see why. According to Frost and Sullivan, Internet radio is one of the biggest trends sweeping the automotive apps and services market. They estimate that the hybrid connected model -- running apps off phones brought into the car vs. embedded -- will have an addressable market size of more than 5 million units by 2015 in North America alone.

Aside from cars, Pandora is seemingly everywhere in consumer devices these days -- from smart phones, HDTVs, Blu-ray disc players, dedicated Internet radio boxes, after-market car stereos and more. And Westergren says they are planning to add talk radio, sports and weather.

All of this means growth for Pandora, and potentially dire consequences for traditional broadcast and even satellite radio. He seems to enjoy the roll of disrupter, but Westergren says they are trying to stay true to the music, the artists, the personalization and a simple business philosophy that grounds the company.

“The best way to run a business is to ask ‘why are you doing this?’” Westergren said. “We’re doing it because we want to be part of this musical revolution. We want to help people discover stuff and help artists find their audience. If all you do is chase money you can lose your identify and ultimately that will come back to bite you."

Free Shot: Can the Feds Help Spur Laptop Sales?

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:59:02 GMT

Could new legislation cause a dramatic uptick in the purchase of new laptops and other mobile technologies for federal workers? If President Obama signs the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 into law and many expect he will the answer is, maybe.

The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 which passed the House of Representatives and was sent to Obama last week requires each executive agency to establish a policy under which federal employees would be able to work remotely to the maximum extent possible without impacting performance or agency operations. The issue has been discussed for years but supporters are cheering the recent passage of the bill which they say will increase worker productivity, save money, and help save the environment.

More federal workers teleworking could be a boon to technology suppliers, according to some of the companies who supported the legislation and are part of the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership that supports telecommuting among Federal employees. But while the prospect of more laptops seemed a natural conclusion to such legislation, the Telework Exchange had no immediate predictions or government IT purchases as a result. According to the Telework Research Network, however, the bill could save taxpayers over $15 billion a year, and the savings would pay for the five-year cost of implementing the programs (approximately $30 million) in just one snow day.

The Art and Science of HDR Photography

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:59:56 GMT

The digital equivalent to paintings that look more like photos may well be the surreal and super realistic images being created by today’s digital photographers using digital cameras, a personal computer and something called HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography processing.

Photos of dramatic landscapes with greener than green grass, or lavender bushes with purple flowers that almost look three-dimensional. These are often created from multiple photos that are merged using computer software to pull out highlights, saturate colors or tweak the overall tone so the final image looks nothing like the shot you get from a single click of a camera shutter.

San Fransisco after HDR enhancement

San Fransisco before HDR enhancement

“HDR photography is a technique of taking digital photos and then bringing out the details that are normally not captured in a single photo,” explains Mike Fard, an amateur photogragher who works at Intel and spends a lot of time taking and manipulating pictures in his spare time. “The HDR technique let’s you capture a scene’s depth and color the way your eyes would see it, vibrant and full of detail.”

“Cameras, by their basic-machine-nature, are very good at capturing “images” - lines, shadows, shapes — but they are not good at capturing a scene the way the mind remembers and maps it,” wrote HDR pioneer Trey Ratcliff in his blog StuckinCustoms. “You will find that as you explore the HDR process, photos can start to evoke those deep memories and emotions in a more tangible way. It’s really a wonderful way of “tricking” your brain into experiencing much more than a normal photograph.”

Increasing the dynamic range reveals details in shadow areas while retaining details in the bright highlights. These photographs are generally created using several consecutive – or bracketed -- shots of the same scene taken with a variety of exposure settings. The shots are then “fused” into one image and enhanced using computer software that boosts color saturation, tones, contrast and brightness, resulting in photos that are amazingly life-like or otherworldly, and sometimes mystical or even haunting.

HDR image of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

But this form of digital enhancement may not be for everybody. Internet blogger Mike Panic says he doesn’t like HDR photography, especially when it’s taken to the extreme. “I’m fine with HDR as an art form, but perhaps the purist in me deems that this much manipulation to a photograph no longer makes it a photograph,” writes Panic on his Photoletariat blog. “I’ll freely admit that every single one of my digital photos has some form of digital retouch, I don’t think any of them push the limits as far as some will in HDR.”

It may be art, but there’s also a science to HDR photography that is brought to life by software and computer processing, which creates an image that resembles what meets the eye more than what’s actually captured by a digital camera.

“Digital cameras can meter a scene the best it technically can, typically in the range of 4 to 9 f/stops,” wrote Kevin L. Moss, publisher of Digital Photography Daily. “Our own eyes and brain view a scene, and can interpret approximately 9 to 14 f/stops. That’s quite a difference. This is the primary reason, as you recall, that you often shoot scenes that appear to you straightforward, but when you view them on your computer or LCD screen, the image lacks detail in shadow areas, or has blown out highlights in the lighter areas of the image. An HDR image, when shot and processed properly, will give you detail in a much larger dynamic range than a normal photograph can present.”

Video

This is exactly why Fard spends time processing his favorite travel photos using HDR. “I like to extract all of the details, as much of the fidelity of a scene as possible so it resembles how I really saw a place and how it made me feel when I was there,” he said.

One of the first credited with developing HDR imaging is Charles Wyckoff, whose detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid 1940s. HDR has come a long way since then, considering that today a much scaled-down derivation of HDR is available on iPhone 4 and other smartphones, helping bring new interest in HDR photography from people experimenting with photos they shoot, edit and upload from their phones.

While some may discover HDR first on the phone, the most amazing works today are created using digital cameras and computer software. “The raw image straight out of the sensor has much more detail than you can observe with the eye, and that can be extracted from the HDR software on a PC,” says Fard. “When I’m really cranking, I have multiple instances of the program running at the same time, allowing me to enhance and process many images simultaneously.”

Fard’s tips for creating HDR photos include:

Use a digital SLR camera with wide angle lens to capture landscapes and buildings. A point-and-shoot camera will work, but you need to be able to shoot in “manual’ mode.
Use a tripod whenever possible, or use any stable surface when you’re outside.
Always shoot in RAW format (not JPEG or another compressed format) so the digital camera can capture as much data as possible to create the image being shot
Use the camera’s exposure bracketing function(using shutter speed) to capture a rapid succession of shots that include an under-exposed, normal, and over-exposed photo, which will be fused together by the HDR software.
Use the lowest ISO setting as possible and shoot in the afternoon as the sun is going down to capture beautiful colors and clouds.
Experiment with different free HDR software, which can be downloaded from a variety of Websites, such as Photomatix
Create an online photo account like Picasa Web Albums or Flickr to store and share your images.

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Intel Plays Supporting Role in DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Megamind’

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:50:03 GMT

Computer animation has come a long way since the story of a boy's beloved toys coming alive and learning how even the greatest of challenges can be overcome with friendship.

Technical advances since have made computer-animated features even more jaw-dropping, taking us to a day when skyscrapers slide down detail-rich streets to leave a city in a turbulent cloud of dust in its wake – all in state-of-the-art 3-D and looking as real as unreal can get.

That's an actual scene from DreamWorks Animation's newest 3-D movie, "Megamind," and the destruction of "Metro City" is one of the more visually stunning moments in the film. Metro City's structural loss is the audiences gain, one could say. And to think that just a few years ago studios couldn't build complex cities because rendering one would crash the computer system.

Intel has been providing software engineering expertise to DreamWorks Animation developers since 2008, developing a strong technical relationship with the Glendale, Calif.-based studio that capitalizes on new scalable, multi-core computing necessary for computer animation today.

"DreamWorks Animation needed to transform the way they make movies," said Renée James, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Services Group. "We were coming out with the new Xeon processors and recognized in the course of that timeframe that we have a group at Intel that can help them achieve their goals on a bigger scale."

The initial collaboration on 2009's "Monsters vs. Aliens" included the companies' inaugural joint effort of InTru3D, which culminated in a 90-second sneak peek of the animated feature film that aired on broadcast television in 3-D during the Super Bowl. Including a pair worn by President Barack Obama during a White House Super Bowl party, 150 million glasses using InTru3D were distributed in a marketing effort described at the time by DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg as "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history."

The power (and challenge) of three

"Megamind" is the third feature film released by DreamWorks Animation this year. Moviegoers who stay for the credits will see the Intel logo, which also appears on the crawls of the studio's "Shrek Forever After" and "How to Train Your Dragon," two films currently among this year's Top 10 domestic grossers, the latter also among the current top-selling DVDs in the United States.

