So, I’ll confess, I’ve always liked the presentation style of Mooly Eden, our Corporate Vice President & General Manager of our PC Client Group – I have always found it to be very honest & straight forward. Personally, I’ve always liked folks that shoot from the hip & tell you like it is. So, with that said, I still think Mooly did a great job with his keynote.

If I have to be totally honest, I had not really gotten the whole “ultrabook” thing – at least not until I saw this keynote, so for that reason alone, I’m glad I came to IDF! But, before Mooly got to ultrabooks, he made a point of making something perfectly clear – the “PC” market is still a healthy, growing, vibrant market segment. I know personally, I’ve seen all kinds of stories of the “Post-PC” era & I’ve never put much stock in it because, while tablets & netbooks make great consumption vehicles – a very large portion of the population, especially the younger end of the population, don’t want to just consume content, they want to create it – whether that be a video, a song, or even a game. Today’s young people are far more likely to want to make a video then they want to make a diorama – like my generation did.

So, in support of this trend, Mooly talked a lot about not only Sandy Bridge, which is our current generation of mainstream client processors, but also Ivy Bridge, which is right around the corner. Not only does Ivy Bridge have 1.48 Billion Transistors in it, but there has also been a significant improvement over and above the graphics capabilities in Sandy Bridge so when this new platform comes out, it should truly amaze people by what it can do. And, of course, as previously announced, Ivy Bridge will be produced on our newest 22nm, Tri-Gate transistors, which will only further help improve its energy efficiencies.

And that can only help with our initiatives around Ultrabooks which really are just the next stage in the evolution of what people told us was important when we created the first Centrino Mobile platforms. Back in 2003, there were clearly for vectors people cared about:

• Great Performance
• Light Form Factors
• Long Battery Life
• And, easy connections to Wi-Fi

So, Ultrabooks just basically drive all of the above to the limits of what is possible with today’s technologies, and then tries to push it all just a little bit better. But this is not something Intel is taking lightly – we are investing $300 Million into an Ultrabook Ecosystem Fund so that we can help to accerate the rate at which the next advances in Ultrabook-related technologies not only become possible, but also, perhaps most importantly, cost effective.

And, while Mooly was able to show and demonstrate some Ultrabook systems based on Ivy Bridge, he was able to go 1 step farther and actually show some designs made by various ODMs of Ultrabooks based on Haswell, the next generation after Ivy Bridge, which I think is an amazing accomplishment! One of the emphasis of the new Haswell-based systems will be roughly a 20x reduction in standby power consumption when compared to the current generation of solutions.

On top of all of the above, Mooly also had some friends join him on stage, from the likes of McAfee & Microsoft, to highlight some collaborative work they’ve been doing with us in the area of Security & Windows 8, respectively.

So, in the end, it was a great keynote – loads of great product-related news, some cool demos of what is coming next, & nice collaborative efforts with some of the biggest names in the technology industries. But, obviously, one cannot squeeze a whole hour of a great keynote into a single blog post, so be sure to watch the Webcast of Mooly’s Keynote for yourself!

So, IDF 2011 – it is finally underway & think it is off to a pretty good start! For me personally, I was able to roll-in at about 8AM, grabbed some coffee & a bagel, then had a few meetings & connected with a lot of my friends in the world of social media (@kentonwilliston, @cvelis, and @bobduffy), then got pretty good seats to see the keynote… 

To open, Johan Jervoe (Intel Vice President and Director of Creative Services) started us off giving some highlights of the Keynotes we’ve got lined up this week as well as some major other items going on this week, including panel with our CIO, Diane Bryant and other great opportunities to learn from Intel experts. 

Then, we had Paul Otellini, our President & CEO come out & give the Day 1 keynote. He started with talking about how computing has come a long way in 30 years since the first PC, the changes still yet to come may be even more remarkable. A common theme was, despite all that has been accomplished, it is all almost nothing when compared to what will be coming next. While that may seem hard to believe, I think he’s actually captured the future pretty well. Unlike almost any other industry, automobiles, aerospace, even electrical utilities in general, the world of computing is not experiencing any kind of “plateauing” often seen elsewhere. For example, in the early days of aviation, the top speeds & top ranges grew by leaps & bounds for decades, but eventually started to slow until the significant increases are decades apart instead of just years apart. When you look at the general world of computing – and the engine behind computing: Moore’s Law – there seems to be no slowing down. In fact, due to the miracles of a connected world, some aspects are actually speeding up! 

