But what about wireless infrastructure equipment owners, like service providers? Turns out, they’d love to reap the same kinds of benefits, but the previous generations of very fixed-function equipment wouldn’t provide for that. A purpose-built data plane processing board can do that one function, and only that one function.

Now, with the advent of the 4-to-1 strategy from Intel, where Application plane, Control Plane, Data Plane, and Signal Plane processing can all be done on 1 board based on Intel Xeon processors, the function of that board flexible – able to become whatever it needs to be, as the needs of the Service Provider changes based on Network Load.

In this video, an example is made working with Teito to show exactly that model. And, as the needs of the network changes, so too can the equipment to provide exactly what is needed, exactly when it is needed, saving the carrier plenty in OpEx because they don’t need to run any equipment that isn’t being optimally utilized. A win-win all around – for users and service providers.

For more information on the Intel Data Plane Development Kit, please see:

http://intel.ly/IntelDPDK

For more information on other things Intel is doing in Comms, please see:

http://intel.ly/IntelComms

In this video, Intel is highlighting a “Smart Small Cell” that was shown at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 and developed by Ubiquisys to help provide the above solution for both the SOHO and residential space, based on Intel Atom Processors (see: http://Intel.ly/IntelAtomX2K) or for public hotspots & large enterprises based on Intel’s upcoming Crystal Forest platform (see: http://intel.ly/crystalforest).

For more information about this or any other applications supporting the communications infrastructure space, please see: http://Intel.ly/IntelComms

For example, while Android is the clear leader in smart phones, many people still use Apple-based iPhones and iPods. So, Wind River demonstrates the ability to plug a iOS-based device into a Android-based reference design & play the media, such as music, stored on the iOS device. Also, while Android has a relatively decent boot time (typically under a minute), it may still feel long if it is in the central console in your car. So, tweaking the system, Wind River was able to demonstrate a 7-second boot time – which is about the amount of time it would take you to turn on your car & fasten your seat belt. Lastly, Wind River also shows how they can put Android-based applications into windowed-environment like you would have on your PC so that you can quickly move from one application to another.

For more information about Android Offerings from Wind River, please see:

http://bit.ly/WRandroid

So, that’s what was announced at MWC so far, but please leave use comments below as to what improvements you’d like to see brought to Android next!

Electric cars are nothing new. In fact, just of 100 years ago, they were considered a very reasonable alternative to gasoline powered cars from that era. Then, due to advancements in the internal combustion engine at the time, and other improvements, the economics shifted such that petroleum-based vehicles became the norm.

Recently, electric vehicles have been making a bit of a comeback, but not without challenges. One of which is “range” – on a full charge, the nominal range of electric cars tend to be a demonstrable disadvantage to those based on a fuel tank. However, when you consider that people rarely travel to the middle of a desert, there is the possibility that when one drives to say work or a friends house, that the local electrical infrastructure at that destination could be used to charge the car back up again, thereby negating the impedance of a rather limited range. That sounds great in concept, but in practice, there is the issue of who will actually pay for the electricity when you are not at your house? Or, even such specific details as to how much electricity did you use? The car will know, but how would one convey that information to the proper utilities?

This is where this research project from Ericsson, leveraging an Intel-based IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) system (for more information see: http://intel.ly/IntelCars) comes into play. The used a Volvo electric car and added several enhancements to make it more useful. Given that the car knows exactly how much electricity it used to charge up, it can utilize the Intel & Ericsson-based methodology shown in the video to convey exactly the right information so that, when say you are visiting your friend’s house and charging there, the KW•Hrs you use will actually show up on your electric bill, instead of your friends.

But, what do you think? Let us know in the comments below if you like or don’t like this idea or what you would do to further improve it!

In this example, the Andre Duignan, a software engineer from Intel, shows how one could control the front door from a standard web browser so that say a neighbor could put a package inside your house without needing to give them a key in advance. Similar functions such as remotely controlling the thermostat if you are going to be working late or even just watching your pets through a web-cam, could be imagined with this system. For more information on what Intel is doing in the M2M space, please see: http://intel.ly/IntelM2M

But what do you think would be cool to do with a fully Connected & Intelligent Home, enabled by M2M devices? Let us know in the comments below!

Therefore, companies need a Firewall that can be programmable & reconfigurable to meet their every-changing demands. But, at the same time, the firewall has to adjust to new threats quickly. Because of these reasons, at least one company, Topsec (http://en.topsec.com.cn) is looking to the new Intel platform, codenamed Crystal Forest ( http://intel.ly/crystalforest ) to further accelerate the performance they can get out of their firewall while still using a many standard, widely available components. In this video from RSA 2012, Jason Wu, VP of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development for Topsec discusses the advantages that his company has gained from working with Intel, and Wind River, including the hardware security acceleration found in the new chipset in Crystal Forest which is codenamed “Cave Creek.”

So, let us know what you think. Aside from smarter, more intelligent firewalls, what kinds of intelligent systems do you think could be realized with the new Crystal Forest platform? Please leave your ideas in the comments below!

Flash forward nearly 3 decades and similar sentiment could be made around security today. With everyone working full speed to get rich by making the next Angry Birds game or invent the coolest tablet for wild gaming on the go, some people may question:

What’s Security Got to Do with It?

In truth, like everything in life, security is not free. There’s processing power required to perform certain complex security related algorithms (go read about Elliptic Curve Cryptography, it is a great cure for insomnia). Back when I wrote my first encryption chip report when I worked for In-Stat, it took me a month to read and understand all the different types of security, cryptography, and the math behind them all. At the time, the big emphasis was around “online shopping” and things like buying stuff off the web so you could do so safely without fear of getting important financial information stolen. Since that time, the need for better security has long since expanded beyond enabling people to just order books off Amazon.com (remember when that was mostly all they did?). We know that, from Embedded to Enterprise to End Users, security must be a forethought, not an afterthought, in order to stay ahead of the threats that are out there.

It is for this reason that Intel was a Platinum Sponsor of the RSA Conference as well hosted a booth and gave 3 Technical Sessions. In our booth, we had a number of interesting demos, from Deep Packet Inspection (think super-awesome X-ray machine, but for digital content on the Interwebs instead of in the security line at the airport) and Skein Hash Algorithm performance (yes, I looked that up on Google, don’t judge me) to awesome security technologies for a more secure cloud infrastructure (think puffy white cloud inside a cast-iron lock box) and even the enablement of Anti-Theft technologies (making it a safer for companies to give employees clients without fear). Beyond the booth, we even had the CTO for the Intel Intelligent Systems Group, Pranav Mehta, give a keynote about how consolidating different work loads (often found in any large infrastructure installations) onto a single architecture (bonus points for you if you guess “Intel”) can help bring more efficient services (similar to what data centers enjoy from virtualization) as well as better security. Here was an interview that he gave while at the show:

Today, at the “Dawn of Intelligent Systems,” the need for better security becomes a whole lot more fundamental. But first, one must understand what types of usage models we are focusing on here. Sometimes, when I need to explain what words like “Embedded” or “Intelligent Systems” mean, I often turn to a simple 2 word answer: Star Trek. I don’t care if the TOS, TNG, DS9, or even the Prequel: Enterprise, when you watch those shows, you understand what we mean by “Embedded” or “Intelligent Systems” – everything you interacted with was simply “smarter.” The doors were smarter (they would open by themselves), the walls were smarter (you could talk to them & they’d answer nearly any question), even the pests (the Tribbles) were smarter. But in all be the last case, it wasn’t due to magic, like the animated newspapers in Harry Potter, but rather great science and engineering. Mazel Tov! Wonderful! What could be the problem with everything getting smarter? Answer: Everything not getting more secure AS they get smarter.