While the collaboration with Intel isn't the reason DreamWorks Animation was able to release three features in a single year, an accomplishment touted as "unprecedented" by the studio, it did offer significant advantages.

"The work we're doing on the scalable multi-core architecture allowed our engineers to maintain their focus on those three films and ensured that we as a technology group were delivering the highest-end computer graphics software to the artists on those movies," said Kate Swanborg, technology executive at DreamWorks Animation. "Our partnership with Intel provides a unique and incredibly valuable collaboration between their software domain experts and ours."

A "no-brainer" is how Swanborg described her company's decision to tap Intel's shoulder for the job. "We recognize the value of serving as a lighthouse for Intel to showcase the power of multi-core technologies and remaining on the forefront of innovation," Swanborg added.

Working side-by-side with a dedicated Intel team based at and near the studio, DreamWorks Animation R&D engineers solve such challenges as rendering times that increase as images become more and more complex and rich -- and that's even before they're authored in 3-D.

"'Megamind' pushed our tools to the limits, literally hitting computational load peaks as much as 50 percent higher than any previous production," said DreamWorks Animation CTO Ed Leonard. "Intel's combined contributions to performance and throughput delivered in both software and hardware arenas."

From a software side, "Megamind" benefited from the adoption of Intel's compiler and contributions by Intel engineers to performance-tune DreamWorks Animation's rendering and simulation tools for both single and multi-core processing. Hardware-wise, the filmmakers augmented their batch compute capability with more than 3,000 Intel Xeon processor cores.

"We could talk about the tremendous compute required to model the enormous coordinate system and the unprecedented details of the turbulent flow, but in the end, it was the combination of faster software and greater capabilities in compute that allowed us to put it all on screen and deliver the excitement and emotion our artists imagined," Leonard said.

Why Smart TV is Not PC

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:22:58 GMT

Amid all the recent news on new smart TV products from Sony and Logitech, the message from analysts and researchers who study humans for a living seems to be: Don't make TVs into PCs.

Logitech last month became the first company to unveil a set-top device running Google's new Android-based TV platform, followed by Sony with a host of slick new HDTVs and a Blu-ray disc player. All of these devices are powered by a chip originally designed for computers, but customized for consumer electronics to enable 1080p video, Dolby 7.1 surround sound, DTS and more. And while there have been connected TVs for some time, Google TV is the first to marry the Internet with broadcast TV in an entirely new way.

A customer tests out the latest Sony Smart TV’s at a local Best Buy store near Portland, Oregon

According to analysts, something on the order of 300 million digital televisions ship every year, so it's a big market for all the companies involved, and growing.

Speaking to Computer World, analyst Rob Enderle predicted that in the right format and with the right usage model and customer experience, people could adopt Google TV. "Folks probably won't be doing much browsing on their TV," he said. "But consuming Internet media? Certainly. Up until now it has been too difficult for most to do that."

Ironically, as TVs and other consumer devices get connected, they take on more compute-like function and capability. But according to researchers, if smart TV takes off the industry has to avoid the mistakes of the past by making the user experience more compelling.

"Do you want to live in a world where your Tivo says, 'I'm terribly sorry that before you can see this next show I have to defrag myself?'" asked Intel Fellow Genevieve Bell, who has been deeply involved in understanding what consumers want and expect from their television viewing experience through a series of research efforts.

"People don't want their televisions to turn into a computer," she said. "People actually love their televisions because it turns out they're nothing like computers."

Bell, who heads up the Intel Labs' Interaction and Experience Research group, is adamant that the smart TV push will work because it is about the TV experience, not just the Internet.

Intel’s Genevieve Bell on why Smart TV has to be different than the PC

In an interview with PC Magazine, Creative Strategies research analyst Tim Bajarin said "If you just have the TV emulate the PC experience, then I think that approach will fail. On the other hand, if you turn the various Internet sites that might work on a big screen into channels, with viewing at the heart of the experience, and deliver an experience that consumers are used to on a big screen, then the chance of success is better."

The concept of bringing the Internet to the TV set has been a hot topic for over a decade, Bajarin said, but only now are we "starting to see products that deliver the promise in a way that consumers may actually find interesting."

Learning what works, and doesn't, is one of the lessons of the Viiv PC platform, said Brian David Johnson, Intel Labs futurist and author of Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment, Computing, and the Devices We Love.Viiv was Intel's effort to grow the market for PC-based TV and consumer living room experiences, based on a collection of Intel chips and technologies and Windows Media Center.

From a user perspective "we failed with Viiv," Johnson said. "We learned a lot of things, the most important being we tried to turn the television into a computer."

“People saw the Internet as a way they could get whatever they wanted on demand.” —Brian David Johnson

Intel's Gary Palangian, a Google TV program manager in the Digital Home Group, agrees that Viiv was about putting a PC in the living room, while smart TV is about putting your Internet on the TV.

He pointed out, for example, that Viiv was powered by PC chips, while the Intel Atom CE4100 was designed specifically for consumer electronics, offering home theatre-quality audio/video performance, signal processing, surround sound and 3-D graphics in a super small package that also enables fan-less designs due to its low power.

Smart TV products like the Logitech Revue set-top box are just now starting to appear in retail stores like Best Buy

Another key factor in the attempt to get a better grasp of what users want research project led by Bell's group called "The Social Lives of Television."

Johnson and a team of Intel anthropologists and ethnographers visited hundreds of people in their homes in India, the U.K., the U.S. and China to learn how they engaged with their TVs so that Intel could better understand what consumers actually wanted.

"When we started working on the concept 4 years ago, we figured the No. 1 thing people would want in the future is movies-on-demand," Johnson said. "But our focus groups revealed that what people really wanted on their TVs was Internet access. People saw the Internet as a way they could get whatever they wanted on demand. Watching what they wanted, when they wanted it, and where they wanted was a profound and liberating experience."

Intel and many other companies are betting big this knowledge will pay off as television evolves and becomes more PC-like, but without all the trimmings of the traditional PC experience. Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini recently predicted that "TV is about to change more in the next year than it has in the last 50." For that to happen, according to analysts and industry gurus, it will need to be an entirely different kind of computing experience.

Free Shot: Letter to the Editor on Netbook Story

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:33:36 GMT

First of all, congratulations on a successful launch! I've been reading your articles with interest, especially the one about "Netbook's Death,” a topic that has been covered in a variety of newspapers and tech sites, particularly taken from the whole "vs iPad" perspective.

Despite how much has been talked about, I think that the different views on the topic sometimes forget how different things are in less developed countries, such as mine, Argentina. The dichotomy between iPad/Netbook simply doesn't exists here. Our economy forbids it! You see: here, the cheapest iPad comes about for around $850 US, or 3,400 pesos, our local currency. An Atom-powered Netbook, which has 3G connectivity, more ports and runs full blown applications, can be bought subsidized from a cell carrier for less than $400 US. Given the way technology is viewed in the USA, it may not seem like much of a difference, but here, the average wage is about $500 US. So those $350 saved from not buying an iPad make a big difference in your month to month financing.

I think that the clearer example of how things are around here is to ask you, as an American, how would you feel if you had to pay for an iPad almost two full monthly wages, because that is exactly what happens here. I think that iPads and netbooks are different devices, with different uses, and don't see them overlapping, at least not in my country.

Tony Gardella, Argentina

Renee James on Intel’s Software Capabilities, How the Acquisitions Fit In

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:25:01 GMT

Intel’s software acquisitions can best be described in terms of buckets of capabilities, according to Renée James, senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group.

When asked to put some of the recent acquisitions into context in terms of these “buckets,” she listed graphics, embedded systems, parallel computing and security as key capabilities.

IFP: Tell us about Havok and how that improved Intel’s graphics capability.

RJ: Havoc is a leading company in real-time physics simulation. They also are the leading middleware company for games with their products creating more realism for the game player and ease of development for the game studio. Acquiring that company enables developers in the digital animation and game communities to take advantage of Intel's innovation and technology leadership in the creation of digital media.

IFP: What about Atom?

RJ: OpenedHand is one. As we built Atom and moved it into new market segments, we needed an operating system. As the second-largest contributor to the Linux kernel, we had the skillsets to build the core of the operating system, but we needed the ability to put a face on the OS for users to interact with.

IFP: What about the embedded systems bucket?