But, at the center of it all, is the user. We are seeing critical transition: 

From Personal ComputERS to Personal ComputING 

The difference is the above is not simply a grammatical tweak, but rather a landmark shift where the computing DEVICE is still important, but the computing EXPERIENCE is the priority. And in order for that to come to fruition, we need to embrace these 3 Computing Essentials:

• Computing Must Be Engaging
• Computing Must Be Consistent
• Computing Must Be Protected

On the first point – Engaging – it is the continuation of what we’ve enjoyed over the last decade. Pictures must have greater context (geo-tagging, people tagging, time stamps, etc.). Video must be easier to take, edit, and share with your friends and loved ones. We need to be able to ignore the tsunami of data flowing around us & instead just pay attention to the knowledge gleaned from said data. In short, we need great processors to make our lives better in almost every way. 

On the second point – Consistent – I took it to mean 2 things – people need to be able to interact with their devices in an intuitive & consistent way (like not having different methods for doing something like sending emails just because you are doing it on different devices) and, perhaps most importantly, you need all your different computing devices to share your information & digital properties seamlessly & effortlessly. When you take a great picture of your kids playing & having fun, you don’t want to have to remember where you copied that to or where you haven’t – you just want to be able to access that picture from any device, at any time, without any muss or fuss. 

And that brings us to the last point – Protected – where you want easy access to your information while you want unauthorized access to that same information to be practically impossible. You also want to be able to use your various computing devices in a worry free way where you don’t need tobe a computer expert just to stay safe. You want your computing devices, with its Gigahertz of speed in Gigabytes of memory, to be smart enough to know what is safe and what is not safe to do, so you can just enjoy the computing experience without the previously associated computing fears. 

To discuss this last point, Paul brought out on stage an executive from McAfee to discuss a new technology called: DeepSAFE. Click the link to learn all about it, but the short version is it leverages both Software & Hardware together to keep you safer then you’ve ever been before. They showed a demo where two almost identical systems experienced a “Root-Kit” attack, but the system with the DeepSAFE technology was able to detect it & stop it in real-time while the other systems was not so fortunate! 

From my perspective, there were some other great things shown, such as an Intel Processor being powered by ONLY a Solar Cell the size of the heat-sinks we USED to have to use (this processor required NO heat-sink). He also talked about the next generation codename after Ivy Bridge called “Haswell” & how it would be laser focused on being an order of magnitude difference in the power consumption needs of future computing devices. And, perhaps one of the coolest things, from my perspective was, Google announced that ALL Future Releases of Android would be FULLY Optimized to run on Intel Processors. To me, that is huge because it will just further expand all the places where Intel Technology can help to make an even better computing experience! 

So, that’s it, that’s a quick recap of a great hour worth of news from the Day 1 Keynote at IDF 2011. There was obviously a lot more that happened than I can write about in a single blog, so feel free to watch the webcast of the keynote for yourself, but I’ll leave you with the quote shared by an Executive from Dreamworks: 

Dreamworks Animates Great Movies – Intel Animates the WORLD!

SUMMARY: The last day of IDF is always a mad rush to see all the things I haven’t quite had time for. I spent some time at the poster chats, talking to researchers working on projects ranging from helping people determine nutritional information from digital photos to the game Water Wars, an immersive 3D multiplayer simulation based on high-fidelity hydrology models. Intel Labs isn’t afraid to tackle tough problems.

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SUMMARY: Some of my pet projects were represented today, with personal energy management at the top of the list. The session “Personal Energy Systems: Doing for the Grid What Intel Did for Computing!” covered personal energy management systems, the shift from central to local control of energy, and calls to action for researchers and businesses to get involved in developing this area of study.

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SUMMARY: The final day of IDF looks toward the future in the morning keynote with Intel VP, Director of Intel Labs, and CTO Justin Rattner. This is a future shaped by consumer behavior, where technology companies gain insight and identify new advances by observing the pain points, gaps in capabilities, and tech tricks that people use to complete the tasks they need or want to complete. Many people have separate digital work and home lives, even using two different mobile devices. There are lessons to be learned from these use cases, and ways we can improve devices to accommodate a much broader array of user needs.

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SUMMARY: Highlights from the Technology Showcase and the Intel Fellows Live panel include some insights on the future of input devices, how Skype is working with Intel to improve call quality, my up-close experience with the Adidas digital kiosk, and a few companies doing cool things with debugging and security.

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Today there was a double-long session focused on advances and products in the portable device space, called “Open Microphone for Intel® Atom™ Processor-Based Smartphones and Handhelds.” This rapid-fire session featured a large number of speakers who each had five-ish minutes to discuss their specific products, companies, and roadmaps. I picked a few of my favorites to share with you. Keep an eye on these companies. Some are well-established, while others are just getting started. All of them are doing interesting things in the mobile space.

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Summary: Kicking off Day 2 of IDF San Francisco 2010, Renee James, senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group, and Doug Davis, vice president and general manager of the Embedded and Communications Group, spoke on topics ranging from software development to new embedded processor announcements, with demos of small form factors and practical applications like real-time, in-vehicle diagnostics and smart TV.

