Intel often demonstrates cool prototypes at its semi-annual Intel Developer’s Forum (IDF). This fall is no different.
Here’s a bullet list of Paul Otellini’s presentation:
* Perfromance is back (Google Desktop, Adobe, new OSes, etc need more power)
* Hi-definition video is arriving and needs more performance
* Moving mobile
* Intel has shipped 5 million Core 2 Duo in first 60 days. Fastest ramp up ever.
* Quad Core Q4 coming November 2006. Core 2 Extreme is the brand name. Marketing will be focused at the enthusiast. Q1 of 2007 Intel will expand product line into Core 2 Quad and price point will be brought down and capacit increased.
* Quad Core Xeon in Nov 2006 and Low Voltage Quad Xeon Q1 2007
* Markus Maki from game developer Remedy is showing a quad core system rending an impressive 3D game.
* 45nm fabrication expected to go into production in 2H 2007
* Showing a prototype Teraflop chip (wafer only, not functioning)….with 80 cores (only simple instruction set, not x86 based)! Expected to go into production in five years. Each processor has 256K static RAM. The processors are stacked ontop of the memory to provide memory bandwidth.
* Talking about Viiv and set top boxes
* Running through various online/downloadable movie vendors
* Otellini: Announcing $1 M Intel Core 2 Challenge to design more stylish multimedia PCs. Sorry OEMs/ODMs only.
* Next iteration of Centrino: Santa Rosa code name. Sometime early 2007. Will have flash built in which should give 2X faster boot time. Faster wireless: 802.11n. 300Mbps. Should allow multiple hi-def video streams.
* “Next inflection point for notebooks: Broadband 2 Go”: WiMAX. 802.16e is mobile standard for WiMAX and has been accepted as IEEE standard. Clearwire and Sprint committed for US coverage by 2008. Mobile WiMAX cards should be available as PC cards in 2006/2007. In 2008 Mobile WiMAX will be integrated into platform.
* 1H07 processor 1/2 the power and 1/4 th size (Steely is the name). 2008 will release 10x lower power and 1/7 size (accelerated time frame). Battery life tripples by 2008.
* Showing a prototype running the next generation ultra-mobile processor (Steely). Swivel out keyboard. Very cool. Screen is smaller than typical UMPCs today. Five inches. Has WiMAX. Display is hard to see in the glare of the stage lighting.
* World Ahead Program: Launched in 30 countries. Trained 500,000 teachers about integrating technology into classroom. Showing Classmate PC. Flash hard drive. Says it’s low cost. Will be out in Q1 2007. 36 students in Nigeria are part of a test deployment. Includes WiMAX network.
CNet has a brief video here of the Intel UMPC prototype that you can view here. It shows how the handheld might work with a car-based computer.
[James Kendrick has some photos from the CNet video]If you want to watch Paul Otellini’s whole keynote presentation, you can view the webcasts here.