Take a simple example – Near Field Communications found in the world’s best smart phones (and coming to iPhones eventually). On the one hand, this could be AWESOME! Need to pay the parking meter? Wave your phone in front of it & maybe it will even text you if you need to feed the meter more (and maybe you can do it remotely). Want to see a movie, wave your phone over the kiosk and Presto! Movie Tickets! Stopping to fill up your car? Your phone lets you pay fast & get on your way. On the surface (no pun intended), NFC sounds like it could be a great thing. BUT, I would argue, ONLY if you feel that it is a secure process. What if the parking meeting is communicating wirelessly over a cellular network but NOT doing so securely? Did you *want* to pay for every parking meter on the block? Or pay some hacker’s parking for the next year? Every place you want to use NFC, you want the providers of that service to do so securely! Without good security, the whole concept is a useful as a submarine with a screen door.

Not to get too deeply into the origins of words, (that is a job for Etymology-Man), but I would argue that the word “Trust” is closely tied to the word “Security.” I don’t care if you are buy a song, off iTunes, on your iPhone, while sitting in an iGloo (see what I did there?), you expect that transaction to be secure. You TRUST that the transaction will be secure & that you didn’t just fund your neighbor’s musical tastes for the next year.

And, beyond wireless infrastructure equipment, anything that is “Intelligent” and “Connected” NEEDS to also be “Secure.” In a recent blog, I wrote about how excited I am over the concept of a more connected car. The ability to avoid traffic, order fast food quicker, or even just the ability to seamlessly understand my voice – I think these are all great things coming to a car near you. But what if your car isn’t secure? Do you want people re-programming your routes as a prank? Do you want someone changing your radio presets because you rooted for the “wrong team” during the super bowl? (The Yankees won this year, right?). Without Security, there is no Trust. Without Trust, there is no Use. It is as simple as that.

From here, the list of what needs to be secure is logical, but grows exponentially. That airport kiosk that needs you to “swipe” your credit card to get you to where you are going – is that secure? It better be! The digital signage that is helping you pick out gifts for your loved ones – is that secure? You better hope so. What about the ATM your using because it will be a while before you can use NFC to pay for everything – is that secure? I think the answer by now should be obvious. In every place Intelligent Systems are today and every place they will be in the future, if you have Intelligence & Connectivity without Security, they you have a problem, not a solution.

So, the next time you are talking about Embedded or Intelligent Systems designs and someone asks: “What’s Security Got to Do with It,” you will hopefully be able to explain to them how vital security is in that design. An Intelligent System without the right level of security is as safe as a jet-powered skateboard. Things like that are only fun or funny in cartoons – in real life, they are dangerous!

Let me know in the comments below what you think is most important about Security, or, as always, hit me on Twitter: @Geek8ive

Below is the Agenda for the 3 day event, along with as many of the presentations as we could post publicly to help to broaden the awareness & impact that our summit can have on schools from around the world. It is our hope that many more people than were able to physically attend this event will be able to view the presentations & get a better understand of what we are doing. If you would like more information about our program, please see: http://edc.intel.com/training/embedded-university

For view pictures from the event, please see our 2012 IERES Photo Album on Facebook.

Thursday, February 23 2012 – Curriculum Day

Friday, February 24 2012 – Workshop Day

How close is KITT coming to being a reality? Well, I think some folks would say the answer will always be “not soon enough.” That’s why I was very happy when I saw the news this week that Intel has announced a large-scale commitment to helping to accelerate the development of more connected cars to make your life easier. In an even held in Karlsruhe, Germany, our CEO, Paul Otellini gave a keynote address to commemorate the new initiative:

“In today’s mobile world, personal computing touches every part of consumers’ daily lives while at home, at the office and on the road. By broadening our research efforts, academic and capital investments and opening the Automotive Innovation and Product Development Center, Intel is deepening its understanding of how people interact with their cars and how Intel innovations can enhance the automotive experience.”

From where I sit, I think this is nothing but goodness. Even if I didn’t work for the world’s best chip company (in my opinion), I think bring intelligence into our automobiles can’t happen fast enough. For example, have you ever been listen to the news on the radio & they say something, but you didn’t quite catch it? If that happens on my TV today, I just tap the “bounce back” button twice & I can hear it again. What doesn’t my car have a DVR like function (ok, I guess it should be a Digital Audio Recorder – DAR) so that I can not only “rewind” to catch something I miss, but also, say, record a radio show that’s on while I’m AT WORK & play it back ON MY WAY HOME. This isn’t really rocket science.

Or, the other day, I was watching an episode of “Blue Bloods” & the two back-up cops were following two undercover cops, but they couldn’t get too close, so were relying on audio clues like when one of the undercover cops said “I remember delivering oil on Ash Street.” [SPOILER ALERT] Unfortunately, the back-up cops get cut off, lose sight of their friends, and end up not getting there in time. But, the question is, in 2012, why can’t I run an app like “Glympse” so that following one car – or keeping a gaggle of cars together in a road-trip caravan – isn’t a fool-proof system. We should be able to do this today and hopefully, with our investments we are making today in the “connected car,” apps like Glympse or Gas Buddy (as just 2 of MANY examples) will soon be able to make it to a dashboard near you.

However, it is worth mentioning that one of the key mantras that Intel is using in its pursuit of a a more connected car is safety. For example, you will never see any plans from Intel to put a keyboard on your steering wheel. For us, keeping you more informed is good, but only if we can do it in a safe & non-distracting way. A key part of the research we will be doing at the Intel Labs Interaction and Experience Research (IXR) in automotive will be to see how we can actually reduce the complex interactions when driving. Features like voice recognition & text (or data) to speech are key tools we need to use as much as possible to allow the driver to remain attentive to the driving environment. On the other side, some of the entertainment features we are promoting would also actually help with safety. Such as the stereotypical “Are were there YET?” screech from the back seats. What if there was a button (we’ll call it the AWTY button) on the back of the front seat, so when you child pushes, the display where show “From” & “To” on a map along with the route between them & even an estimation as to how long before they are actually “there.” Sound Good?

But what about “today.” Many folks may think “Later” is “Good,” but “Now” is “Better.” I, for one, would tend to agree. That’s why I was really excited when I got to to to Consumer Electronics Show 2012 this year. I had the opportunity to sit down & chat with Mr Steven Chen, Vice CTO of Foryou General Electronics Co. Ltd. and we got to discuss one of their latest products, the MG4906, which is using an Intel Atom processor. No, it didn’t have the fancy red “mouth” of KITT & it could carry on long winded conversations with me, but it did have a notable set of features that I had never seen in an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system before. For example, it had tiny sensors on the case so that it would be able to do some gesture recognition such as wave your hand across it so that it might change to a new radio station. It also had enough processing power so that it would be able to do what they call “local voice recognition” (meaning the analysis is done right there in the dashboard) as opposed to remote voice recognition, where your voice recording is actually uploaded to some servers in the cloud somewhere & the analysis is done there, followed by the results are sent back to you. When you compare the two approaches, local voice recognition has two huge advantages over the other approach (which you commonly see in cell phones). One, because it is local, in your system, it can learn YOUR voice better, how you say things, what words you use, etc. Specifically in my case, when I say “I want to live in a mansion” most systems will likely get that right. But, if I’m dictating an email, and close it out as “Sincerely <comma> Eric Mantion” most systems will probably get that wrong & write “Eric mansion.” You can imagine how tiresome it would become if every time I want to say my last name, I need to spell it out. On top of the features above, it also had many of the functions that you’d consider “normal” for a high-end system like this, such as navigation, connects to your phone, plays the radio, displays the weather, etc., but it also is based on the GENIVI-compliant Linux distribution, and Mr. Chen explicitly stated that there would be a way for users to get new apps on this platform.

