Intel is counting on Microsoft pulling support for older
operating systems and companies renewing their legacy computers to
drive demand for new PC technology, writes Cliff
Saran.
During his keynote presentation at the Intel Developers' Forum in
San Jose, Intel chairman Craig Barrett introduced Newport, Intel's
new mobile processor, and discussed how legacy PC renewal would
allow new Intel-based technologies to be adopted by businesses.
Intel estimates that there are as many as 180 million old PCs in
existence running unsupported operating systems software. Barrett
said, "User upgrades are being driven by a whole series of events,
including non-support of older operating systems by Microsoft and
inefficiencies within older PCs."
Newport
Intel described Newport as the next generation of desktop for the
knowledge worker in 2004. The basic idea is a wireless
network-enabled mobile PC equipped with a wireless keyboard.
In a demonstration, Intel showed how such a device could be used in
a conferencing environment. The scenario was a remote conference
environment. When a user entered the conference room, the Newport
device was made aware of services available within the conference
room such as connectivity to AV equipment and videoconferencing.
These services were then presented via a menu-driven
user-interface. Options were selected using the wireless
keyboard.
The Newport device would also be equipped with mobile networking
software that automatically detected the best type of network
available for communications. For instance, in the absence of a
fixed network, it could be configured to switch automatically to a
wireless Lan or, failing that, a GPRS/3G connection.
Bluetooth aware
Intel also showed how Bluetooth wireless connectivity could be used
to provide a remote control for a notebook PC. Using a Sony
Ericsson T68i Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone, Intel demonstrated
how a user would be able to access Outlook contacts, calendar and
e-mail direct from the phone, without having to open up the
notebook PC. The phone could also be used to control a Powerpoint
presentation.
From the labs
The theme of this year's conference was computing and
communications convergence. Barrett said Intel was developing new
ways to integrate more functions onto silicon chips. Going forward,
he said, this integration will bring benefits to the end-user in
terms of performance, power consumption and cost through economies
of scale.
One example of integration is the Manitoba chip announced at the
3GSM World Congress in Cannes. Designed for cellphones, the chip
integrates an Xscale processor, 4Mbytes of memory and a radio onto
a single chip.
Another example from the labs is research Intel is conducting into
silicon photonics, where fibre optic and silicon technology are
available on a single chip. In what is believed to be a world
first, Intel showed how such a chip could be used to transmit data
over a 5km fibre optic cable using a single silicon chip to perform
both the optical and electronic aspects of processing the data
transmission.
In the future, Intel believes such technology could dramatically
lower the cost of optical switching devices because manufacturing
in silicon would benefit from economies of scale.