Research Reflections on IDF - Day 2

posted by Brian McCarthy on September 19, 2007

Here at IDF - Day 2, the technology showcase is going full steam. With lunch being served in the showcase area it is a certain draw for the attendees - kind of like a massive lunch and learn. In the Research and Development pavilion, we are hosting 11 demonstrations of the work that is going on in our labs. Segmented into two tracks, Mobility Research and Tera Scale Research, the pavilion has plenty of content for everyone. Today’s blog will highlight the mobility demonstrations and tomorrow we’ll cover the tera scale theme. Let’s see what’s going on…

Energy-efficient Communications Research

The number one problem cited by users with respect to mobile devices is battery life. In this demo we see two potential technologies to maximize battery life in mobile platforms: adaptive snoozing and adaptive scanning. Through use of accelerometers and WiFi scheduling algorithms in the radio subsystem, this research demonstrates novel approaches to power savings. I’m trying to implement personal adaptive snoozing.

MAC Coordination for Multi-radio Coexistence

As users demand devices that support multiple wireless standards, coordination of multiple radios is critical for simultaneous operation. Intel’s MAC coordination research demonstrates coexistence between multiple standards for next-generation mobile devices. The solution highlights dynamically scheduled shared RF spectrum and hardware resources (antenna, FEM, etc.) to enable desired usage models. We will show the concurrent connectivity to WIFI, WiMAX and Bluetooth network. Rockin’ music in this demo. Niiice.

Spectrum Sensing

The existence of multiple radios in the same or adjacent spectrum often causes interference which reduces the expected performance and throughput of the radios. This demo shows the feasibility of performing spectrum sensing to identify the interferers using an Intel radio for the first time. You mean I will no longer lose a call or my wireless network connection when my kids microwave a burrito?!

Runtime Kernel Rootkit Detection Technology

This prototype shows technology capable of detecting advanced kernel rootkits by performing runtime memory verification of known kernel software and correlation with CPU state from an isolated secure platform partition. Security - almost always a good thing.

WISP (Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform)

WISP, the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform, allows battery-free, wirelessly powered operation of sensors, non-volatile memory, and computation. We will demonstrate wirelessly powered accelerometers, strain gauges, and temperature sensors. WISP capabilities can also be embedded in Intel Platforms to allow device configuration even when the PC is off and inside its box. This is an extra cool, very tactile demo from one of our ‘way out there’ research teams. I can’t wait to see what this technology evolves to for everyday life.

Intel Mash Maker: Context-aware Mashups for the Masses

As future mobile devices become sensor rich and allow users to author data in new forms, a new class of Web 2.0 applications will emerge. Mash Maker shows a novel “remixing on-the-go” mobile usage that allows users to create highly-relevant, context sensitive mashups based on information extracted from sensors embedded on a MID platform. It is actually unfair to this demo to even call it a mashup tool. It is really much more like a semantic web browser.

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tagged: energy efficient, IDF, mac coordination, mash maker, mashups, research, rootkit, security, spectrum sensing, wisp