Note: I am posting this for John Cooney, Intel’s Program Manager for Mass Animation
Earlier this month, Intel announced the Mass Animation project at SIGGRAPH. The project will enable animators around the world to collaborate via Facebook on a 5-minute, professional-quality animated short film.
Last Friday, in madness of last minute preparations for IDF this week, I took a break and headed to one of the mobility labs at our Hillsboro, Ore. campus. This particular lab is one where the mobile group is showcasing a very cool technology coming to laptops soon. It’s codenamed “Cliffside.” Other people have blogged about Cliffside in the past here and here, but I wanted to check it out for myself and Scott with our mobile wireless group agreed to give me my own demo.
If you haven’t heard about it, Cliffside is new software developed by Intel that will let you create your own personal Wi-Fi network with a Centrino 2-based laptop. This means you can wirelessly connect and manage a variety of devices that are Wi-Fi enabled - from digital cameras, MP3 players, to printers and projectors - via your laptop. The laptop is both a Wi-Fi client, as well as an “access point” for the various devices. So cool! And the best part? NO WIRES! I have so many different wires for my various Wi-Fi enabled devices and I can’t wait to get rid of them when Cliffside arrives on the scene.
If you haven’t witnessed this thing of beauty yet, be sure to check it out. Cliffside will be on display at the Technology Showcase here at IDF this week. Or, if you’re not here at IDF, check out my video of Scott’s demonstration for me last Friday in the lab.
He announced that the new 6-core Intel Xeon processor for expandable servers will launch in September, and has already broken multiple world performance records - notably the first x86-based server to burst through the 1 million barrier in the industry- standard TPC Benchmark C benchmark which measures database performance.
Many of you are undoubtedly aware of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), which is taking place this week in San Francisco. Embedded technologies are taking center stage this IDF, and In-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems are a part of this show. Of note, we are not just showing the latest infotainment system capabilities, we are also giving an IVI system away as part of the Ultimate Geek Challenge at IDF. In addition to receiving the Ultimate Geek crown , the winner of the challenge will win a Smart Passion Coupe car outfitted with Azentek’s IVI system!
I think the winner will be thrilled with the IVI system in the Smart car. Azentek’s Atlas CPC-1000 product based on Intel architecture includes music, radio (integrated AM/FM tuner, HD and satellite radio ready), e-mail, navigation, hands-free cell phone use and Web browsing, all of which can be controlled through a safe and easy-to-use touch-screen user interface. Come see the Smart car on display on the 3rd floor, just outside the Keynote Hall.
The Smart car isn’t the only cool project we’ll have on-site. We also worked with Wind River Systems, with the support of BMW, to bring the latest technology into a proof-of-concept IVI system based on the Intel Atom processor and Wind River Linux Platform for Infotainment, which is actually a Moblin-based Automotive Linux stack. The BMW demonstration car showcases 3D navigation, location awareness and rear-seat video streaming. It is a great example of how the automotive industry can take advantage of commercial-off-the-shelf technology brought together by the eco-system, and tap into a bigger pool of applications and services capabilities. Come to the Embedded pavilion at IDF (#2310) and check it out! You can also see it in Pat Gelsinger’s keynote presentation. It is pretty amazing what your next-generation IVI system can do.
Interested in the latest news, analysis and commentary about the Intel Developer Forum? Eager to voice your opinions and participate in the action? Then be sure to check out IDF Connected, the latest in our family of blogs, dedicated exclusively to coverage of the Intel Developer Forum.
Nehalem. A small town along a river by the same name in Oregon, and also code-name for Intel’s next generation microarchitecture. Today Intel announced that upcoming products based on this new architecture will officially be called Intel® Core™ processors. Will Nehalem fade away as a code name? Probably not right away. But over time, if you want all the goodness that Nehalem represents, think Intel Core processor.
Speaking of goodness, a fair amount is known about Intel’s new microarchitecture, but not all technical details have been revealved. Expect to see and hear more about the new architecture and the upcoming Intel Core processors at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco August 19-21. Keep a close eye on Pat Gelsinger’s keynote speech on August 19.
The first products in this new family of processors, which will be in production in Q4 and feature a unique mix of performance and energy efficiency, will also carry a new identifier and be formally branded the Intel® Core™ i7 processor. Believe it or not, this new naming scheme should make it easier for PC buyers to decide which technology is right for them. The “i7” identifier is the first of several new identifiers to come as different Nehalem-based products launch over the next year.
So the Intel Core processor will become the foundation, the primary client brand going forward, with individual identifiers distinquishing different features and capabilities with the family of processors. Watch this space for more details…
What would you do with a billion Intel transistors nestled in our pocket?
If what they said today comes true, we might have a billion transistors efficiently running a system on a chip that puts high speed computer performance and wireless Internet inside many of the things we touch — from our mobile phones and computers to the navigation system in our car.
“The major forces that are shaping the design of silicon have to do with the need for connectivity to the Internet, computer power, and the progress of Moore’s Law,” Intel VP Gadi Singer said, referring to the maxim that chip performance can double every two years or so thanks to manufacturing improvements. That was what Dean Takahashi from Venture Beat wrote in one the first story released from today’s briefing in San Francisco.
Gadi was joined by Intel VP Doug Davis shared new plans for Intel Smart SoC — System on a Chip — and introduced eight brand new embedded chips under its Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor family for security, storage, communications, and industrial robotics. The overall SoC efforts are aimed at traditional computing businesses and several growth areas across Consumer Electronics (CE), Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and embedded markets.
First, let me take a moment to comment on my post earlier this week in response to an article written about WiMAX’s momentum. We are all professionals, but occasionally, the passion for our various positions does spill over. I was sparked by the positioning of WiMAX as a niche technology by a Gartner report cited in the article, and what I perceived as an effort to characterize it as such broadly. My words were harsh and for that I do apologize to Gartner. My point, better said after the passage of time is that WiMAX is gaining significant momentum and already has a substantial planned footprint in developing and developed economies and is destined, from my view, for delivery of next generation 4G networking capability for computing and communications.
There is a lot of talk these days about Telco’s deploying LTE, etc, etc…. Let’s ignore the fact that LTE remains ‘Vaporware’ today, (all talk, and no product in sight, not even an IEEE standard in sight).
So, if and when it does get here, then how will the proponents of LTE position it? LTE, and WiMAX for that matter, are both packet technologies. WiMAX is super fast, open, no walled garden, etc, just the internet we know and love, but mobile. LTE is being positioned as essentially the same as WiMAX.