posted by Ken Kaplan on December 30, 2008
Before Intel Developer Forums and some of the bigger consumer electronics shows, I always try to catch up with Ultra Mobility man Uday Keshvadas to see what new gadgets he’s packin’ up.
Just before the holidays as he was gearing up for the Consumer Electronics Show, Uday showed me his team’s latest collection of Mobile Internet Devices, each powered by a tiny, mighty Intel Atom processor.
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tagged: BenQ, CES09, Clarion MIND, Fujitsu, Intel Atom, Intel@CES09, Lenovo ideapad, MID, Panasonic
posted by Bill Kircos on December 10, 2008
I had a rare opportunity to get a DreamWorks studio tour the other day, learning all about the 3-D and animation process when making a film like Monsters Vs. Aliens, which is set for a March opening. A couple of us also got to screen large portions of the movie.
I wish I could divulge more of the plot and humor in the film - it’s classic DreamWorks where kids will be enamored and laugh and us older folks will catch the ‘adult’ humor and one-liners to keep everyone entertained. There are trailers and more info here .
What struck me is the whole move to a new kind of 3-D film-making, which is a pre-cursor to a future someday where games, TVs, Internet surfing - everything will be in 3-D. When DreamWorks says they have a whole new and outstanding 3-D viewing experience, they’re not kidding. Pardon the pun, but you have to see it to believe it. Monsters will be a totally immersive 3-D experience. It’s NOT a gimmick like the old 3-D movies, where an occasional ball or laser beam or knife (or axe, Jason) shoots out from the screen. Nor is it a 2-D movie that is then retrofitted into 3-D, like some studios do today — it’s soup to nuts, integrated 3-D production.
You really feel like you’re sitting at the table with the characters, or seeing dust or water or fireballs flying in the air during the action scenes, among many other examples. Intel along with DreamWorks have a brand for this experience, ‘InTru3D.’
On top of that, the yearly advances in animation design and special effects are amazing. Viewers can see sweat beads from a nervous character, even the shape of teeth inside of mouths, not to mention incredible water, fire and environmental effects. Wait til you see the scenes in San Francisco.
The good news for Intel and the high-tech community? The shift to 3-D, and any tangible increases in special effects, requires massive processing power, and related software and hardware needs. Heck, just doing 3-D requires twice as much work since development is done so that each eye has a dedicated scene or picture frame to it.
At Intel, we often use the term inflection point. Andy Grove coined the term in a book to describe “the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end.”
DreamWorks is at the forefront of a 3-D movie-making inflection point. Filmmaking, theater equipment even the glasses are changing. I believe Intel is there, too, as the shift from single to multi to many-brained or many core processors and how people use them is already underway. In 2007 we showed a prototype 80-core processor, and in August outlined plans for our Larrabee architecture. We will deliver a future 8-core, multi-threaded processor as part of a new family of chips we unveiled a couple of weeks ago.
Don’t underestimate the major challenge for software, too. Software makers will need to shift from a single core philosophy to ones that will have 4, 8 and many more cores running at the same time. Enter Intel’s Software Solutions Group, dedicated to making software design and performance easy, fast and more affordable. I know the engineers at DreamWorks are moving as fast as they can to convert their proprietary code that makes their 3-D movies sing into solutions that can handle, and leverage, multi-core and multi-threaded processors.
More on the movie, and Intel’ efforts later. But keep an eye out for the March opening — and those new 3-D glasses.
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tagged: 3-D, Core i7, Dreamworks, intru3-D, Larrabee, Monsters
posted by Daniel Snyder on December 09, 2008
As the guy with the "keys to the sample cabinet" for all worldwide Intel press review samples, my email Inbox is pretty jumpin'. I wanted to share a few of my favorite stories and experiences as well as provide a peek at the goodies. I'll even share a way to pitch me with your best ideas to review one too (if you are in the journalistic world yourself).
Here is a mouth-watering (to the techie) look in the 2nd drawer down from the top of my cabinet, where the X-25M Solid State Drives (SSDs) lurk nestled among friendly CPUs:
Being the "press sample guy" means you are wildly popular, and I always thought it was just my looks and charm! The day the HardOCP reviewer told me his iguana ate his CPU I rolled my eyes and told him that was the oldest excuse in the book. When he provided X-Rays I had to change my tune and go back to the cabinet for a replacement (sample, not iguana).