RJ: [System-on-chips] SoCs are built by putting different IP blocks together, so the software for each SoC likely needs to change based on the configuration and the IP blocks in use. For software developers to take advantage of each different combination, they need a platform emulation system to mirror what the final silicon product will look like. That’s why we bought Virtutech.

IFP: And Wind River?

RJ: That acquisition provides us software capabilities in embedded systems and mobile devices, both important growth areas for the company. This multi-billion-dollar market segment is increasingly becoming connected and more intelligent, requiring supporting applications and services as well as full Internet functionality.

IFP: And parallel tools?

RJ: Simply adding more cores and threads to our processors does not immediately translate into increased performance or speed for the software. The code has to be written to take advantage of the parallel threads.

IFP: Which acquisitions satisfied the parallel tools need?

RJ: Cilk Arts and RapidMind are the leading companies in task and data parallelism. Their technology is being added into our parallel tool products to give developers more access to the capabilities of Intel architecture silicon.

IFP: And security is the newest capability bucket?

RJ: As more and more devices connect to the cloud and add additional compute power, more attack surfaces can be exploited. We believe there is an opportunity to provide hardware-enhanced security that will lead to breakthrough innovations going forward. Bringing software closer to the silicon will allow Intel to strengthen security to more effectively counter the increasingly sophisticated threats.

Is Software Intel's Best-Kept Secret?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:21:34 GMT

Semiconductors are the silicon-based bread and butter for Intel, but what used to be the company’s “best-kept secret” is anything but these days.

Intel’s Renee James presides over a growing software organization within Intel.

With each new acquisition and news announcement, Intel’s Software and Solutions Group steps farther away from the shadows. Intel has always had a software arm, its origins rooted in the need to create tools for customers who would otherwise not be able to do anything with the silicon Intel produced. Today, in addition to providing software to support its chips, Intel is expanding its software focus into more tightly integrated product lines, such as phones, embedded products and tablets.

“Software has been Intel’s best-kept secret up until the past couple of years,” said Renée James, who, as senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Software and Services Group, is responsible for making sure Intel hardware and software work together. But it is more than just compatibility. James is also tasked with how Intel offers a profitable complete software stack on top of its silicon.

“Intel is no longer a silicon company only,” James said, acknowledging the growing importance of software in everything from laptops to smartphones. “We need to expand our capabilities and build more of the product stack.”

Employees Ga-Ga for Google

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:19:39 GMT

Google TV that is.

Intel employees were offered up a special preview of sorts to the latest smart TVs from Sony featuring Google TV and judging by the numbers, these products are sure winners -- at least among the geeks at Intel. Over 700 employees stood in line in the first few hours to get access to product demos basically -- inside a cramped conference room at the company’s Hillsboro, Ore. campus.

But there was also an incentive: a limited-time employee discount from Sony and a chance to win one of the new sets. The new Sony HDTVs and Sony Blu-ray disc player are all powered by Intel’s Atom processor, and lest we say it, are ushering in a new era in television where broadcast meets Internet. We’re sure it was this that drew the crowds, not the free cookies.

Reports of Netbook’s Death Greatly Exaggerated, Experts Say

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:50:10 GMT

With all the excitement around the iPad and predictions of dire impacts to the netbook market and perhaps even laptop sales, we got to wondering: Is the netbook really dead?

Nifty, low-cost netbooks hit the scene in late 2008 and sold over 36 million units in 2009, according to ABI Research. Even with projected sales of 35-43 million units this year, the future of these diminutive laptop-like computers is being pulled under a dark cloud of doubt as new tablets grab the limelight and spare cash from consumers.

Collection of new netbook designs on display at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in September 2010.

“The all-in-one nature of media tablets will result in the cannibalization of other consumer electronics devices such as e-readers, gaming devices and media players,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “Mini notebooks will suffer from the strongest cannibalization threat as media tablet average selling prices (ASPs) drop below $300 over the next 2 years.”

Not so fast, say people who are looking at the robust sales of netbooks, which were one of the fastest-ramping consumer devices in the PC world and are still selling tens of millions of units per quarter.

“Early adoption of media tablets is not outpacing netbooks,” said ABI Research principal analyst Jeff Orr. “Forty-three million netbook shipments is good growth, just not the meteoric pace of the past couple of years.”

While some believe the category or netbook name may dissolve into something called an ultraportable laptop, there’s keen interest in innovations aimed at keeping netbook sales robust well through 2011, including new, thinner designs, faster dual core processors, less expensive solid state drives, multi-touch and instant-on.

“I’m looking forward to a very exciting 2011,” said Sascha Pallenberg of Netbooknews.com, speaking on a panel at the AppUp Elements event for software developers in San Francisco in September.

Pallenberg gets excited about the vigorous competition among chipmakers and netbook designers that he believes will bring better performance, longer battery life and new applications fit for these small companion devices.

“Intel estimates there will be hundreds of millions of netbooks based on Intel Atom processors in market over the next few years,” said Intel’s Anil Nanduri, whose team created the world’s thinnest netbook prototype first shown at Computex in June.

The worlds thinnest netbook prototype codenamed Canoe Lake, developed by Intel with Intel Atom dual core processor inside, first shown at the Computex event in Taipei in June 2010.

“Even though it looks like the growth rate of netbooks is flattening out, they are still at a very, very high level,” said Pallenberg. “Netbooks have a market share of about 20 percent or more of the whole computing market right now. I’m pretty confident that this is going to happen again next year because right now many first-time netbook users will move over to the dual-core powered netbooks, which will generate sales and excitement in the development community.”

Update: Pallenberg clarified that "netbooks gained 20 percent of teh mobile computing market. Sixty percent of all PCs that are getting sold are notebooks and 20 percent of them are netbooks."

Netbooks are considered laptop or desktop companion device best used for surfing the Internet and enjoying digital media while moving around inside or outside a home or office.

“When you see a netbook, you see a computer,” said Hubert Nguyen, cofounder of consumer technology blog Ubergizmo. “You expect it to react like a bigger computer, but people will be making trade-offs for having a smaller size, like getting less performance. Tablets will bring a new usage model with instant-on and they will be used for things you can do very quickly, whereas the netbook is an extension of the PC.”

“A netbook is easy to get; it’s just another computer.” said Juuso Huttunen, a netbook hacker and video blogger at jkkmobile. Tablets are different. You need to figure out where they fit in. I don’t use tablets for work, only for reading or watching something.”

In an interview with CNET, IDC researcher Bob O’Donnell said he sees some similarities between the netbook craze and today’s tablet excitement.

"Two years ago, netbooks were going to kill the notebook market. Now, a few years later, we can look back and say 'no, not really’,” O’Donnell said. “A similar phenomenon happens with tablets. People may short-term delay the purchase, but when they need to get a new notebook, they're still going to get a notebook. In other words, they're going to use both of these things simultaneously."

“I think what people want most is more battery life and instant-on operating system,” says Nguyen.

Although hackers such as Huttunen are exploring ways to tweak their netbooks to power on instantly, a fast boot up is one of many things most netbooks don’t deliver today.

In his research about netbook usage around the world, O’Donnell discovered that that the lack of software features and services for syncing netbooks with other computers could be keeping netbooks from being a truly trusted companion.

Putting more emphasis on “companion” has been a focus spot for developers creating netbook-specific applications.

“It’s not just netbook-specific apps that have made the mobile computing space interesting, it’s the secondary mobile computing PC space that have made apps and the mobile computing space more interesting,” Nicole Scott of Netbooknews wrote in a email interview with Intel Free Press.

It’s about “apps that realize netbooks, smartphones and tablets are secondary devices to your home or work PC,” Scott pointed out. “These next-generation apps allow you to transfer your data between devices, whether that data sit where you are on in ‘Angry Birds’ or information about your current work obsession.”

Netbooks have succeeded so well that they have become irrelevant, according to Avram Piltch of Laptop Magazine. In his September story “The Netbook Revolution is Over, So What Did You Win?” he concludes:

“Dual-core processors are just the latest in a long line of improvements to the netbook that make it nothing more than a 10 or 11-inch ultraportable laptop, a far cry from its radical beginnings as a secondary Web-focused device. How long until vendors give up the ghost, stop calling them netbooks, and begin to market them as 10-inch notebooks? Tiny as they are, many people use them for Microsoft Office, photo editing, or even playing ‘World of Warcraft’ at a low resolution.”