So, as I mentioned from my previous blog from CES, I think this opens up a wide spectrum where people can take multiple functions – such as GPS location & Web Access – to create an app that not only finds you “cheap gas” but will focus on the locations that are most inline with your current route – instead of 10 miles off the highway just so you can (literally) save 2 cents a gallon. Or, based on your preset radio stations in your home city, it might cross reference those with other “similar” stations as you go over the mountain & through the woods go Grandmother’s house, so that it will keep finding radio stations you will likely like, even if you are 2 states over from where you started. And, perhaps most importantly, remember the ones you originally liked when you (eventually) get back to your home city. I won’t go so far as to say the possibilities are endless, but I will say that, as explosive as the “smart phone” app market is, I could see the “car app” market being a similar size in just a few years. But, unfortunately, one of the first cool IVI system with Intel inside (the Foryou MG4906) will actually be getting released to the Domestic Chinese market in the second quart of this year. For those of us outside of China, the wait may be a little longer.

But, in the meantime, what do you think? Does this concept of a more connected car (beyond where we are today) excite you? What would you most want out of a “Clever Car?”

• Would you like the ability to see a map with real-time information on where the open parking spots are in the mall? (that would not be as hard as you might think!)
• How about the ability to order (and pay) for fast food before you even get there so you pull into a “take-out” parking spot & they bring it right out to you (because it was ready before you arrived!)
• How about real-time tracking of your all-too-recently licensed teenage driver? How much more relaxed would you feel with the exact location, speed, and, say, gas tank level right there on your tablet as they go out on their first big “I can DRIVE!” date?
• What about near real-time traffic updates to that your route to the dentist will get updated if there is an accident or whatnot up ahead? Scratch that, who wants to be “on time” for the dentist? Ice cream shop – yeah, we all want to be on time for that!

The list of ways in which a more intelligent, more connected car could improve your life is almost staggering. But please let us know what you’d like to see in the comments below! Or, if you’d rather, just let us know WHEN you think there really will be a car like KITT that you can drive?

Or, as always, you can let me know what you think on Twitter if you’d prefer: @Geek8ive

Mei Chen: “Intel Science and Technology Center on Embedded Computing” CH6 Café 12:30 – 1:30 (1 hr.) Lunch CH6, 106-109 1:30 – 3:00 (1 hr. 30 min) University PresentationsSandeep Gupta – Arizona State University: “Intelligent Power Management on Virtualized Platforms”

Rob Rutenbar – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Toward Silicon Perception” 3:00 – 3:30 (30 min.) Minute of Madness (Research) Jason Campbell 3:30 – 4:30 (1 hr.) Poster Session CH6 Lobby 4:30 – 5:30 (1 hr.) Embedded Showcase Room ]]> http://blogs.intel.com/embedded/2012/02/ieres-2012-day-1/feed/ 0 http://blogs.intel.com/embedded/2012/02/when-jedis-go-shopping/ http://blogs.intel.com/embedded/2012/02/when-jedis-go-shopping/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:43:03 +0000 http://blogs.intel.com/embedded/?p=225 Read more >]]> Sometimes it is hard to believe that the first Star Wars movie came out almost 35 years ago, but over that time, most of the key elements of the Star Wars universe have fully entered the realm of “Pop Culture,” so, you can, in an everyday conversation, talk about “Jedi Knights” & most people will understand the context. And, when one talks about Jedis, it mostly breaks down to two key attributes: Light Sabers and “The Force.” Now I’m sure that, over the years, countless Geeks have attempted solve the elusive “bounded laser beam” problem stands between us & being able to have our own personal Light Saber, but, to date, no one has been successful (yet!!). However, while the quest for 3 feet of pulsating, solidified photons remains next to perpetual energy machines & easy to open bags of airline peanuts on the list of “unsolvable puzzles,” the other side of the Jedi persona seems to be getting closer.

So, admit it, we’ve all done it: you’re sitting on the couch, with the TV remote is about 6 feet away, so you reach out with your hand and concentrate, just to see if, maybe, JUST MAYBE, your midi-chlorian count had grown high enough to enable you to float things through the air. How cool would it be to be able to, through just the power of your mind (and the force), move things like your TV remote? Come on, don’t try to tell me you’ve never tried that (just to check). Well, unfortunately, while true telekinetics remains within the realm of science-fiction, virtual telekinetics will soon be within your reach – pardon my pun. Specifically, thanks to the new “Kinect for Windows” SDK that Microsoft has released, embedded developers working on their next Intelligent Systems idea can leverage this to enable the “virtual you” to be able to move things through your virtual environment as easily as a Jedi can “Force Push” 3 battle droids. Now, one of the first usage cases that come to mind – and that is already being pursued – is the ability to let prospective shoppers easily interact with a wide spectrum of different inventory choices, together with ancillary sensors like cameras, so that person can actually have say the clothes that they are considering get overlaid on their image on the screen to let people try things on quickly. There was a basic example of this shown at the recent NRF Tradeshow:

(another, similar video was Macy’s Beauty Spot, which, while it didn’t use this technology, you could imagine how it could in the future)

Now, with this said, what are the strengths & weakness of this approach? Let’s start by breaking out shopping by the genders: Men & Women…

The Male Point of View

For men, shopping tends to be a task: I need a new tie, or a blue dress shirt, or perhaps I’m getting ready for a ski trip. In general, at least the men I know of, one of the key attributes of a “successful shopping trip” (besides did I get what I needed) is: Did I get my shopping done in the minimum amount of time possible. I’m sure there are some men that enjoy perusing racks & racks of clothing options, but, personally, I had to spell check “perusing” because it is a word I use so infrequently. So, in this situation, the advantages of this approach are easy – maybe the “shopping interface” has a nice menu hierarchy so that I can quickly go from “Tops” >> “Dress Shirts” >> <filter_on> [blue] – and, to top it off, the sensor can already tell my size, so I don’t even have to do that. Perfect, I just went from say 200 “tops” in the store to 50 “dress shirts” and down to just 10 that are in blue. I may even filter out “in stock” to narrow that list down a little more and, after a little quick “Jedi Hand Waving” (say waving my hand <up> = “save” & <down> = “discard”) I may be able to bring the list down to just 3 shirts to actually go try on. At the end, the system (which is tied into the stories inventory) could, at the very least, direct me to where in the store (say by rack number) the 3 shirts I need to try on are. In the “future” – it might even be possible that “robotic fetchers” pull the shirts on my list from a huge, high-density, but low-aesthetics warehouse in the back & brings them to a dressing room for me to try when ready. Done and Done. I’m in & out in record time and probably happy as a clam.

So, in this case, the advantages are:

• Customers are happy because shopping was faster
• The “money earned per time person was in the store” (also called turnover) went up
• The amount of “failed try-ons” (think that ever shirt I don’t buy but try on costs the store in terms of re-folding it, etc.) goes down
• The store comes away looking cool, edgy, on the front of the learning curve (or, in other words: Positive Brand Image)

The Softer Side of Shopping

Now, let’s look at the ladies. Again, in general – I’m sure there are exceptions – many women I know actually enjoy the “Quest for Clothes” (with the associated bugle call being entirely optional). That being said, I’ve seen various stats on the ratio of say how many jeans the average woman tries on to how many she buys, so, while shopping may be “enjoyable,” frustration (just like with any activity, like golf) is not. So, right off the cuff, you could envision a system where perhaps a woman has already been “digitally measured” (say in a bathing suit) so that the store’s computers (but NO human being) can actually know some fairly exacting measurements, beyond the overly stereotypical Bust/Waist/Hips attributes, thereby allowing an immediate exclusion of clothes that simply won’t fit a particular woman’s shape. While this mean not remove all the frustration of trying on clothes, one could imagine how this approach could greatly reduce that amount of frustration a lady experiences, especially when she is considering a new brand that she’s not tried previously.