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I was thrilled to start my day of technical sessions hearing about how Intel labs research is driving technology innovation with a strong influence from real consumers from all over the world.

In “Interactions and Experiences Research: A New Intel Lab with a Bold Vision,” Michael Payne, the Experience Design Lab Director, and Horst Haussecker, the Experience Technology Lab Director, told us that interaction and experience research (IXR) is Intel’s bold bet that consumer insight matters– in areas from silicon to software. Working directly with consumers is giving Intel a strong vision of what features future technologies should support, based on consumer need and demand.

IXR is helping Intel create experiences people love. Horst joked that he is in the business of making love. (Not a bad gig, if you can get it!) It’s not just about how people interact with technology, but how they interact with each other, both in person and when apart.

The Lab brings together ethnographers, developers, anthropologists, design researchers, and human factors experts–a new approach for Intel. These individuals spend time with real people, observing, learning about, and understanding their changing media behavior, and discovering their pain points and tech-related coping mechanisms. IXR makes sense of it all, and brings insight into the process. Intel is sharing that insight throughout the company and with partners to help drive technology growth and innovation.

I am impressed that the lab is building real, functional prototypes and exploring what it takes to integrate technology that is on the cutting edge. It’s difficult to predict whether people will really use something the way you expect until you put it in their hands. Building products that people love takes a deep understanding of what they care about, rigorous process of design and iteration, and tech that delivers an experience, not a usage.

In his keynote, Dadi talked about the continuum of experiences across devices, places, people and contexts. The Intel Lab is helping to bring the insights of consumers from all over the world to the engineers and designers who are creating needed consistency and flexibility across that continuum.

Between sessions, I had the best OH at IDF. Overheard just outside the restrooms: “This is the one place where there is always a line for the men’s room, and never a line for the women’s. Tech conferences. I love ‘em!”

One of the things that struck me in a number of sessions today is how forward-looking it is for Intel to seek global input on product development and planning. In an afternoon session, “Social Forces that Drive Technology Adoption,” with anthropologists Kathi Kitner and Dr. Dawn Nafus, the focus was on cultural differences and the social viability of business in new markets.

The panelists offered a triad of social forces that determine social viability–citizenship, class, and individual agency. Citizenship is not nationality, but how people come to feel that they belong to a society. Class is how the social hierarchy is structured. (Interestingly, 90% of Americans self-report as middle-class.) Individual agency is who gets control of what. The transition from desktop to notebook profoundly changed who controls the machine. With mobility comes distributed control. Each social force plays out to a greater or lesser degree in different places and times, and impacts features, product positing, business models, and more.

The SWOT Analysis was proposed as a three-step method to evaluate and consider potential social impacts. The first step: Diagnose the social forces that have the greatest impact on the program. The second step: Analyze how social forces are impacting social and/or business goals. The third step: Strategize how best to adapt and accommodate these social forces for the purposes of the program.

Three case studies showed the value of understanding and managing social forces in different countries with vastly different social expectations.

• In Kenya, there is M-Pesa–an SMS-based payment system that uses a network of airtime resellers. It was started as a DFID development program to bank the unbanked. Previously, banking was inaccessible and access to ATMs unpredictable, discouraging bank use. By marketing M-Pesa as a nationally accessible, for-everyone service, the company has gone private and grown to 7 million customers in two years.

• Class systems are deeply embedded in Mexico. There are mixed feeling about foreign products, but there is a mystique to them, and a sense of them being better. Walmart opened stores in Mexico in the 1980s, and played up “the foreign” in marketing. They created an image of being high-class and bought up existing banking services and retail brands. At the same time, they broadcast the idea that everyone has to shop somewhere. In rigid class structures, smart retailers give people permission to desire.

• In Digital City, China, on the border of Russia and China, is the Suifenhe Cyberport, which has the most advanced digital infrastructure of any municipality in the world. The mayor researched, organized, and now operates the program, which includes wireless build-out, surveillance, payment systems for utilities and consumption, in-home learning, remote diagnosis, and online systems for cross-border trade, among other features. The tough thing about the project is that if this mayor is removed, the project may wither and die.

The strength of each social force helps determine what strategy you take.

These sessions inspired and reaffirmed of my beliefs about user centered design. While no one used that term today, it is basically what we are talking about. Companies are finding success when they put the individual who will use their product at the center of their planing, design and build.

SUMMARY: Rounding out the first day of sessions, I attended a panel discussion called “It’s All a Game: Gaming Technology and the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum,” where the academic community explored the future of gaming education in academia and how Intel is supporting it. In the afternoon, members of the Intel Labs gave us advice on how to start and operate an innovation program, a topic that is highly popular in all sectors today.

Part of my Monday morning was spent in the academic track, learning about gaming technology and the undergraduate computer science curriculums. It’s been over a decade since the first of my friends began their careers in gaming, so it is a little surprising to me that there are still only a handful of schools with dedicated gaming curriculums. This is changing, however, with new programs opening up all over the U.S.