Free Shot: Letter to the Editor on Netbook Story

Moore's Law Around the World, in Bricks and Mortar

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:24:39 GMT

We've come a long way from the moment when a couple of engineers at Bell Laboratories named John Bardeen and Walter Brattain used paper clips and razor blades to make a rudimentary three-terminal device – the first so-called “point of contact” transistor. That was 1947. A couple of Nobel Prizes and a few more innovations (like the integrated circuit) and the rest, as they say, is history.

Early Fairchild Semiconductor Planar Transistor. Soruce: The Computer History Museum

Today, Intel makes an estimated 10 billion transistors per second in the process of manufacturing hundreds of millions of chips a year at factories in the United States, Ireland, Israel and, soon, China. These are among the world’s most sophisticated modern factories making tangible things -- in this case the world's most complex machines with dimensions so small it takes a scanning electron microscope just to be able to see them.

Ironically, these tiny machines require huge capital investments and very large factories which, in the semiconductor business are called fabrication facilities or “fabs.” Intel just made a big announcement to build a new development fab in Oregon and upgrade several others in Oregon and Arizona to accommodate its next-generation 22 nanometer (nm) technology. But those facilities are only part of a global manufacturing network.

Click on the locations below to see and learn more about Intel’s global network of fabs.

Free Shot: Intel Plays Minor Role in Miner Rescue

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:32:28 GMT

Earlier reports detailed how 33 miners trapped in a mine in Chile had been given Sony Play Station portables, and how Apple provided iPods to help keep the miners busy during their harrowing 69 days trapped deep beneath the surface of the earth. But when it came to monitoring vital statistics like heart rate and body temperature, it was the Panasonic U1handheld computer that did the heavy lifting, reportedly relaying information to crews on the surface in case anything went wrong. Powering the U1 Toughbook? The little chip that could, the Intel Atom processor Z520.

Caught in the Crossfire: Intel's Investor Relations Chief

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:59:24 GMT

In today’s buy-low-sell-high and “show me the growth” environment on Wall Street, Kevin Sellers is caught in the crossfire as the man directly responsible for keeping Intel’s investor community in the know with the latest financial information and future direction of his company.

Even with a market cap north of $100 billion, and billions more invested in staying innovative, Intel continues to perform week in and week out while its stock price has taken a pounding, spiraling mostly downward for more than a decade. Even as the company revealed record earnings for Q3 2010, announcing the first $11 billion quarter in the company’s history and beating estimates for earnings per share, Intel’s stock price wavered the next day, ending down.

“These are crazy, crazy times,” said Sellers, Intel's vice president and director of Investor Relations.

Even in bad times, good performance doesn’t seem to go unpunished. While a few companies in the tech industry seem to be enjoying celebrity status, most seem stuck in the mud, despite beating revenue, profit and even margin expectations.

Maybe billions of real dollars invested and generated from meaningful innovations and true manufacturing are simply not sexy enough for Wall Street any longer?

For the most part, Wall Street has kept its hands in its pockets since the world economy tanked a few years ago, even as companies such as Cisco, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle are delivering strong financial results.

“We’re going through a long, painful market correction where valuations are being hammered,” Sellers said. Inside the company, it's Sellers who sometimes feels hammered, balancing his day between talking to Wall Street analysts on one hand, and Intel executives on the other. It's a tough job.

Kevin Sellers talks with Intel executives prior to the Intel Investor Meeting in March in Santa Clara, CA.

Pushing through the worst economic downturn in recent history, Intel exited 2009 with record gross margins, and higher net income and earnings per share over 2008. Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said at the time that microprocessors had become indispensible in today’s world. In July, Intel surprised Wall Street when it reported the best quarter in its 42-year history, predicting the demand for leading-edge technology would continue for the foreseeable future. And yet the stock only saw a tiny uptick. Revenue reached $10.8 billion, operating income was $4 billion and net income was $2.9 billion. This seemed to validate what Otellini boldly told investors in March at an analyst meeting organized by Sellers and his team, that Intel’s revenue and earnings would double in the next few years. It was a bold prediction.

Just two months later, trust in Intel’s ability to forecast revenue suffered a setback when the company lowered third-quarter revenue projections to be $11 billion, plus or minus $200 million, compared to the previous expectation of between $11.2 and $12 billion. Maybe not a major miss for some, but many read this correction as another reason to remain wary of Intel stock. Then, a solid third quarter with record results and a positive outlook ahead.

Looking Back, Moving Ahead

“For the past decade, Intel’s annual revenues have only grown 2 percent,” Sellers acknowledged.

Intel’s stock price, which in August 2000 was over $60, today bounces around $19.

“In the 1990s, we saw the value of tech stocks climb steadily,” Sellers said. “But for the past 10 years we’ve been experiencing what I call ‘The Great Tech Unwind.’”

The tech bust of 2000 that was followed in more recent years by the U.S. recession and world economic downturn convinced investors to bet on future growth is the herculean task of many investor relations managers.

“Intel is a public company, so essentially it’s owned by the shareholders,” Sellers said. “It’s my job to help our investors understand the company, how it’s performing and its strategic vision for the future.” Similarly, he is helping Intell employees understand how Wall Street works, what they are looking for. He is known inside Intel as a straight talker, a no-spin kind of guy who also happens to be one of the most popular bloggers on the company's internal website. His missives frequently generate dozens of comments because, according to one avid reader, "he tackles stuff head-on...openly and candidly...that some of the executives previously have not."

Getting Buy-In from Tech Investors - Intel VP of Investor Relations tells what it's like being in the crossfire, trying to help investors understand Intel's potential for growth. Intel has about a $110 billion market cap, but the INTC stock price has been beat down for a decade.

Sellers takes things in stride, compassionately keeping a watchful eye on key people and critical business aspects and trying to keep investors focused on the long term. He is on a first-name basis with many investors from such places as Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, Citibank and other firms that hold millions of shares in Intel. With an MBA and an undergrad degree in finance, Sellers is an interesting mix of fast number cruncher and visual storyteller. He joined Intel as a financial analyst in 1991 and later moved to lead branding efforts in Japan. He was picked to co-lead a companywide efficiency program in 2005 that helped Intel drastically cut spending. He became vice president of Investor Relations in 2007.

Bending Uncertainty

Sellers said he believes that the more certainty investors can put around an idea, the more they are willing to invest in something. Even after delivering higher revenue through 2009 and beyond, sell side, buy side and retail investors by and large are not convinced it’s time to buy Intel stock.

What’s holding them back? Sellers points to the cloudy world economy and inconsistent forecasting from tech companies and market analysts. But he also points out a conundrum in which many investor relations executives are stuck.

Even after delivering record-breaking financial results and beating analyst expectations, according to Sellers, “Investors seem to be saying that it can’t get any better than this, that this is unsustainable. It’s like a curse.”

Wall Street’s buy-low-sell-high mentality and ability to crunch massive amounts of current and historic data are making it difficult for investors to believe Intel will keep growing. Numbers don’t lie.

“It feels like trying to change the laws of gravity,” Sellers said.

Sellers is a family man, who at home wakes up hours before his children get out of bed and get ready for school, and he’s often the one locking the door and shutting off the lights at night. He brings a hunger for listening and understanding and has a knack for inspiring people around him. “Investors want actual numbers, but they also want comfort and conviction about the future,” he says.

So Sellers is raising the stakes on how he delivers good financial numbers by sharpening how the company tells and sells what he calls Intel’s amazing innovations. He personally travels often to New York and Boston and can be seen roaming the halls of Intel on his wireless headset engaged in intense conversations with investors and analysts. He routinely arranges for Intel CEO Paul Otellini, COO Andy Bryant, CFO Stacy Smith, EVP Dadi Perlmutter and others to meet with investors at Intel headquarters, at financial firms in NY, and industry events like the Consumer Electronics Show, Computex, Mobile World Congress. It’s a constant challenge, especially given Intel’s “quiet period” restrictions that prevent any Intel employee from sharing new insight or information on results too close to earnings.

Beyond the PC

Sellers sees many opportunities for the industry to build new, affordable connectable devices with smart, efficient and secure Intel chips inside.

“A billion processors a year,” he said. “Within the next 5 years, we want to be shipping a billion processors annually. Today we ship less than half a billion.”

That number includes its Core and Xeon family of processors, plus the company’s recent tiny Atom chip with its derivations specifically built for netbooks, handhelds, Smart TVs and such embedded devices as auto infotainment systems.

Kevin Sellers talks to Manish Goyal, who represents the giant institutional investor TIAA-CREF.

