The Watching Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini's keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, it was sometimes hard to remember that he heads the world's largest computer chip company. That's because Otellini spent much more time chatting up Steve Harwell, the lead singer of Smash Mouth, and talking about something he calls the "personal Internet" than dwelling on something as mundane as new microprocessors.In Otellini's vision, handheld devices of the future - powered by a new-generation of Intel chips - will instantly translate street signs from one language to another and do near-instant voice translations between people of different countries who meet on the street. They'll also recognize their surroundings so well that they'll be able to direct users to the nearest bathroom.
Nearer term, Otellini's personal Internet will allow more sophisticated social networking sites that might, say, let musicians hold virtual jam sessions like the one Smash Mouth put on using a system that displays their real-time movements via lifelike avatars.
"When the computer became personal, the industry changed," Otellini said. "I believe the personal Internet will follow the same path."
But he sees some obstacles
- There needs to be ubiquitous wireless Internet access.
- Internet search engines and Web sites need to be more aware of the time and place they're being used
- Users need to be able to interact more naturally with computers, whether through voice or gestures.
And, of course, we're all going to need faster, more efficient chips - just like the ones Intel has in development. Even if Otellini spent little time talking about them, he still made his pitch. "We'd love to work with you as your silicon and computing partner to bring about personal Internet," he said.
Otellini's company has struggled for a decade to find its way in the consumer-electronics market, but with little success. With new processors designed for use in televisions and portable Internet devices coming on line soon, Intel hopes its luck has changed.
Intel's push into the $160 billion consumer-electronics market is critical because it is one of the few technology markets large enough to have an impact on the company's growth rate. The new effort rests on Intel's ability to design low-power chips with the popular "x86" design used by most personal computer processors. In the past, Intel's consumer electronics strategy relied on a hodgepodge of product initiatives in different markets. With x86 chips at their core, consumer-electronics devices might more easily link to the Internet and interact with the software run by the millions of personal computers around the world.
A big part of Intel's push is its belief in a new product arena - what it has come to call the ultra-mobile PC. The company's new strategy contrasts with its past efforts in consumer electronics. Over the years, Intel has made and marketed a digital camera, a microscope for kids, a video cam, even a digital music player.
In 2004, it kicked off a short-lived attempt to manufacture a chip for flat-screen TVs, and two years later unveiled the Viiv brand it hoped to stamp on personal computers specifically designed to handle DVDs, photos and other online media.
"They have touted a lot of things that have not come to pass," said Jim McGregor, research director at the market research firm In-Stat of
What's different this time is its multiyear effort to create low-power x86 chips. The Silverthorne and Canmore are the first Intel x86 chips specifically designed for the consumer-electronics industry and reflect an awareness that those devices have different requirements than computers.
The Silverthorne, which will begin shipping in the first quarter, consumes one-tenth the power of a low-voltage laptop chip from 2006. The Canmore, expected in the second half of the year, is for living room gear that can be plugged into wall sockets, like televisions and TV set-top boxes. It will be cheaper than a computer chip and use less power.
In the past, Intel never figured out how to distribute, market or promote products in the consumer-electronics market, said Gordon Haff of Illuminata, a
Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's digital home group, defends the company's track record in the consumer-electronics market and says the initiatives brought the company the experience it needed to come up with its latest crop of chips. The efforts gave Intel credibility with vendors, he said, pointing in particular to the latest CE 2110 Media Processor that Intel unveiled in April. The Media Processor included all of its functions on one piece of silicon, a design called a system-on-a-chip. Chunghwa Telecom of
The Canmore system-on-a-chip design should help product vendors cut costs. Intel's chip production also will take advantage of its recent move to 45-nanometer manufacturing, an initiative that put it on the forefront of production technology. The new technology makes chip circuits that are smaller and require less power.
"They've dipped more than a toe into consumer electronics," said Richard Doherty, research director at Seaford, N.Y.-based Envisioneering. "If the third time is a charm, this should be it. I don't know if there is a fourth."
No comments:
Post a Comment