Today Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich delivered an editorial about their strategy and future. The five core shifts that Intel will focus on is the Cloud; the Internet of Things; Memory and programmable solutions covering 3D XPoint; Connectivity including 5G solutions; and Moore's Law that will deliver 10, 7 and 5 nanometer processors. You could review Intel's overview in detail here. Beyond Intel's grandiose vision, Intel is always trying to advance industry standards and the next one on their list will be to deliver USB Type-C Digital Audio.

USB Type-C has is likely to become the standard for data and charging connector for smartphones, tablets and notebooks. In the long-term future, Intel wants USB-C to be even more universal and at this year's IDF in Shenzhen China, one of their presentations discussed using Type-C for digital audio. Below are some of the slides from Intel's presentation that are focused specifically on digital audio.

The digital audio aspect of the presentation played only a tiny part of the larger discussion. If you're a developer, you could review the entire 103 Intel slide-presentation here.

Audio receptacles on PCs and mobile equipment are virtually the last remaining analog interfaces of modern devices, requiring certain techniques to maintain a high audio quality and remove interference. Intel proposes to replace things like 3.5 mm mini-jack with USB Type-C which will help to add features to headsets and will simplify connections of multi-channel audio equipment to various gadgets.

According to the report, Intel is finalizing the USB Type-C Digital Audio technology and plans to release its specification later in Q2.

When and how Apple could adopt this next industry standard is unknown at this time. Apple's next-gen iPhones and iPads are likely to eliminate the traditional audio jack according to rumors. But Apple could adopt the new Intel standard for Macs if they so choose to do so in the future.

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