Intel spent about $10 billion in acquisitions in the early part of September when it purchased security software McAfee, the TV set-top business of Texas Instruments and mobile wireless chip maker Infineon. Sellers has been steadfastly explaining to investors that these moves are not a growth strategy in and of themselves.

Is there new business coming to Intel? Intel’s Embedded Computing and Communications Group, which designs compute engines that connect TVs, cars, digital retail signs and other things to the Internet, reported that 40 percent of its customers are new to Intel.

“We are a growth company,” Sellers said. “If we don’t innovate, we’re dead. We need to invest in innovation in order to constantly bring out something that’s better than anything that’s come out before. At the same time, we are managing our capital expenditures very efficiently. Our ‘cap ex’ has been flat for years, while output and revenue have grown.”

Intel’s investment in research and development and its “one generation ahead” of the competition manufacturing is needed not only to keep pace with Moore’s Law, but also to help the company bring new innovations to market like its reinvented super-fast and energy-efficient high-k metal gate transistors used in its Core processors. These investments in cutting-edge manufacturing tools and techniques have helped Intel lower chip production costs while shortening the time it takes to make a batch of new chips from 20 weeks just 4 years ago down to 7 or 8 weeks.

It’s a “vision and deliver” act Sellers has to manage by showing how Intel’s strategies are the recipe for attaining real growth and multi-million-dollar results.

Getting Unstuck

“We need to get better at telling the right story,” Sellers said. “We have to show we can compete and win not only in consumer and enterprise computing, but also in cloud computing and to Smart TVs, tablets and handheld devices.”

There is some evidence the message is being heard. Chip analyst Craig Ellis of Caris & Co recently told MarketWatch that Medfield – the next-generation Atom platform for smartphones and tablets -- might change the company’s ability to play in those segments. “If our assessment of Medfield (codename for Intel’s future Atom processor) is correct, by mid-2011 Intel should begin to become a more significant alternate APU (application processors) supplier.”

Kevin Sellers talks with investors during the Intel Investor Meeting in March in Santa Clara, CA.

What do investors think of ARM vs. Intel today? ARM stock is up 200 percent while Intel is flat since last year.

“Our stock is caught in a cyclical-bear puddle of mud,” wrote Sellers in a blog to Intel employees in January. “Many investors are looking backwards (they’re very astute students of history) and our task is to get it out of that mud to be viewed more as a structural growth story. This will require execution into new markets and products.”

Success weighs heavily on Intel’s transformation from being solely a semiconductor designer and manufacturer into a company that competes with innovations across all kinds of Internet-connected devices.

Sellers and investors know that the success Intel needs won’t be reached with world-class tech innovations alone. It will also take world-class marketing and real demand generation across many sectors and global markets.

“I like what Pete Drucker once said, that only two functions of business generate customers: marketing and innovation. Apple gets both sides very well. Our marketing has to be as good as our innovation so it can be a better value creator.”

Revolutionizing Computing with Lasers

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:08:00 GMT

When Ted Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories invented the first working laser in 1960, he never expected his invention would revolutionize industries such as medicine and communications.

Likewise, Intel co-founder Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments could not have imagined how their invention of the microchip the previous year would change the world.

Fittingly, as the laser and the microchip mark their 50th and 51st anniversaries, respectively, they come together in a research breakthrough that could revolutionize system design from netbooks to supercomputers. Imagine downloading an entire HD movie in less than a second.

Replacing copper cables with rays of light — Quick animation (runtime 1:30) of Intel’s 50 Gigabit Silicon Photonics Link in action.

Intel recently announced the world’s first working silicon photonics data link with integrated lasers, a significant advance in the quest to use lasers to replace the use of electrons to carry data within a computer’s internal circuitry. The experimental chip, known as the "50 Gigabits Silicon Photonics Link," can move data at 50 billion bits per second (50Gbps). That’s fast enough to yes, download an entire HD movie in less than a second.

Optical fibers can transfer much more data over much longer distances. Speedy beams of light could replace the copper wires currently used to move data between systems and eventually between processing cores and to and from the memory.

"As Andy Grove would say, I think we’re really at an inflection point," said Intel CTO Justin Rattner at the at the Integrated Photonics Research conference in Monterey, Calif. in July. "The cost of optical communication is about to drop dramatically as a result of finally getting it integrated with other silicon processes," he said, adding that silicon photonics has that potential to usher in a new era of optical communications for all sorts of devices.

Why photonics?

Today, components within a computer are connected to each other using copper cables or traces on circuit boards. Due to the signal degradation that comes with using metals such as copper to transmit data, these traces have a limited maximum length. This limits the design of computers; forcing processors, memory and other components to be placed just inches from each other. Electrical signaling alone won’t keep up with the data rates demanded by future many-core processors, especially for longer distances.

Fiber optics boasts very high bandwidth, allows for data to travel long distances (think telephone fiber optics) and is immune to electrical noise. Couple those advantages with silicon manufacturing’s high-volume, low-cost model, high integration and scalability, and you have a recipe for success.

50Gbps Silicon Photonics Link -- The transmit module (left) sends laser light from the silicon chip at the center of the green board, which then travels through optical fiber to the receiver module (right), where a second silicon chip detects the data on the laser and coverts it back into an electrical signal.

Today’s telecommunications networks use three essential devices — lasers, modulators and detectors — to produce, encode, and detect light. Currently, they are made of expensive, non-silicon materials such as indium phosphide, lithium niobate and gallium arsenide. More importantly, they cannot be easily mass produced.

Replacing these connections with extremely thin and light optical fibers that can transfer much more data over much longer distances can change the way computers of the future are designed, as well as radically alter the way the datacenter of tomorrow is architected. This will allow datacenter users, like a search engine company, cloud computing provider or financial datacenter to increase performance, capabilities and save significant costs in space and energy.

Today’s announcement builds on earlier achievements

The 50Gbps Silicon Photonics Link prototype is the result of a multi-year silicon photonics research agenda, which included numerous breakthroughs.

In 2006, Intel and researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), developed a “hybrid silicon laser” that fused indium phosphide to silicon, allowing it to be processed similarly to other silicon devices. In 2008, Intel Labs and UCSB added etched grating “mirrors” into the silicon waveguides, paving the way for specific wavelength operation.

Mario Paniccia, Intel Fellow and director of the Photonics Technology Lab, says his team is now pressing on to demonstrate even faster speeds, eventually to a terabit over the next decade.

Intel Labs Fellow Mario Paniccia (at right) with Professor John Bowers of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Intel’s collaboration with Prof. Bowers led to the development of the Hybrid Silicon Laser, a key technology in the 50G Silicon Photonics Link.

Can these chips be manufactured in high volumes?

Intel Senior Fellow Kevin Kahn contends Intel Labs has solved the fundamental technological breakthroughs in silicon photonics — though a few “nitty-gritty" process details need to be figured out — but the real question for Intel is “can these chips be manufactured cheaply in a fully automated, high-volume factory?”

Kahn, who ran the Communications Lab where silicon photonics research began, said, “When we first started this research in the mid 1990s, everyone said we couldn’t do it, but we did it. Then it became, ‘can you do it on one chip?’ and we did. Now it’s figuring out how to do this at a very large scale at very high yields at low costs.”

“I think almost every manufacturer of a connected device,” Rattner added, “is going to have to start thinking about how high bandwidth, low-cost optical communications is going to affect the products — even the services — they deliver. It’s that fundamental an idea.”

Intel's Wind River Acquisition: A Lesson in Independence

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:13:57 GMT

A little over a year ago, Intel Corporation wrapped up an $884 million acquisition of software company Wind River — Intel's biggest acquisition in a decade until it announced the still-pending McAfee acquisition in September. Unlike some of Intel’s past acquisitions, Wind River was both dramatic and different when compared to some of the large acquisitions of the past decade. The company has been pioneering computing inside embedded devices since 1981, and its technology is found in more than 500 million products.

“Wind River’s business was and is a great strategic fit with where Intel is going in the handheld, embedded, and consumer electronics spaces," said Renée James, senior vice president and the head of the Software and Solutions Group. "However, they also have a strong and profitable product lineup that we did not want to hinder. So, we deliberately took a different approach.”

Rather than paint over Wind River red with Intel blue, Intel decided this one would be different. The company learned from some of the mistakes made during the frenzy of acquisitions in the late ‘90s. One of those learnings was structuring the company as either an independent businesses or wholly owned subsidiary ensuring that existing teams, processes and customer relationships were maintained. “Job one was to do no harm to their current business while growing the Intel Architecture business,” James said. So Wind River was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary reporting to James.