I have to admit, I am always blown away by the professionalism and tech prowess of the hundreds of reviewers we deal with. I started at Intel in engineering, long long ago, and am rusty but have enough gas in the tank to at least understand what these guys are all talking about! The amazing Core i7 is the latest goodie out the door. Charles at Xtremesystems already has his sample at over 5 GHz, and I get a kick out of seeing the overclocker reviewers drool over our 45nm gems.
Sometimes I find an ancient relic in the cabinet, such as this vintage 10 MB Flash memory card. Hey, in its prime it was one of THE hottest items in my sample cabinet! I took the 1MB sticks of RAM to recycling years ago though (rest assured, we have an entire department dedicated to e-waste and recycling):
So you think you want to be a tech reviewer and send me to my sample cabinet in search of a goodie for you to analyze? We have a press review program where we have a limited amount of samples for tech reviewers or bloggers who can really get hands-on and give their readers insight. I can't guarantee a sample, but we are always open to hearing ideas on how to get the amazing performance of our products talked about.
I review every request personally and unfortunately have to decline many due to resources and sample availability. But, I am always on the lookout for someone doing something new and creative--for example a specialty Wall Street firm reviewing PC hardware took a close look at the Core i7 (and those guys need all the CPU help they can get in this market!).
You can submit a review request here, make sure you say "Dan Snyder sent me". I'll sign off for now, the sample cabinet beckons (this is starting to sound like a Twilight Zone episode)!
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tagged: computer, Core i7, CPU, Dan Snyder Sampling, microprocessor, sampling, SSD, X-25M
posted by Kelly Feller on December 09, 2008
Do you remember when Jay Leno took over for Johnny Carson on NBC's The Tonight Show? Of course in the scheme of things this wasn't the most pivotal time in the history of the world. But it did mark an important turning point in the show's existence. With new furniture and background, combined with fresh faces and musicians, this transition obviously marked a new era for the successful talk show.
Intel has recently undergone its own transition of sorts, although this one isn't so public. All that changed yesterday when Intel published its Social Media Guidelines for all the world to see. This act in itself doesn't necessarily mirror the sweeping changes seen during the Carson-Leno hand-off, but it is a harbinger of a new era of openness at Intel, and it's like a breath of fresh air.
For several years a handful of cutting-edge, passionate social adventurers at Intel have blazed the trail by publishing blogs, participating in forums, posting photos, and Twittering away on behalf of Intel in the myriad social sites that pepper the web. However it's taken the company a little longer to settle on company policies, best practices, and training to help minimize the risk that sometimes accompanies a foray into unchartered territory.
By publishing the Social Media Guidelines in conjunction with a new Digital IQ social media training, Intel is both encouraging and empowering employees to participate in online social media activities on behalf of the company. And although this step may not seem that big on the outside, it is pretty huge for a company previously known for its requisite secrecy and well-trained spokespeople.
Intel recoginzes the important role online conversations continue to play in building solid relationships with our customers. And how better to participate in those conversations than to empower the technology experts that can add value to the dialogue? Intel is hoping both the guidelines and the training will help our technical experts all across the company feel comfortable and confident to participate in social media activities when it makes sense for them.
Intel decided to publish these guidelines externally in an attempt to be as transparent as possible with our customers. I can tell you from personal experience, it is not a simple task to get nearly an entire company to agree to a set of guidelines which all agree to adhere. But I have seen nothing but the most enthusiastic support from all corners of the company for these efforts. And that's saying quite a lot.
So tell us what you think. Did we get it right? Is there room for improvement? We welcome your feedback.
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tagged: blogging, corporate transparency, Digital IQ, forums, social media, social media guidelines, twitter
posted by Bill Kircos on December 04, 2008
Netbooks of all shapes and sizes have been hot sellers, filling up many of the top 10 spots on amazon.com’s electronics sales rankings and even being worthy of a review in the latest Consumer Reports magazine. My partner in crime Bill Calder has a good post on netbook basics.
Recently, there’s also been a lot of debate on whether netbooks are an incremental growth opportunity for the high-tech industry, or if they are taking a significant bite out of laptop sales.