Additionally, some future systems could be modeled after the “personal shopper” motif where the system takes the image of the women, considers her exact measurements, and perhaps even previous purchasing history to make “recommendations” for any given customer. Where men may come into stores with a very specific item in mind, this alternate approach for women – “I have some things I think you might like” – might be very well received. It would not be dissimilar to what companies like Amazon have done with their “Customers who viewed this also viewed” which I, personally, have found to be very useful. By sharing anonymous data what are hot sellers or what other women in your demographic or with your body shape may help to influence what a woman buys. Additionally attributes like say hair length or color may further help the system to make recommendations for a lady that would have previously been unobtainable except at perhaps the most influential (and expensive) of Beverly Hill Boutiques. In general, whenever a store can give customers the “high-end experience” at the “mid-range price” – the situation tends to turn out well for everyone.

So, for the ladies, the advantages may be:

• Customers are happier because a reasonable portion of their frustration over misfitting clothes has been removed
• The “money earned per time person was in the store” (also called turnover) went up (still true here)
• The amount of “failed try-ons” (think how many more items a woman may try-on & not buy then men, today) goes down
• The store comes away looking cool, edgy, on the front of the learning curve (perhaps even more true than for men)

Areas for Improvement

However, it wouldn’t be fair to look at the up-side of this approach without looking at the down-side. One of the first ones people will probably mention is costs. Large screens, gesture recognition, perhaps voice recognition – all of this could add up to thousands of dollars – even at the low-end. But, the other side of the equation is, how much do employees cost? Even your nominal mall-store paying employees roughly minimum wage, if you consider that the Arizona minimum wage is $7.65, and you multiply time 40 hours a week or 2000 hours a year, you get to just over $15,000 before you factor in any benefits (like health care or employee discounts) that the human employee gets or other less obvious factors such as training the people (on your products, on appropriate workplace behavior, etc.) plus just the issue of scheduling the people. If your store is open from 8 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week, plus 10 AM to 6 PM on Sundays, that is 74 hours a week. For a human, that would be a lot of overtime. For a machine, it will charge roughly 11 cents per kilowatt hour to work 74 hours a week – almost certainly a bargain in comparison.

Another factor worth considering is privacy. If, in the future systems, a store’s database not only knows your name, but also details like your exact body type or your purchasing history, then people want to trust that their information is safe. Luckily, this is in no way a new concern for stores, considering they probably already have my name & credit card information – which I care a LOT more about then whether it leaks how many T-shirts I buy a year. So, security & privacy are two aspects that Intel have been supporting for a long time & some of the technologies contained within our vPro-based systems are especially adept at ensure stores can keep information safe, while keeping issues like remote management easy. So, from this standpoint, retailers have to remain vigilant to guard their customers’ information just as the always have – really nothing new here.

Conclusion

So, “virtual-reality” (or more technically, Augmented Reality) will likely be coming to a mall-near-year – perhaps in a year – perhaps in a few years. But just like bar-code readers, this technology will start slowly but, eventually become more common, especially as costs come down because they become more common place. It wasn’t all that long ago (maybe just 20 years) that laser scanner to read bar-codes were only for high-end establishments. And, as with any new technology, there will be triumphs & “issues” as the technology grows & evolves (like imagine a bar-code reader that connected to a bad database & tried to charge you $936 for a box of soda, instead of $9.36).

Other Usages for new “Kinect for Windows” SDK – besides shopping include:

• Controlling larger than life boxing robots (come-on, this is a GIVEN)
• Virtual-Reality Physical Therapy (like for our seniors)
• Controlling bomb-disposal robots (look how complicated it can be)

But, what’s your opinion? Are you “eager” to see the technology put into place or do you view this as just the latest “intrusion” into our lives? Besides shopping and the other examples above, what other things could you see this technology be leveraged? Leave your ideas in the comments below or hit me on Twitter: @Geek8ive!

The next day I flew on to New York City for the 101^st Annual National Retail Federation show.  I was honored to attend the Retail “ROI” super Saturday event that pulls the industry together to help 143 Million orphans globally.  The show on Monday and Tuesday of that week was action packed and the Intel booth was certainly a “must see” as part of the show.  Some key trends I saw in demos at the event:

(In front of the HSN wall with HSN CEO, Mindy Grossman)

• Gamification – This is making the user experience more enriching by having the consumer play a game as they go through the purchase process.  We had two examples in the Intel booth- playing a Cadbury Egg slingshot game as part of the Kraft DijiTaste platform, or making your own pizza with Wolfgang Puck and all his Pizza gadgets as part of our HSN experience wall.
• Security- Top of mind with retailers after a weekend hack of Zappos.com was how do they maintain vigilant security measures amidst changing technology.  We highlighted in our booth our alliance with McAfee and the ability to “build-in” a secure layer below the operating system on platforms.
• Customization- Whether it was the Cisco “Magic Mirror”, the “FaceCake” demo in the Microsoft booth, or using Intel AIM Suite to determine age range or gender – Retailers are looking for ways to better meet the specific needs of the customers they service.  Intel has done years of ethnographic work in this space to try to anticipate what trends will materialize and when.

Lastly- it was refreshing to see so many partner organizations continuing to innovate around the Intel processor.  Whether it was the new scanning tunnel from WinCor Nixdorf, or the Universal Bill Acceptor in NCR ATMs, self-service checkout from HP or amazing displays from NEC it is always fun for me to see the innovation that is enabled by our humble silicon!

I look forward to the next year and seeing what innovation is now spurred based on the interactions at CES and NRF!

(giving a booth tour to a member of the press)

Thanks

Michelle Tinsley (@Intel_Michelle on Twitter)

There are some really cool scenarios that we highlight that I think at least some folks haven’t thought of before. The demo runs through some typical usage models, such as “Commuting” (which most of us do & almost all of us hate), the “fun road trip” and the “running errands” mode – which, between the 3 of them, probably cover most of the time you spend in your car. On the commuting front, the big emphasis is on increasing your effectiveness – whether that means changing your route from your “normal commute” to an alternate path to avoid construction or a big accident, or letting you dictate an email while you are driving (like having your own personal secretary in your dashboard: “Moneypenny, take a memo”). It even shows a scenario where, as you talk to your boss (hands free, of course) & tell her you’re stuck in traffic so you need to move your 11AM meeting to noon, your car will listen in actually move your meeting back an hour in your calendar. Now THAT’S efficiency!

On the Road Trip motif, wouldn’t you like it if your car tracked a) your fuel gage (as well as you average mileage), b) your position & route (where you are & where you are going) and c) connected into a gas station database, like Gas Buddy (which I’ve used & can personally recommend). Don’t get me wrong, the Gas Buddy app is great, but there’s very little value of finding a gas station that is 50 cents cheaper then ever other place for 100 miles around if you run out of gas 5 miles before you get there. Then there are maybe more obvious things like finding all your favorite fast food joints (mine is probably Carl’s Jr) along the route you are going, or leveraging an app like Glympse so that all the cars in your virtual Caravan (say 3 car loads of folks are going skiing), you can easily keep track of where everyone without using those some old-school tricks like putting you headlights on, or things like that. Plus, with technologies like Wi-Fi – if your caravan was close enough, you might even be able to stream a movie from one car to another so everyone can enjoy the classics like The Matrix (one of my all-time favorite movies). And, of course, some of the same things that were helping in commuting, like re-routing around problems, would also apply here!