At the time of the acquisition, 85 percent of Wind River’s business was based on architectures other than Intel. Ken Klein, president of Wind River, said there was some concern among customers initially. “There was some fear that competitors were generating relative to Wind River no longer being independent and being at the beck and call of Intel, as opposed to really serving customers and partners well,” Klein said.

Best year in a decade

The fears were unwarranted; Wind River recently wrapped up one best 12-month period it had in nearly a decade.

Klein attributes that success to several factors, including the company’s structure as a subsidiary reporting into James and what he calls “the complete support of Intel management.” Above all, it’s giving customers what they ask for — no regardless of chip architecture.

Wind River President Ken Klein

“We’ve been able to cement the level of trust that our customers and partners have in Wind River,” Klein added. “Because we've been allowed to operate independently, we've been able to win over customers not only on Wind River, but I think [the acquisition] also helped to improve Intel’s reputation in the industry.”

In addition, Klein explains, the companies’ cultures mesh well. “We're both results-driven … and we also encourage debate,” Klein said. “There have been a lot more similarities in terms of our cultural attributes than I ever imagined.”

Over the last year, Wind River’s 1,800 employees haven’t missed a beat, continuing to build out their product line and add new partners across the spectrum of the business.

Wind River’s expertise: embedded and mobile

Put simply, Wind River writes software that runs myriad devices — over 500 million and counting — that many wouldn’t consider to even be a computer. Wind River code runs everything from jumbo jet control systems to safety and navigation systems in automobiles to medical devices that sort and analyze cancer cells.

The company is a market leader in embedded and mobile software, offering operating systems, tools, and services ranging from customization to “round-the-clock” support.

In these markets, there’s really nothing like a standardized Microsoft Windows/PC environment. You can’t just build a device, insert a disc, install software and boot it up. Wind River fills that gap.

Wind River’s best-known product is a real-time operating system called VxWorks. It’s lightweight, fast and has versions targeting various embedded segments: aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial and more. “Real time” means that the system must respond to requests and input instantly. Changing the airbag controls in your car, for instance, has a bit more urgency than launching Outlook or PowerPoint.

On top of these software solutions, Wind River offers a suite of development and debugging tools and a wide range of services. If you wanted to design a new smartphone, Wind River can help with the OS (MeeGo, Android, etc.) and key hardware components; while optimizing everything for speed, low power, and connectivity. They can also help tweak the user interface and get the final device qualified for high-volume manufacturing.

Embedded hardware + embedded software = growth

Intel and Wind River really come together in software. For example, Intel’s Open Source Technology Center (OTC) is a top contributor to Linux, and Wind River Linux is the leading open source solution in embedded, competing against not only other software vendors, but against companies writing their own Linux code.

Now, Wind River is beginning to combine the engineering work from the OTC with its strengths in software sales, services and support. In particular, this will happen with Wind River Linux and MeeGo. Wind River’s second goal — after maintaining operational independence — is to “build a foundation to become a strong commercial software franchise within Intel’s software and solutions group,” Klein said.

Intel has been in the embedded hardware business for years, growing it into a $1 billion operation. With the Intel® Atom™ processor being added to the arsenal, it remains one of Intel’s major growth areas and Wind River plays an important role. Wind River leads the embedded software market and counts many of the top device makers around the world as customers. Most of Wind River’s business happens on ARM, MIPS, PowerPC and other architectures; Intel in embedded is also a growth opportunity for its software and services.

In sum, Intel gets help to make sure embedded hardware has great software and a Wind River sales force well versed in Intel products, while Wind River gets a powerful new chip architecture to showcase its software and a larger pool of customers to serve.

Partnership in action

“Engineers at both Intel and Wind River have been eager to join forces and collaborate,” James said. Besides helping to optimize Wind River software on IA, a number of projects are under way with multiple business groups at Intel, from networking platforms to MeeGo products and more.

Besides the results and increased collaboration, James sees the acquisition as an important proof point for Intel. “We were able to tangibly show that Intel can successfully execute an acquisition of scale and that a new model of integration can be made to work,” James said. “This gives us an example for other areas for the future. I'm proud of that and of what the team at Wind River has done in its first year.”

Tardy Slip: U.S. Schools Lagging on PC Program Adoption

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:03:27 GMT

Nine-year-old Cesar Fernandez beamed with pride as he showed off a video he made with other fourth graders on the first mobile computer he’s ever used. “These are cars we made and we played a game with them crashing,” he said as others at school looked on. Across the table, classmate Marla Pedroza demonstrated how she uses a favorite math software program. “Eight times four is 32,” she declared, confirming her answer on multiplication.com., accessed on her first-ever mobile device.

For these children using a computer is a big deal. Cesar’s home doesn’t have a computer and none of his four brothers and sisters even have access to one at their own school, he said. For Marla, computer time is very limited at home. “Mom is on it most,” she said.

Cesar Fernandez, a fourth grader at Rosemary Elementary School in Campbell, Calif., demonstrates how he uses the classmate PC in class.

The computers Cesar, Marla and their 23 classmates use at school were provided through the Intel Learning Series, an initiative that integrates hardware -- the PCs themselves — along with software and services designed specifically for education. The program is being implemented worldwide, and involves placing Intel-powered classmate PCs and the training, software and accessories that go with them in markets that include Mexico, Chile, Portugal and Argentina, along with countries outside Latin America.

Emerging vs. mature markets

Although most classmate PCs are shipped in volume to emerging markets outside the United States, the ones making a difference in the predominantly Hispanic school where Cesar and Marla attend are being used in the non-emerging U.S.A. -- specifically, Campbell, Calif.

Compared to the Latin American countries listed, Campbell isn’t considered as exotic a locale. It’s within a mature market, and there may lay a sad reality.

Like humanitarian efforts during pandemics and following natural disasters, it could be argued that good-news stories such as the one carried by the Intel Learning Series generally garner more coverage when those benefiting are non-Americans.

That postulation gets no argument from Jeff Galinovsky, regional manager of the Intel Learning Series.

“The U.S. market isn’t as grand a story for a number of reasons, but one of them is because when a country overseas adopts [the program] the numbers are much larger,” said Galinovsky, who is based at Intel’s Folsom, Calif. campus. “We’re talking 500,000 in Portugal down to 15,000 in Spain for a pilot. The largest order in the U.S. so far is in the low thousands.”

Headlines out of the U.S. may not be as rah-rah as “Lelkesíti a diákokat a törhetetlen laptop,” which ran in a major Hungarian daily and translated means “students are enthusiastic over unbreakable laptops.” Still, as Cesar and Marla’s teacher attests, it doesn’t make the need any less important when that need is domestic.

“Because most of the homes where these children live do not have computers, exposing them to technology is critical,” said Yolanda Chang, a fourth grade teacher at Rosemary School in central Campbell. “This is a low-income school where 80 percent of the children are on reduced or free lunch.”

And as for the teachers themselves, most of the Rosemary School staff must rely on the large, immobile desktop computer provided by the school, according to Chang, whose background as a computer science major in college made her a prime choice to serve as the school’s technology liaison.

The classmate PCs that are enabling Chang to follow her passion are rugged and include features that are commonly found in today's mainstream PCs, such as storage and built-in wireless, and are capable of running mainstream applications including video and educational software. These PCs are equipped with water-resistant keyboards and an integrated educational feature set that allows teacher-student and teacher-parent collaboration.

Starting off slow

As for integrating technology into the Campbell school’s full curriculum, Chang said she first needs to accomplish that in her own classroom.

“Right now I’m teaching students the basics – how to get into the Internet, what a browser is, that level of learning,” she said.

In the coming weeks Chang’s fourth graders will use ArtRage painting software pre-loaded on their classmate PCs to draw California and its geographic region while the other classes are doing so by hand. Soon, language arts will be taught using technology.

While some countries are on the fast track adopting the Intel Learning Series, it’s pretty much one school at a time in the United States. Bureaucracy and behavior seem to be the cause for the slow pace domestically, according to Intel.

“We’re one of the few countries that have a decentralized education system,” Galinovsky said. “Other countries have a minister of education who influences the direction for the entire country’s education. When we do a deal in another country, it’s a huge deal because one person can make a decision that applies to every kid from first through fourth grade. We have 15,000 ministers of education here in the U.S.”

The second hurdle, according to Galinovsky, is America’s penchant for the status quo.

“We don’t like change,” he said. “We’re asking people to change the way they teach.”