Intel is fostering these programs by providing sample and source material on which professors can build curriculums. The goal is to enable to exploration in graphics, algorithms, embedded processing, AI, and systems, and to generate cross-curricular conversations.

The panel addressed the need to infuse the concepts of parallelism into computer science curriculums throughout the education process, and discussed how multicore platforms offer students ways to do more than they have before.

Intel has written game demos that curriculums are built around, and that can be evaluated, broken apart, rewritten, and modified to help teach the various sets of skills necessary to develop and build a gamete threading. Tools like the Thread Profiler can be used to streamline and evaluate. The demos for Smoke, Pet Me, and Destroy the Castle are all available for download from intel.com. Each teaches something different. Smoke is an engine demo allowing students to explore the different types of computations games can do and figure out how to max the usage of the CPU. Destroy the Castle gives students an opportunity to unroll a loop, fork-join work, do scaffolded exercises, and figure out ways to break the castle and fix it again.

The panel predicts that most CS programs will have a degree with “game” in the title within the next 10 years. Whether we will see a glut of game developers coming out with degrees in the next few years is still TBD. One panelist reported that 175 new gaming companies have opened up shop in the gaming corridor between San Francisco and San Diego in the last year alone. Even though there may not be enough game companies to support the flood of graduates, the panel participants said that the skills learned are highly transferrable to other computer science applications. Once you teach someone how to solve complex problems and give them the tools to do so, it matters very little whether it’s for a game or for another type of application.

“How to Start and Operate an Innovation Program” was led by Esther Baldwin of Intel Labs, with video contribution from Dr. Martin Curley, Director of Intel Labs Europe. The biggest takeaway from this panel was that you should not innovate just for the sake of innovation.

Intel has enabled research and innovation for 40 years by bringing formalized innovation processes to company processes and policies. The three P’s of innovation are making it predictable, probable, and profitable. The current success rate for innovation is 10%. The lowest return is on product innovation, but that’s what most companies invest in. You get a higher return on innovation in finance, process, and delivery areas.

Many companies ask staff to do more with less, particularly when the economy is tough–but working harder is not sustainable.

Esther introduced us to what she calls Innovation Jiu-Jitsu (gentle soft pliable technique). The motto: “With your strength I will conquer.”

Managing change is one of the hardest things to do, and so is finding ways to incorporate change into existing processes, and providing incentive and rewards for participation. Innovation can be an enterprise-wide discipline, and it can be implemented as a program from either the top down or the bottom up, but management buy-in is essential. There is an immune reaction people have to change. It’s uncomfortable to alter a routine. Avoiding that immune response is key to managing and implementing change.

One of the important points was that people are afraid to copy successful innovations. There is a stigma about copying, and people like to create new things. There are rarely rewards for those who copy, but the highest investment returns can be found from reapplying the lessons learned from previous innovations. Reapplied innovation is about utilizing something for a new purpose. A good example of this is Super Glue. Super Glue was developed to fix broken housewares, but it took only a small chemical change to give it antibacterial properties, making it perfect for closing wounds in medical facilities. A new audience for the product was born.

There are companies, universities, and institutes creating innovation centers around the world to drive a culture of innovation. There are several models for these innovation centers, and what works for one company may not work for another. Whether your innovation program is distributed, centralized, virtual, or mobile, involving people from throughout your organization will help bring diverse insights to your program. There is a place at the table for everyone–which may intimidate your existing innovators. Help them feel more comfortable by talking about the roles that others can play to help bridge the chasm between innovators and early adopters to make your innovations real.

While the most common tool for innovation is brainstorming, used in 90% of cases, there are literally dozens and dozens more. Different tools can give different results. We were encouraged to explore different tools and incorporate them into our innovation ideation.

We were also reminded that working harder is not the answer, but innovation in process is. Ask yourself whether you are providing what your users need, or what technologists think they need.

To foster and develop an innovation program, you must have management commitment, integration with existing processes to avoid the immune response, discipline, a budget assigned to the program, and diversity and openness. Diversity brings innovation. Diversity can be fostered through collaboration if there is diversity among the collaborators.

The PDF presentations from all the IDF sessions can be found at intel.com/go/idfsessions. I highly recommend looking at the slides that focus on innovation and ideation tools, and learning new ways to bring creative thinking to your projects.

By the end of the day of sessions I was bushed, so I headed for the recharge zone and plugged into the solar-powered charging station, glad that we had a sunny day in San Francisco. I took a few minutes to chill as I reviewed my session notes from the day and jammed to the tracks that the house DJ was spinning. She was really stomping! The mix was upbeat, digital, and fun. A perfect wrap-up to a high-energy day of learning. And there are still two more days of adventure!