Lastly, if you think about when you’re in “errands” mode, everything that you can do to make your life easier can be appreciated. Like, if you’re dropping Junior off at soccer practice, but don’t have your Pilate class for an hour, wouldn’t it be great if your car reminded you that the shirt you wanted to get, from your “wishlist” (Amazon or wherever), is on sale, in a store, that is half way between your destinations. What about connecting to the weather to warn you that, where junior is practicing soccer is experiencing rain, or even worse, lightning? Or, do you consider yourself a big gear head? No? So, what do you do when that darn “check engine” light comes on? Check it for what? For overheating? For termites? For emotional distress? By now, if your car is smart enough to identify a problem, should it be smart enough to actually tell you what the problem? And, wouldn’t it be great if it figures out your oil is low that it lets you know that there is a great place to get oil changes, based on Yelp reviews, and maybe even connect into their systems to see if they have any openings in their schedule? It is so frustrating to keep going to place, parking your car, getting out, going to the front desk, just to find out they don’t have any openings for the rest of the day? And, like so many other developer-friendly platforms (like PCs and smart phones), who knows what other, car-helpful apps & usage models will be developed over the next several years.

Besides the big IVI demo, we should our Lego’s Augmented Reality (AR) demo, as well as had a spot-light class that talked about the Tele-Medicine use in Mexico. But, of course, it is still an “Intel” booth, so we also had other really cool things from the rest of corporation. From a personal perspective, the 2 things I thought were “hottest” were the Intel-based Lenovo K800 based on Medfield (Intel Atom Z2460) processors.

I watched the Intel guy do the demo on what the phone could do & it was just stunning. For example, he had this one app running where you felt like you were on a roller coaster, but because of the gyroscopes that were built into the phone, as he moved the phone around (which we could see because he connected a larger monitor to the HDMI output of the phone), the viewpoint on the screen would change. And it was so fast and smooth that he was able to whip us all around the views so fast, I figured someone one have a seizure (fortunately, no one did). I’ll have to look for a video to share, but, believe me, the demo of what this phone could do was amazing. Plus, perhaps equally amazing, they also had several working version of the Lenovo K800 Intel-based phone which should be released to the Chinese market later this year. My one big shock was the weight. All the stereotypical rhetoric aside, everyone seemed to imply, whenever Intel did finally get into a phone, it would be as heavy as a brick. But, in reality, the opposite is true. In fact, to be honest, I compared the weights of my 2-yr old HTC Hero phone with the Lenovo K800 and I can’t honestly which is lighter (I *think* the K800 was lighter), but, keep in mind that my phone only has a 3.2 inch screen (vs 4.5 inch screen for the K800), so that makes it even more impressive on the Intel-based phone side (yeah!). Now the only question is: When do I get MINE?!? (hint, hint )

The second big thing, which is creating quite the buzz are the Ultrabooks. Just for fun this morning, before the show opened, I took my current laptop and held it up against an Ultrabook (specifically, the ASUS Zenbook) and took a picture.

OMG – you know the Ultrabooks are thin, but it isn’t until you compare it to what folks are really using that you really appreciate the difference. Plus, when you take into account that I need an external battery on my rig to get to about 4 hrs, but the Zenbook UX31 gets roughly 7 hrs, as is. The lightness, the thinness, the expensive battery life, all while still having great performance – tie these things all together & I really see Ultrabooks being a big hit this year. In my opinion, I think the undervalued strength of Ultrabooks will actually be in the business space. How much more productive would your employees be if they just carried their laptops with them more – if they had to worry about finding an outlet to plug into less – if just loved their platform so much, they WANTED to use it more. Now, how much would that boost in productivity be worth? Maybe 5%? Maybe 10%? Maybe 20%? If it were only 10% on an employee that cost you just $50,000 per year, that’s $5,000 – or roughly twice (or more) the cost of an Ultrabook. That means that your ROI is effectively 200% or your breakeven point is about 6-months. In other words, after your folks have used their Ultrabooks for half a year, that Ultrabook purchase is now earning you money (based on the above assumptions). So, I’m not sure, once folks realize this, how many companies WON’T want to get in on this Ultrabook goodness. As I see it, not many companies can afford to ignore this!

So that’s it, I’ll wrap this up with the promise to expand on some of the above later on, but I wanted to give you a quick snapshop of some of the hottest things going on. But, I’ve still got a few more hours here – let me know what YOU think I should be looking for at CES. What news do you think is the hottest topics? I’ve taken a bunch of pictures, which I’ll upload later, but let me know what you want to see, either in the comments below or hit me on Twitter: @Geek8ive – THANKS!

Not just because I’m flying there (thankfully), but because of some of the things that we (Intel) will be showing at what some call, the biggest trade show of the year (in my heart, that will always be E3, but I know facts say otherwise). Hopefully, this will not be a shock to any of you, but Intel has, for the last several years, really been trying to make a difference in the “Automotive Electronics” (sometimes called “Infotainment“) industry not just because it is a good business opportunity for us (it is), but also because it is something that is sorely needed. If you think back to the Cell Phone market just 10 years ago, I think this is a good parallelism for what will happen in cars (and trucks and motorcycles) in the next 10 years.

To pick a point in history that we’ll never forget – do you remember what you did when 9/11 hit? I’m guessing one of the top 5 things you did was either call or maybe text your loved ones to check on them – probably over a cell phone (obviously so if you texted them). Other things you probably did if find the nearest TV to watch the horror as it happened. But what did you not do? Among other things, you didn’t Tweet, you didn’t update Facebook, you didn’t watch what was going on over YouTube, you didn’t check Google News for the latest updates, and you certainly didn’t do any of the above on your Cell Phone.

Now think about what happened when you heard Bin Laden was killed (to close the loop full circle). You may have still called or texted your loved ones to share the news. You may have also tried to get near a TV to see updates. But, especially if you are 30 years old or younger, you probably also sent or read Tweets, posted or read Facebook, and (maybe a day later) went to YouTube to see videos or especially parodies of the news. And, odds are, the younger you are, the more likely you did some if not all of that on your smart phone. But why? Part of the answer is certainly technology. The great and all powerful “Force” (if you’re a Star Wars fan) is absolutely Moore’s law. Doing the “double every 2 yrs” thing, from when the Twin Towers fell to the last thing to go through Bin Laden’s mind (a bullet), semiconductor technology has doubled its density in terms of transistors per area 5 times, or roughly a 32 fold difference. Specifically for Intel, we went from being from a place where 130 nm (at the time called .13 Micron) was “cutting edge” in 2001 to 2012 when we’ll be releasing 22 nm products later this year. For reference sake – imagine if we were able to shrink your average sized man (6 feet tall) to a height of a standard 12″ school ruler – that’s what we’ve done in semiconductors in just over a decade.

But, beyond just the hardware, there’s a lot that has changed in the software of mobile phones in 10 years. Do you remember what apps you were using in 2001? More apptly (see what I did there?), did you have ANY apps on your phone in 2001? You may have had “functions” (contact list, maybe a calculator, perhaps a camera), but you didn’t have apps they way you think today. And you certainly did not have (unless you were an ultra-cutting edge hacker) multiple different ways to do the same function. By-in-large, you maybe had a feature phone, were able to do a few things outside of making phone calls, for which you paid plenty, and you probably had no idea what “operating system” was on your phone (yes, it had an OS even back then, even if you didn’t know what it was). Contrast that with today where you can have 3, 4, 5 or more different browsers on your phone, several different “cameras” (even though you only have 1 physical camera) and numerous other games and apps that has turned your phone into something that is much more than what you thought your phone was in 2001. And, perhaps unbeknownst to some of you, a major reason for this shift was the makers of the mobile OSes went ahead and embraced developers. In the fall of 2007, Apple announced their intent to release the iOS SDK (Software Development Kit) in the spring of 2008 (it was released on March 6th). Similarly, Google released their Android SDK on November 12th, 2007. As you can see, the big difference is the iOS SDK will only run on Mac OS X, while the Android SDK will run on just about anything (including Mac OS X). But regardless of those differences, the SDKs of both systems have been used by numerous developers to create hundreds of thousands of different apps which have in turn been downloaded by millions of people to create billions of total downloads. And all of this is because of a general “opening up” of the platform to embrace developers.