To help get through domestic doors that might otherwise be cautiously closed, Intel is working with the same text book companies that already are providing educational materials to American schools. In April, McGraw-Hill Education announced a collaboration with Intel that is intended to bring the classroom of the future one step closer to reality. LEAD21, an all-new elementary school literacy program designed to reach a new generation of readers, is the first McGraw-Hill Education program optimized specifically for a new Intel-powered convertible classmate PC reference design that, being more of a full-function PC with a larger screen and hard drive, is better suited for such mature markets as the United States, according to an Intel spokeswoman.

“So what we have is McGraw-Hill selling to schools the classmate PCs with their content to make a full solution,” Galinovsky said, adding that other leading education publishers are about to come on board. “You can’t just throw a netbook or notebook in a school and expect results. This is a great move toward getting the U.S. on board with the holistic learning solution offered through the Intel Learning Series.”

The goal is getting the United States at or near the level of widespread adoption where other countries are at today, according to Galinovsky.

“We are at the precipice of 1:1 computing, where each child has a computer in the classroom. All it takes is a couple of major school districts to adopt it on a big scale here in the U.S.,” he said, listing Los Angeles, New York and Chicago as the top bellwethers. “If we get the right districts adopting the right solutions like the Intel Learning Series solution with the hardware, software and services, we’ll see positive results in the classroom snowball.”

-- David Dickstein

Playing Wargames in the Enterprise

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:06:36 GMT

Enterprise security today is equivalent to an arms race. There really is no such thing as winning, but rather it’s a challenge of staying one step ahead of your opponent — the attackers. As attackers evolve and become more sophisticated, large corporate enterprises must follow suit.

Many companies are investing millions of dollars securing data centers, factories, offices and other assets against increasingly sophisticated security threats. Assessing the risk and taking precautions are usually handled by a single group of people — typically internal information security specialists — and are aimed at understanding vulnerabilities in a particular computing environment.

Security threats however, come from living, breathing opponents who are creative, knowledgeable, collaborative and often very determined to inflict damage. They also have a big advantage over enterprise experts in thinking outside the box, mainly because they are outside the box. To anticipate and better prepare themselves against these attacks, many enterprises are trying to move beyond understanding their computing environments to understanding how their opponents plan, think and attack.

To do a better job of this, Intel Corporation has embraced wargaming as an additional type of risk analysis that helps the company better understand and defend against malicious attackers.

Wargames are just that -- intense role-playing or gaming exercises that involve a multi-disciplinary cross-section of the organization from facilities to finance, IT staff to factory workers. The goal is to move knowledgeable experts into an attacker role and pool collective knowledge and skills to pose a range of attack ideas. The results are very often surprising—uncovering new vulnerabilities that no single individual sees when viewing threats through the shuttered view of a single discipline or business area.

After several years of running wargames, Intel feels it is better prepared, enough to even offer a generalized blueprint for how to test and implement them. Wargames are not a security panacea and are not appropriate for every threat, according to Tim Casey, Intel's senior information risk analyst. They require a commitment from top management and participants, as the cost is borne by a number of groups besides the security group.

Casey said wargames are worth the effort if an organization is serious about defending its most valuable assets against shape-shifting attackers who are smart, well funded and dead serious about getting into your enterprise.

“The threat from the stereotypical high school hackers out for some fun has become trivial,” Casey said. “Today’s malware is designed by organized crime syndicates who have developed extensive and sophisticated malware-as-service systems or by nation-states with literally armies of highly trained cyber warriors.”

Protecting assetts a critical task

Like many multinational companies, Intel is an attractive target for this new generation of high-tech thieves. Intel spends billions of dollars each year on research and development of leading-edge microprocessor technology. "Many of our research areas are of keen interest to competitors and nation-states that are hunting for high-tech secrets," Casey said. "Naturally, Intel wants to protect these investments closely."

Intel’s information security teams began using wargaming several years ago as a unique new risk assessment methodology. Although wargaming is common in the military and as old as war itself, it is relatively new to enterprise IT. Wargames are intensely focused exercises in which a multidisciplinary set of experts gets together to focus intense scrutiny on assets from an attacker’s point of view. By rigorously testing our security assumptions, we are able to uncover vulnerabilities that just don’t surface when using traditional risk assessment techniques.

“The cross-functional, alternate view that wargaming provides us almost always leads to new discoveries,” Casey said. “We often find something we thought was OK but really needs some attention. The good news is wargames help us find those issues before they become actual exploits.”

The increasing and evolving sophistication of attackers is the chief threat that enterprises need to guard against today. In the last 10 years, the profile of the enterprise attacker has changed dramatically.

On the surface, wargaming sounds a lot like penetration testing, in which a small group of experts, sometimes from an outside firm, attempts to penetrate your defenses.

However, penetration testing does not always involve a multidisciplinary approach, nor does it include anyone outside this small group of security professionals. Similarly, an audit is an exercise in getting through a checklist of best-known methods and controls. But in an audit, auditors stay in their defender mindset.

In a wargame, you gather many diverse people from across your company in one room and turn them into bad guys. This diverse group might include business process people, salespeople, logistics people, facilities people and others who would not typically sit at a table together. When these people from across your organization begin to collaborate and pool their expertise with the goal of protecting your company, and stay at it for a couple of days, some surprising attack vectors emerge that security professionals working alone might never see.

According to Casey, no silver bullet exists in corporate risk assessment. Wargaming is a one tool, along with penetration tests, site assessments and others, that enterprises can use to look at broad risks in a way that traditional security analysis tools do not allow.

“Things are constantly changing in the enterprise and getting better every day, but one thing that isn’t going away is the threat of increasingly sophisticated attacks,” Casey said. “Wargames aren’t the only answer, but they can go a long way toward being prepared and finding hidden vulnerabilities.”

Top Intel Wireless Expert Set to Unwire

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:05:38 GMT

Technologist Kevin Kahn has made countless friends within Intel Corporation and the industry over the course of a 34-year career that is coming to a close, Intel Free Press has learned. So numerous is Kahn’s personal Who’s Who developed over three-plus decades, listing his enemies might be easier than creating a list of associates so long it would take up several computer screens.

OK, so enemies might be too harsh a word, though Kahn does admit that he’s “pissed off people very high” by challenging some things over the years. In the inanimate world, however, there’s been one adversary that has followed the man pretty much since his first day at Intel.

It doesn’t take a genius – or in Intel terms, an Intel Senior Fellow, of which Kahn is one of an illustrious few – to figure out that cables and wires don’t have a friend in Kevin Kahn. In fact, much of his professional life has been devoted to ridding the computing world of them. As head of the Communications Lab at Intel, he is responsible for all communications technologies, including radio and optical, and helps drive relevant strategies and polices for the company.

When asked what he considers his greatest accomplishment at Intel, from which he will retire in January, Kahn said he takes pride being a trailblazer in the move toward wireless.

“I feel good knowing I’ve generally been ahead of the curve on a number of issues,” Kahn said in a recent interview. “The best example is probably being one of the first people at Intel who were convinced that wireless is going to be important.”

This vision spawned from when Kahn was looking at the systems Intel and its customers were building and they had gone from standalone to where every system had to communicate. The combination of convenience – not rewiring homes – and mobility made it clear to Kahn that every client was going to need wireless communications ability.

“If this was going to be a crucial element of the platform,” Kahn said, “then Intel needed to at the least deeply understand the technology and more likely be able to create products in which wireless technology was an integral part.

“My boss at the time told me that if it wasn’t inside the sheet metal of the box, then it’s not something we need to get into – that we do processors and things like busses, memory and that touch processors. Wireless to him seemed like an optional add-on, whereas for me wireless seemed like it would become a primary pillar of the platform.”

Wireless is a subject he still waxes today. One of the company’s more visible fellows and quoted spokespeople, Kahn recently spoke to news media about Light Peak, Intel’s codename for a new optical interconnect for mobile devices.

“In some sense we’d like to build the last cable you’ll ever need,” he said.

Tethered connections don’t stand a chance with folks like Kahn around, but it’s not like wires and cables haven’t tried to fight back. Besides posing some formidable technical challenges over the years, these supposedly lifeless objects provided a scary moment early in Kahn’s career. During one of his first meetings at Intel, in a rental building that’s now long gone from the company’s Santa Clara campus maps, Kahn and the other attendees had one eye on business and the other on a major construction going on outside the conference room window.

