Tuesday's opening IDF keynote by Intel's CEO Paul Otellini was interesting in many ways. It presented us with a message that Intel was on the cusp of change. A change from a company focused on computers to a company focused on computing. Otellini shows us the how the industry is rapidly evolving and reveals a rather stunning shift that Intel is prepared to make in order to prove that they're ready for this new era ahead. The implications of that shift will have a rippling effect in the years ahead I suspect. Otellini also pointed to in-vehicle infotainment, in part because of their Wind River acquisition – and to spice up the show, Otellini takes a whack at Apple's iPhone in no uncertain terms.
There's usually very little said about Apple during Intel's Developer Forum (IDF). Apple's MacBook Air is about the only product that ever gets a worthy mention. Not that Intel wouldn't like to have Apple on Stage debuting a cool new iPhone – because clearly they would love that. So the next best thing, apparently, is to make that specific suggestion loud and clear without ever saying a word. A point in case would be the keynote delivered by Anand Chandrasekher, Sr. VP, Ultra Mobility Group. His keynote was appropriately titled "Mobile Internet Devices: The Innovative Platform." A video kicked off his keynote and you'll quickly note below in the video collage, that the context of Intel's visuals revolve around the theme of the Atom processor in the Atomic Era. Yet you'll find a specific graphic below that might just raise your inquisitive eyebrow. It's the one that clearly illustrates Apple's iPhone (center left). There's also in a secondary graphic presented (bottom left) where you'll see the iPhone positioned at the top-center of a sun-like globe. Intel was definitely sending us clue that there's some kind of connection between a future iteration of the iPhone and the Intel architecture. Then again, it could have been yet another fantasy dreamed up by Intel's marketing team. The problem is that it blurs the line. Either Intel knows that Apple's iPhone with Intel-Inside is in the works or they're stepping over the legal line here trying to give their architecture a false endorsement. Only time will tell which it is.
One of the first core keynotes delivered at IDF Shanghai 2008 was titled "From Peta FLOPs to Milli Watts."Intel's Patrick Gelsinger, Senior Vice President Co-General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group covered a rather interesting range of material that was focused on high performance visual computing. This report will primarily focus on both the beginning and end of this keynote which held the most interest for the consumer segment. Visual computing was, at the end of the day, the vision that was most captivating.And although the details of the Larrabee Project were scant, you couldn't escape Gelsinger's enthusiasm for this project. In fact he stated that he had never been involved with a new program that garnered more enthusiasm from ISV's than the Larrabee Project. If that enthusiasm is as powerful as Gelsinger suggests, then we may very well be on the verge of new paradigm shift in video gaming development that could advance PC video gaming environments to breathe taking new heights within the next couple of years when Sandy Bridge based desktop computers begin to roll out.
I could understand why the PC Press didn't bother to present news of Intel's visionary video titled I have seen the future, step into tomorrow ( which was shown during Intel's Spring IDF 2007 from eijing). You couldn't possibly watch it without seeing and thinking of Apple's iPhone, all the while. Although Tony Smith, reporting for the Register from the Beijing Conference didn't mention viewing Intel's video, he recently questioned in his report, "what chip is the iPhone based on? Apple hasn't said, but we'd put money on UMP." Obviously that's the kind of buzz and conclusion that most seeing this video walked away with, as you very well may, once you've seen it. Today's report will center in on that cool video while briefly reviewing Intel's UMP keynote. Yet at the end of the day, Apple mocks Intel's Golden Rule and Intel walks away the loser by playing imitator.