This “inflection point” for cell phones is not the first time this has happened. For those folks old enough to remember, the world of computing BEFORE the PC was very similar to cell phones a decade ago. By-in-large, applications (or as they were known then: “programs”) for antiquated, proprietary computing systems were pretty much only made by the companies that made the computer. For example, in the 1960, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) released various models of PDP computers, such as the PDP-8. While they were “popular” for their day (more than 50,000 PDP-8 systems were sold), there wasn’t a huge amount of “openness” and embracing of developers outside of DEC. By the time the “CMOS-8″ version of the PDP-8 was released in 1979, it was the end of an era as IBM’s first “PC” was released just 2 years later and was not only more economical, but also, because it used an independent OS, become a key platform around which developers could orbit as they started the boon age of computing. But this key ingredient in the success of the PC – besides being reasonably economical – this “open-ish” environment that could woo developers to focus on creating new applications/programs for PCs was one of the big things that helped the “PC” (and it’s clones) beat the other computing platforms. However, before the release if IBM’s PC in 1981 – the conclusion that IBM & clones based on Microsoft would (eventually) win a “significant” market segment share was far from a foregone conclusion:

As you can see in the above, compiled by the brilliant Jeremy Reimer (see this post for all the background) – when IBM entered the brawl, they were actually the small kid in the fight – with Tandy, Atari, and Apple all having very healthy market segment shares. However, same market, but over the next 7 years, the equations shifted quite a bit. With the exception of Commodore (especially with the Commodore-64) from 1983 to 1987 – they pretty much all had the market segment shares dwarfed by the might of the IBM & Clones Juggernaut. By the time the last year of the decade rolls around, the history of computers has pretty much been written:

The lesson we learned is, create a environment where developers (especially software developers) likes & have enough openness on the hardware side that several companies can be competitive, and you will end up with a thriving market. It happened in PCs 3 decades ago. It happened (is happening?) in Cell Phones over the last decade. And, in my opinion, it will happen in cars (and other vehicles) over the next decade. But how does this tie into my driving across country over the holidays? I’m GLAD you asked! When you are stuck in a vehicle for the better part of 2 days, you start to really realize all the things it doesn’t (but could) have. For example, my wife & I both have cell phones. Plus, we had at least 2 computers, 1 tablet, a Nintendo DS, and a Color Nook. Now, many more modern cars (we borrowed a 1999 Ford Expedition from a friend, for which I’m eternally grateful) will in fact have more USB ports. Which, for Cell Phones & a Nook, etc. are fine for charging – but, the reality is, we want to do a lot more than just charge our devices.

Take my specific case off the table for a sec & envision the quintessential “College Road Trip” – 4 Bros out on an adventure or 4 Girls heading out to a distant Spa Day or some combination – we’ll use the cast of Friends to make this easier. Who’s doing to have the itinerary (route, approved bathroom breaks, cheapest gas stops) all mapped out ahead of time? Monica – good job! Who’s going to have the best music collection? Chandler, because he could afford it. Who’s going to have the most “eclectic” music collection? Phoebe, because what’s a road trip without “Smelly Cats?” You see where this is going. They would all (if the show was still going on today) have a smart phone at the least (let’s not troll & cite who would have which), and there would probably be a few other devices like Laptops, Tablets, etc. What if Joey had a movie on his Tablet? Does he want to watch it alone? No, he wants the rest (except the driver) to watch it with him – so he wants to stream it to other’s devices and/or into the displays they may already be mounted in the car. The same goes for Monica’s overly-detailed-itinerary – she doesn’t want to try to run it off her phone, she wants to upload it to the cars system to it can integrate in with not only the car’s GPS system, but also things like it’s fuel gage. It might be brilliant that you figured out that Gas Station “X” is 25 cents cheaper than anything else for 100 miles, but if you run out of gas 5 miles away from it, that will kind of suck.

So, just like Star Trek – we don’t just want a +5V power supply (via USB ports) running through the car, we want the ability to plug in numerous devices, stream music and or videos to multiple different screens, and, in short, have a built-in computer & network in our vehicles. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the car for 39 hours (**NOT** recommended) or 3.9 hours (that’s fine) or 39 minutes, you want your car to start helping you in your journey, not fighting you. Think for just a moment the number of Apps that have popped up for smart phones and tablets in just (roughly) the last 4 years. Think of the number of vendors making smart phones. Think of the thriving ecosystem of companies making apps or creating accessories for all those phones. Now imagine a similar thing going on during your next car purchase – not only to you have a few different vendors from which to choose – with different features & price points, but your car actually gets BETTER after you buy it because now you can get the new “Avoid-Traffic” app or the “Find-Cheap-Gas” app or the “Find-an-open-parking-space-in-the-mall-on-Black-Friday” App or (the very best) “Find-the-BEST-Car-Apps” App. You will be able to plug in just about any phone or similar devices & it will not only charge, but also share it’s media or network you so you can play Angry Birds Head-to-Head (my prediction of the next installment of that game is you knock down you kill your opponent’s pigs before he kills yours).

It won’t happen overnight. There will be some early progresses. There will be some missed expectations. It will grow and evolve just like the PC market did in the 1980s and 1990s, except, by leveraging what we’ve learned in computers and what we’ve learned in smart phones, it will progress much faster. And there will be things that happen that none of us could have predicted. So, if you’re at CES, come by Booth 7253 in Central Hall (near the connection to the South Hall) so see our VERY Cool (I know, I’m biased) Infotainment Demo. Or, come see some of the other cool demos we’ve got in the booth. If you can’t make it, I’ll be there Wednesday & Thursday, so I’ll try to grab some pictures & videos for you.

But, when it’s all said & done, there’s 1 thing I *KNOW*

In the Near Future, Car Buyers will be Counting the Number of USB Ports just like, a few years ago, they Counted the Number of Cup Holders!

USB Ports in Cars are the New Cup Holders!!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter: @Geek8ive – THANKS!

So, what’s the point of my opening diatribe? Because, quite frankly, I’m a Geek (some might even say an ÜberGeek). I know this. I admit this. Ney! I *embrace* this. But, I also know that most of the people of the world aren’t geeks. Therefore, I know that, just like I roll my eyes every time I catch a glimpse of a “high-fashion catwalk” where super-skinny girls are walking around in a dresses made of shards of glass, I’m sure there are non-geek folks that role their eyes every time they hear Intel has announce (from their point of view) “yet-another processor” (of any brand). The problem is, they don’t understand the truly magical nature of our product releases. The semiconductor industry is basically the only industry that actually has a super-power – which we call “Moore’s Law.” If fashion had a “Whitney’s Law” (named after Eli Whitney, inventor of the Cotton Gin), such that, every 2 years, the thread count of clothes would double, so that, by now, I could wear a thin-turtle neck that would keep me warm as hiked across Antarctica in the July (remember, it’s in the southern hemisphere), then I’d see the point of getting excited about fashion. Or, to say it another way, if the same weight of t-shirt now cost half as much today as it did 2 years ago, then there would be something to pay attention to. Unfortunately, the miracle that is Moore’s law just doesn’t exist in any other industry, so it is hard for folks that don’t have a super-power in their industries to really appreciate how exciting a new product launch is for us!

Specifically, in this case, I’m excited about the new “Cedarview” processor (formal name: The Intel® Atom™ processor N2000 and D2000 series – I know, it just rolls off your tongue!). IMHO, it is when you compare it to the previous generation (code named “Pineview”) that you can really get a feeling for why this is big news. But 1st, some high-level bullets because Geeks Love Stats:

• All SKUs are dual-core processors on 32nm process
• Speeds range from 1.6 GHz (@ 3.5W) to 2.13 GHz (@ 10W)
• 1MB L2 Cache (512 kB per Core) & Hyper-Threading on every SKU
• DDR3 Memory from 800 MHz (N2600) to 1066 MHz (D2700/N2800)
• Integrated Graphics running from 400 MHz (N2600) to 640 MHz (D2700/N2800)
• 22mm x 22mm package with a 0.7mm ball pitch
• See the press kit for all the details you could want!