“They were constructing the latest Intel building at the time and a concrete wall was being hoisted in place,” Kahn recalled. “All of a sudden there was a hellacious bang. An eye bolt cast into the wall broke free from the concrete and the wall fell back down and crashed. The cable had no load and went flying. With the cable spinning around the crane, it was lucky someone didn’t get cut in two.”

Kahn swears the accident has no relevance to his work in wireless and relocation to potentially more serene Oregon a few months later. And based on his track record of not running away from risk, it is understandable.

“I hope I’m considered an exceptionally good systems thinker and someone who is fearless about giving my opinions honestly no matter whether the other person wants to hear them or not,” Kahn said. “I don’t care if you’re the CEO or the person in the next cube.”

Kahn admits this personality trait has gotten him in trouble at times, but to that he brushes off the thought with one of his favorite quips: “Such is life.” Of course, it helps when one works in a company that encourages risk-taking. It’s at the heart of Intel’s corporate culture.

Able to combine risk-taking with a tendency to look past what’s immediately in front of him, it’s no wonder that some of Kahn’s current focuses are broadband access to the home, wireless networks, spectrum policy and related Internet issues.

As one of the few holding the highest technical position possible in the company, the Intel Senior Fellow obviously has played the right cards over a career that will be 8 months shy of the 35-year milestone when he turns in his company badge on Jan. 3. He will have reached another milestone a month prior – 60 years of age -- and there will be a lot to look back on since the day in September 1976 when he drove out West from Indiana with a barely dry Ph.D. in computer science from Purdue University.

His Intel resume is one of the most impressive in the company, having worked in system software development, operating systems, processor architecture and various strategic planning roles over his long career. Holder of multiple patents in processor architecture and communications technologies, plus taking on significant roles and responsibilities, his will be big shoes to fill and not just because he wears a size 11.

Looking forward

“We need a certain number of people who look out further and ask what the world will look like a dozen years from now and figure out what we need to do to get there,” Kahn said. “I’m hopeful that our senior people will continue investing in the future leadership cadre, making sure the future generation of our technical leaders is up to snuff.

Speaking of the future, plenty of scuba diving and golfing is on the horizon besides spending more time with his unretired wife, Suzanne (director of maintenance operations for the city of Portland, Ore.), and in their home a literal stone’s throw from tranquil Marquam Nature Park.

Proving that you can take the man out of Intel, but you can’t take technology out of the man, Kahn also sees himself staying involved in areas he finds most intriguing. Technology policy is one because, Kahn said, “it grapples with tough questions in the gray space.”

“Technology tends to be very black and white,” he said. “It works or it doesn’t. At this time of my life I get excited on what is gray. Gray tends to give you headaches in a fun way.”

If that makes Kahn sound like a nerdy sadist, he could probably wear that title as a badge of honor.

“I’ve made it a practice in my career that I’ve always done the next interesting thing,” he said. “I expect retirement will be the same. Once I’m doing stuff we’ll see. No doubt opportunities will present themselves and some will be interesting.

“The reason people retire is they feel they’ve given what they can give and they’re done with that particular faze of their life. I don’t want to be one of those guys people look at and ask why he is still here. I don’t want to be dead wood.”

Free Shot: Smart TV is Here

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:36:04 GMT

There’s a new kind of television experience coming to a living room near you, powered by the Intel Atom processor. Logitech launched its Revue set-top box with the Intel Atom processor on Oct. 6 followed closely by Sony who launched the first-ever Intel Atom processor-based HDTV along with a new Atom-processor based Blu-Ray player at a launch event in New York October 12. This new TV experience, which blends broadcast and Internet together in a seamless way, is the result of a partnership with Google, Sony, Intel and Logitech. For more on Smart TV, visit www.intel.com/consumer/products/smarttv/index.htm.

Free Shot: Be Cyber Safe, Not Cyber Sorry

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:34:24 GMT

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Being on-guard online 24/7 is important year-round, but in commemoration of this month’s seventh annual campaign, parents might want to educate their children about smart and responsible information-sharing and behavior. Make it clear to your kids that everything they post to a social networking site, or even send in an email, could easily end up being widely distributed to anyone in cyberspace - including people they'd never talk with in person. On the list of details they should never share online: home addresses, phone numbers, any financial information, sensitive personal details or compromising pictures. Americans - and anyone connected around the world - can follow a few simple steps to keep themselves safe online. By doing so, you keep your personal assets and information secure and help to improve the overall security of cyberspace. So be safe, not sorry.

Free Shot: Do Humans Treat Devices Like People?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:30:00 GMT

A Stanford professor who knows a thing or two about the relationship between man and technology – he’s director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab - has a new book out titled "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships." Clifford Nass shares his discovery of a set of rules for effective human relationships, drawn from an unlikely source: his study of our interactions with computers. His research shows that - although we might deny it - we treat computers and other devices like people. According to the author, a Silicon Valley resident, we empathize with electronics in addition to arguing and bonding with them. We even lie to them to protect their feelings, according to Nass, who offers insights on how people can have healthier relationships with one another. Unplugged, that is.

Free Shot: Where is AJ the Fiesta?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:22:45 GMT

Maybe you saw the news about AJ the Fiesta, an innovative social media/marketing/technology experiment conducted a few months ago. AJ is a car that tweets with the help of some cool software, and it was part of a joint research project among Intel, Ford, Microsoft and the University of Michigan. Students who took part in a 12-week course titled “Cloud Computing in the Commute” had the chance to innovate around the in-car experience by developing experimental applications that combined social networks, GPS location and real-time vehicle data in new ways - all without creating a distraction to drivers, of course.

Developed on an Intel Architecture-based hardware platform, six teams of students competed to create a winning application that would ultimately be installed in the two Ford Fiestas. The winning team — which created an app called “Caravan Track” running on a Dell Windows 7 PC inside the research vehicle trunk — even got to drive a companion prototype called Go Blue throughout the American Journey 2.0 road trip. For more, visit www.americanjourney2.com/about.php.

Free Shot: TV Takes on Internet at 71

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:07:54 GMT

Just as video killed the radio star, some believe the Internet might bury the beloved TV. One scientist sees the future of TV literally coming off the wall. TV was introduced in 1939 and since then we’ve seen the addition of color, the remote control, cable, satellite, getting super-sized and going digital. Intel Futurist Brian David Johnson, who recently authored the book "Screen Future," said he believes TV will simply absorb the Internet and keep on evolving. In an interview with Rocketboom Tech, Johnson says that the technology and people’s concept of TV could change, but new personalization and accessibility on many different screens will keep TV evolving and very much a part of our lives.

Free Shot: What Happened to ARM-based Netbooks?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:14:21 GMT

Remember all the talk about ARM-based netbooks that were going to grow substantially after the initial Intel Atom-processor powered netbook craze of 2008-2009? Turns out there arent many, and the numbers aren’t so compelling. Even ABI Research, which at one point predicted a long-term forecast of 163 million such devices by 2015, recently lowered its own estimate to more like 93 million by 2015. For more on this, see Smartbook Remix from ABI Research.

Free Shot: Looking for Tablets this Holiday Season?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:18:02 GMT

This is the first year when tablet computers have a chance of hitting a relative’s top 10 wish list for the holidays. In addition to the widely popular iPad, several new touch screen tablets are rumored to be coming before the end of the year, including the hybrid Dell Inspiron Duo tablet-netbook. Moving away from a physical keyboard and familiar computing experience might scare away many people, but Dell seems to have found a nice middle ground. This video shows how the 10-inch touch screen flips transforming the tablet slate into a traditional netbook with keyboard.

Free Shot: Fabulous Fab Facts

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:25:07 GMT

Intel has seven 300mm fabs in production, including three state-of-the art 32nm facilities and another one ramping into production.

Fab technicians typically work three 12-hour shifts one week and four 12-hour shifts the next.
Intel's fabs operate 24/7, manufacturing silicon chips to supply increasing worldwide demand.
Intel can build a world-class fab and start high-volume production in less than a year.
A fab contains about 40 miles of pipe and is built using some 10,000 truckloads of cement.
More than three football fields could fit within a typical cleanroom inside an Intel fab.
Monorails used to transport 12-inch silicon wafers from station to station inside a cleanroom can have up to 3 miles of track.
Intel's highest-performing processors are typically are made in the company's most advanced facilities, currently those running 32nm process technology. When the newest, most advanced facilities come online, the next-to-the-newest facilities are then used to make other high-demand products, such as leading-edge chipsets and other performance and energy-efficient performance processors.