Intel’s Otellini Launches Netbook Appstore In 3D
Intel CEO Paul Otellini talked about an Atom-based smartphone and an online app store for netbooks in a 3D-enhanced CES keynote
Netbook apps currently visible on the site include Yoono Desktop, which allows a netbook user to collate their social networks and IM services on a single interface, and Newsy, which conveniently delivers news content.
Otellini suggested that the AppUp Center would expand and evolve, with manufacturers such as Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung all building their own versions of the storefront; eventually, he suggested, the store would become available in the “handheld and smart TV space over time.”
A smartphone based on Atom
The mobile space will be yet another focus for Intel, with Otellini announcing the first smartphone based on the company’s Atom processor-based Moorestown infrastructure. The smartphone, manufactured by LG and featuring a 5-inch touch-screen, will be introduced in the second half of the year.
Even before Otellini’s wide-ranging keynote, this CES was proving a particularly eventful one for Intel. On the morning of 7 Jan, the company opened its CES experience with a presentation highlighting the new 2010 Intel Core Processor family and associated products, including the new Intel Core i7, i5, and i3 processors, the first to be produced via Intel’s 32-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process. Also introduced were the Intel 5 Series chipsets, as well as the Intel Centrino Wi-Fi and WiMax adapters.
That Intel can leverage 32-nm manufacturing capacity to mass-produce its newest processors is due in large part to a $7 billion investment made in early 2009, at what many consider the nadir of the global recession.
Intel itself managed to weather the economic storms better than many tech companies, reporting a $1.9 billion profit on $9.39 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2009. During an October conference call with analysts and journalists, Otellini suggested that healthy demand for consumer notebooks would continue through 2010, and that he expected to see corporate PC spending grow in the wake of the Oct. 22 release of Windows 7.
Benefits of the 32-nm process include the second generation high-k gate transistors now integrated into the processors, which theoretically boost both speed and energy efficiency.
“We’ve always built products in the middle of recessions that will encourage business growth afterwards,” Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, told assembled media at the opening of Intel’s morning event. “With the all-new 2010 core family, we bring graphics onto the processor package, so we get a really good performance pop” as well as boosted energy efficiency.
Maloney used the 7 Jan conference to draw attention to Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology, available in the Intel Core i7 and i5 processor. “It’s the first time in the mainstream computer industry that we’re dynamically changing the frequency based on the workload,” he said. “If you have a Word document and a PowerPoint, the frequency can pop up, which has an effect on how the machine reacts and feels under your fingertips.”
The Intel Hyper-Threading Technology available in the Intel Core i7, i3 and i5 processors allows for what the company is calling smart multi-tasking. “By introducing hyperthreading, we’re allowing more tasks to be dispatched,” Maloney said.
More than 400 laptop and desktop PC designs will eventually utilize the 2010 Intel Core Processor family, according to the company. If Otellini’s keynote initiatives pan out, though, Intel will also have a footprint in the electronics world that goes far beyond traditional PCs.