But, like I said, while all the above “feels” good, it’s not until you compare it to the previous generation that you really get a feeling for why this is such a boost. I’ve taken 2 “key” SKUs from the previous generation (the N450 & D525) and lined them up to give you a better notion for the changes involved:

Since the chipset (NM10) hasn’t changed, the system interface hasn’t changed. And, they all support Intel® 64, SEE2/SSE3/SSSE3 and Embedded Options – but outside of that, there have been lots of improvements.

For example, if we take the more battery optimize version (SKUs starting with “N” for Netbook) you can see that from the N450to the N2600, not only did we double (from 1 to 2) the number of cores, but, while keeping the frequency roughly the same (within 4%), we were able to decrease the TDP by over 1/3 (36% to be exact). I don’t care what magic show you’re watching – that’s an impressive rabbit to pull out of any top-hat!

On the “D” side of the house (which stands for Desktop as in things intending to be (mostly) plugged in) – we bumped the frequency up by >300 MHz (>18%) while decreasing the TDP by almost 25%! In fact, the D2700 is the first Intel® Atom™ processor to even break the 2GHz barrier! All this adds up to what you get from Moore’s law => a choice of decreasing your power at roughly the same performance or increasing your performance at the same power or some (less extreme) combination of the two.

But, exactly how power efficient have we become? Let me give you a comparison – you know those Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) everyone loves for their power efficiency? Well, if you wanted to replace a conventional 100 Watt bulb with a CFL, you’d use one that consumes about 23 Watts. That is more than 4 TIMES more power than an N2600 and NM10 (1.5W) running at full, theoretical, power consumption! Plus – a light pretty much consumes a steady amount of power (as long as it is on), but your systems are designed to “down-shift” their power consumption whenever possible, so even though the N2600 is *rated* at 3.5 Watts (for thermo/mechanical design reasons) – in actual practice, it consumes (with NM10) more like 1.9W in terms of “Average Power” (see our Press deck, slide 15 for full details). So that means, in actual practice – you could put 10 pairs of our Intel® Atom™ Processor N2600 and Intel® NM10 Express Chipset running together and, on average, they consume less power than a single CFL bulb. That’s pretty amazing to me!

So, with that, the real question is, what kind of brilliance could you bring to a previously mundane object with that kind of efficiency? Could you build a Better Mouse Trap? Could you make a litter tray that cleans itself when it needs to while making compost for your garden? Could you make a smarter front door that allows you to interact with the UPS driver while you’re in your cube at work? What could you build with a little more “Wow” per Watt? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Or, hit me on Twitter if you’d rather leave an idea there: @Geek8ive

I have been at Intel 30 years, and I’ve spend a healthy chunk of that time being associated with the more “conventional” definition of “computing” – if you will, the old-school version of the term. But my heart has always believed that it was “outside of the PC” where we could truly impact the way people lives. Not too long ago, I was able to transition within Intel so that I could be part of the greatness that is Intel but is not inside a PC. This was definitely one of the more interesting and fulfilling times in my career. 

I have to say that my family was both surprised and glad that I was working in areas that were beyond the PC. And, in fact, it is sometimes through my family that I can better appreciate what it is we need to do as a company. For example, when my daughter goes shopping, she finds it very frustrating if her phone drops its connection. For her, shopping is a shared experience, and if her friends are not there, then sharing with her friends a picture of an outfit she is considering becomes a crucial aspect of what she needs to make the shopping experience a pleasant one. So much so, she will actually pick where she shops at least partially based on if she can get cell phone reception in that store. How many store managers do you think are walking around their stores with a meter to ensure they are there is good cell phone coverage in their establishment? Probably not many, but they should! 

On top of that I have seen her walk up to digital signs and expect to be able to touch and control them the way she does her mobile devices. Pretty clear that her generation has a certain level of expectations with regards to how they stay connected and interact with their environments. And, in this down economy, the establishments that meet or exceed those “intangible” expectations will do better than those that don’t – even if they are selling nearly identical items, like a pair of Levis jeans or a certain brand of shoe. There is a stiff competition out there to be better engaged with one’s customers & I’m proud that I’m working in a group that is trying to provide business with the intelligent systems they need to make the shopping experience better. 

But we are working on a lot more than just shopping. Healthcare is another big field of interest for us. While the recent passing of Steve Jobs is a somber event, we should also use it as a reminder for how many good people are lost every year to cancer. Specifically, most agree that early detection is a critical component to long term survivability and I think it is wonderful when I look at some of the medically-related innovations with which we’ve been connected that helps to lower the cost and improve the effectiveness of healthcare by bringing the power of Moore’s law and leveraging it to improve a wide variety of medical systems. It is work like that makes my family proud that I work for a company that actually cares about people and wants to improve every aspect of their lives, from better heath care and hospital stays to great shopping experiences and many other areas. It’s one thing to say that PCs are indispensible to work and entertainment, it is a very cool thing to say that my health and well being were improved because of what we do at Intel. 

Above is a short video we made that highlights some of the work we are doing. The focus on intelligent, connected systems is especially important now because we’re on the cusp of a vast expansion in the marketplace. By 2015, the market for intelligent systems will amount to nearly 4 Billion units and more than $2 Trillion in revenue, according to IDC. That’s more than one-third of all electronic systems shipments, and it will be our reality in a mere three years.
How can we add more intelligence into our daily interactions at work, at home and even while we’re out shopping? These are the questions that occupy the minds of many of us at Intel and at other companies we work closely with. We’re reimagining the everyday experiences we take for granted, such as walking into a supermarket, shopping for shoes or switching on the lights at home:

• How Intel and Adidas have teamed to deliver customers the ultimate selection via a virtual footwear wall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRyo_nIbrbw
• How Intel and JAOtech technologies are delivering intelligent bedside terminals that combine medical care access and patient entertainment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JH6Kziz8YI
• How Intel and Kraft Foods are transforming the retail experience through technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vYOgmTnn3Q

I invite you to share your ideas for the next wave of intelligent systems. What should we work on next?

Hands down, my favorite experience was being a judge for the “Future of Retailing” Student Case competition.  In all, 21 students from 6 countries competed for the top award.  Their challenge was to bring a local country brand to the KaDeWe department store in Berlin.  The range of ideas spanned from hats, designer fingernails, dolls, Ferraris, and couture clothing.  All of the proposals were well thought through and the team from Hong Kong took home the top prize.

The students all did a pretty good job of highlighting how many different modes of technology can be utilized to present an “Omni Channel” experience to the shopper.  It certainly inspired me to see such young, creative minds working on this challenge and made me think about where they may be and what they will be doing in the next 10-20 years as they grow their leadership skills and bring that new mindset to the retail industry.

My favorite demonstration of technology was a digital sign for grocer’s freezer doors from Stratacache, shown above.  While the design is simple and “just works” there is actually a lot of complex system integration that goes on to make this work so well.  Needless to say, the retailers who were there were truly excited by the possibility of making the freezer section more exciting.

The awards ceremony and dinner black tie event was well organized and quite a treat.  We were entertained by ballet dancers doing a “Black Swan” routine and then interlaced with some samples of next year’s clothing line from Mango (all black and white outfits!)  I presented out the Award for the most Innovative Advertising campaign – congratulations to Walgreens for their immunization campaign!  It was also fun to see Adidas win the “Innovation in Retailing” award for their Footwear Wall powered by Intel.

It certainly was a worthwhile experience for me to attend.  I know the WRC organizers are putting some content on the web for folks to see after the event- check it out here!