We have our view, but two recent analyst reports sum up the opinions. A note published on December 3, by Uche Orji with UBS Investment Research includes this analysis:
“We expect netbooks - - - to be a PC semiconductor growth driver. (And we) expect limited notebook cannibalization. We believe netbook silicon largely reflects incremental revenue for the PC semiconductor industry and expect the cannibalization of netbooks’ brethren, PC notebooks, to be limited.”
Yet, the day before, in an Oppenheimer Equity Research note, authors noted that “the Netbook category remains a relative area of strength, though we believe there is growing evidence that consumers are trading down to these sub-$500 offerings.”
So here’s the question - are these cute little netbooks typically a second or third computing addition — or are they a replacement for a fully-loaded Core Centrino laptop?
Discuss…
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tagged: Atom, Centrino, Core, netbooks
posted by Esther Andrews on December 01, 2008
THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER. Congratulations to the winner who received a $500 Amazon gift card just in time to finish up his holiday shopping - Fenwick Jeffrey of New Brunswick, Canada - with his entry of 20,275,500,698,321,756, which came the closest to the correct answer of 19,914,946,000,000,000
November 11th marked the one-year anniversary of Intel shipping its very first processors that incorporated our 45 nanometer manufacturing capability and reinvented transistor formula called high-k, metal gate. To the everyday consumer, this may not mean much. But think of the innovation involved in reinventing and then stuffing 100s of millions of tiny, tiny transistors inside a processor not much larger than a postage stamp, yet still delivering more performance for your photo, video and music activities in laptops that are now even smaller and faster yet improve battery life.
In honor of this milestone, Intel is offering one lucky winner in the US or Canada US $500 www.amazon.com gift certificate to the person who guesses the exact number of transistors Intel has shipped worldwide from January 1, 2008 to October 31st, 2008.
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tagged: 45nm, high-k, Intel, metal gate, technology, transistor
posted by Kari Aakre on December 01, 2008
Calling all innovators, educators, entertainers, communicators and creators - or anyone with a story to tell about their processor! Intel kicked off a cool contest today inviting creative people to tell their story about how they are using an Intel processor-based PC to do something amazing. Check out this site for more info.
So many different stories could fit into that “amazing” category. This contest is really pretty simple. Just consider all of the different things you’ve been able to do or create thanks to the power and performance of your Intel processor and then tell Intel your story. Maybe you’re using high-def video, audio or graphics as a digital artist or musician. Maybe you’re a budding filmmaker thanks to the processor inside your PC. Perhaps you’re a teacher using an Intel processor to bring advanced technology into your classroom in a unique and engaging way or you’re a multi-tasking mom who uses the power of an Intel processor to stay on top of your own and your kids’ schedules and stay in touch with family and friends.
Submitting your story is easy. You can upload an image, audio or video file (your choice on the format) along with a story to describe your project or experience, explaining how the Intel processor played a key role in your design, or how your design was inspired by the speed, efficiency and power of the Intel processor. You can get started with the submission here. The contest is open to U.S. residents (except Puerto Rico) who are at least 18 years old. No purchase necessary to participate. You can find all of the rules and details about the contest here. Move quickly, the first 100 qualified entries get a free t-shirt! The last day to submit your story is January 15, 2009.
Submissions will be evaluated on the relevance of processor in the design and innovative use of technology, as well as and overall creativity. Once you’ve submitted, tell your family, friends, co-workers and anyone else you know to go to the site and vote for your story. The official contest judges will then select the winners from the top 10 vote-getters at the conclusion of the community voting period. Winners will be announced on March 2, 2009.
The best part of the contest? The prizes! The grand prize winner gets an Intel Centrino 2-based laptop of his or her choice (valued up to $3,000), $300 in cash and a $200 Amazon.com gift card. The second place winner also get a Centrino 2-based laptop (valued up to $2,000), $200 in cash and a $100 Amazon.com gift card. And there’s even a cool price for third place, too - an Intel Atom-based Netbook (valued up to $1,000) and $100 in cash.
These are three no-brainer reasons (particularly in this economy) to go submit your story today!
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tagged: Atom, Centrino, contest, Intel, PC, processor, whats inside you
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