I look forward to the next big Retail show- NRF 2012!!

For example, one really hot topic we’ve got going on is “Digital Signage” which is basically the use of a large display that at the very least creates a more engaging experience for the consumer and, ideally, is actually an interactive experience that not only informs the user more, but also helps the retailer who is displaying the sign. Here’s a video that gives you a great example of what I’m talking about:

We also have other key segments we are working on, like Digital Fitness, Digital Healthcare, and other places where the energy-efficient performance of Intel’s Desktop & Laptop-oriented processors can make a significant improvement to embedded applications.

And this is why I love where I work. The embedded group is so much fun as there are endless possibilities for where our product can go.  As the world and things become more connected there is a natural fit for Intel products to make those “things” intelligent.  We should be expecting more from our appliances, systems and computing devices that we interact with.  My “job 1″ is now to lead our division in solving our customers and end users problems by formulating Intel based solutions.  This means I get to hear straight from the customers what would make their products more compelling, productive, and immersive experiences so that their product makes our lives better.  What I love most is hearing the specific examples of how these products make a difference.

On a personal side, I’ve been in Arizona for over  a decade now but I went school at the University of Oregon and got my degree in Finance & Marketing. I also got an MBA from ASU right here in sunny Arizona. I love spending time with my family in the valley of the sun, working out whenever I get the chance, and have an affinity for a really great glass of red wine.

So, that’s a bit about me, maybe you can now share with me? Maybe you can post some of the “cool” places you have seen embedded IA? How do you feel these products make a difference?  Or, do you know of a place where a little more “intelligence” could improve the User Experience so we should try to get Embedded Intel Processor in there to help?  Let me know – I’m all ears 

So, this has been an exciting week – not only did I get to come back to China & see its amazing continued growth, but I was also able to present some of the new directions we are taking during the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) Beijing 2011. In my role as VP & GM of the Intel Embedded and Communications Group, I get to see a lot of amazing things every day & I was happy to share many of them with the audience at IDF, but it got me thinking: “What is Embedded?”

Sometimes that’s a hard question to answer because, in a lot of ways, it is both a concept & a promise. As a concept, it is when the technology is just so deeply embedded into the application, that you almost forget it is there. From an elevator to a microwave oven, if you think about it, you know there are electronics in there receiving your instructions & taking actions, but, when it works well, you don’t think about that aspect. And, ironically, the better the Embedded Application is designed, the less you notice the underlying technology. And that brings us to the second part of embedded: The Promise.

But, when we look at the “promise” of Embedded, there is the old promise that you are used to and the new promise(s) that makes the Embedded market space an exhilarating place to be. First, the “old” promise is what you’ve come to take for granted. When you put your popcorn in the microwave & hit the button, you expect it to just work, not to give you some strange, cryptic message like “driver ppcrn_ppr.dll not found.” When you wake up in the morning & go to check Facebook, you just assume your wireless router is humming along, not performing some debilitating maintenance preventing you from connecting to the Internet. At this point, the old promise of Embedded applications is they do what you expect them to do when you tell them to do it. No error messages, no hourglasses twirling, no frozen screens. However, in our modern society, where people can do more with their smart phones today than their desktop computers 15 years ago, there are new promises being expected of embedded applications and that is what Intel is firmly committed to driving over the next decade…

Better Experiences

The first of these new promises is “Better Experiences” – that is to say, there aren’t just buttons to push, but further attributes to improve the user experiences such as a graphical user interface (GUI) that may adapt to changes in the situation or walk you through a simple wizard to get where you want to go. For example, while GPS navigation as a technology is over a decade old, people don’t just want to know where they are, they want to know both where they are going & what is the best path to get there. They want it to seamless integrate with your address book & your calendar so it knows when you are getting the car at 10:30 – you are probably heading to your doctor’s appointment at 11:00. Plus, people want the system to be aware of the road repair on Main St. & the bad accident on Elm St. so that it directs you down “Carefree Lane” to get to your appointment on time. And that’s just one example – the exciting part is looking forward to see how we can take all “classic technologies” (GPS, microwave, home security systems, etc.) and start to improve them so that the user experiences get better, providing a smarter, more intuitive world for people.

Productivity

It could be argued that 2 of the most important inventions in history were “The Wheel” and “The Printing Press.” The former helped move more materials faster than ever before and the later helped move more knowledge faster than ever before. In many ways, these 2 things (and subsequent related inventions) combined may have boosted productivity more than anything else. But, there are always more improvements to be done. And that should be a key goal for new Embedded Applications: to boost the productivity of the user. It could be, in the case of the above example of a better navigation system, the ability to avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam. But, as the age of robots begins to emerge, there could be some far more interesting boosts to productivity. For example, how would you like it if you could get a robot that would fold your laundry while you were at work? While it’s true that, right now, the robot really moves glacially slow & can only fold rectangular objects like towels, at least it’s a start. Some folks have started exploring using that same robot to go around & clean up empty soda cans, etc. Again, it is just in the early phases, but promise is bright for a future where a healthy chunk of boring, monotonous tasks may soon be done by your very own robotic helper.

Scalable Networks

By in large, in order to really fulfill the above two promises, the Embedded Applications of tomorrow are going to need Scalable Networks. Whether it’s an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system, or a robotic gardener in your backyard – constant connectivity is crucial to staying on top of the tasks at hand. Many folks of my generation remember starting to download a file over a slow dial-up modem and going to bed expecting it to be completed in the morning only to find out that some glitch happened and you need to start all over again. The same kind of thing cannot happen in the future where you program your robot to go around pulling out weeds only to find some low flying helicopter’s radar disrupted its connection to the “WeedOrNot” database for a moment and stopped only 10 minutes into the job. The network of the future needs to be scalable & adaptable to the environment in question so that it can support the myriad of intelligent connected devices coming in the future. In order for these new embedded applications to truly improve our lives, they need to sense their environment, take necessary actions, and communicate with the outside world. And, without scalable networks, the last, crucial step will not take place.

How Can We Help?

So, when you put it all together, the future of embedded devices is:

• They will work when you want them to, reliably, consistently, & dependably
• They will provide you with better experiences to improve your life
• They will increase your productivity so you can get the most out of every day
• They will rely on scalable networks to keep communications flowing smoothly

So far, that sounds like a tough task, but we are here to help. In conjunction with my IDF speech, we are launching a new campaign called “Hot Topics” to help explore some of the crucial pillars of embedded technology. The first hot topic will be Security, because, as embedded devices learn more about every little detail of our lives, we absolutely want them to also learn how to keep a secret and keep our privacy safe. As part of our campaign, we will have articles, videos, and blogs about these hot topics for about the next year.

With that, I’ll close this blog with one simple request: take a moment & post a comment below. It could be your opinion about this blog, or a suggestion of how we can make your job easier, or just simply say “hello” – let’s start getting the dialog going about making the Embedded space an excite place to be. Thanks!

To show some of the non-PC uses for the Atom and Core processors you know and love, we created a few new videos that show a snapshot of some of the amazing things Intel chips are doing today by helping everyday devices get smarter. As our goal was to educate and entertain, we follow a mock-investigative news reporter as he discovers this brave new – and intelligent – world.

One video is about intelligent home energy management systems and how homeowners can save as much as $500 per year on energy costs. Another, a computer-aided tractor that improves crop yield by analyzing soil conditions and calculating seed and fertilizer accordingly. The third showcases a revolutionary gym system that helps people work out smarter, as if the machine were your trainer. The latter is actually such an amazing use of technology that Intel has put some of this equipment in the employee gym at our Chandler, Arizona campus.

Intel makes the brains that go inside your everyday devices, so it’s only fitting they’re helping people live smarter, too. Where would you like to see more intelligence in your life?

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