IDF 2009: Taking mobility to the next level of cool
 Intel's Dadi Perlmutter announces Light Peak, a fiber-optic link that he said could eventually replace all that PC cable clutter. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) SAN FRANCISCO-- After giving an overview of its latest silicon technologies and processor roadmaps on the opening day of the company's marquee event Intel Developer Forum, the chipmaker today switched its focus to the mobile platform. Delivering a sort of wishlist for the mobile computing platform was David (Dadi) Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, who gave an overview of what’s in store for the mainstream consumer. "Mobility has gone from being convenient, to being cool," said Perlmutter at his keynote on the second day of the Intel Developer Forum. Toward that end, "the experience is what makes the mobile cool." One cable to rule them all In what has to be the best news to come for mainstream consumers is the announcement of the next step in cable evolution—using optical interconnects. Called Light Peak, Perlmutter says this could possibly communicate data between multiple devices at speeds of a maximum 10 gigabits per second, and stretch up to about 100m in cable length. For an idea of what kind of serious speed that translates to, Intel claims on its site that a full-length Blu-ray movie could be transferred in under 30 seconds. That's faster than you can visit the loo. The best part yet: Perlmutter said that Light Peak could ultimately replace the cable clutter with a thin, single fiber-optic link. The bad news: "We have the components (for the technology) next year… but it will take years before it wll enter mainstream," noted Perlmutter who added that "we all know that legacy takes a long time to make the transition."  Intel may have the components for Light Peak, but commercial availability is unfortunately still "light" years away. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) Notebooks to get thinner, battery life to get longer We've all seen what Apple and Dell have done with their MacBook Air and Adamo, respectively. With chips shrinking, improved cooling technology and power efficiency, battery life will not only increase, Perlmutter says "we'll begin to have great-looking products". As a demonstration, the mobility guru whipped out a skinny 16-inch Dell Latitude with Core 2 Duo that "used to be very thick".  Dell Latitude's new ultrasleek looks. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) Intel is also developing concept products to help developers come up with nicer, cooler-looking devices. Featured was the Tangent Bay concept notebook with four displays which we wrote about earlier. For videos of how the screens work, click here.  Concept notebooks like Tangent Bay are intended to ignite innovation in the mobility space. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) WiMAX, the next hot connectivity flavor Last year, Intel introduced its first embedded WiMAX built into notebooks, although Perlmutter said networks have to be in place to take advantage of this. Why WiMAX? Peter Cannistra, VP for Embedded Devices at Clearwire, was on stage to answer that. Clearwire is building a US-wide 4G wireless network, and combined with the huge amount of spectrum in each market, "this will lead to a wireless broadband service that puts the Internet in your hands wherever you go, in a very broadband way. So you'll experience broadband just like you do at home in a wired connection or at your office with a T1 line".  Intel aims to eventually have everyone experience broadband on-the-go the way it should. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) Cannistra also pointed out that 4G is "fundamentally different" from 3G in that we're seeing 3 to 6 megabits per second at present, bursting up to 10 megabits per second. In a demonstration of two simultaneous videoconference calls going on at the same time, the 3G connection displayed a difference in quality of video uplink speed at 100 to 200 kilobits, while the 4G connection had 800 kilobits to 1 megabit of uplink. SSD to help with faster response Nothing new here. However, Intel is looking to solid-state drives (SSD) to help with reliability and response time. This was demonstrated with two notebooks, with the SSD version booting up a video two times faster than the one with the standard hard drive.  SSD (on the left) trumps HDD's response time by more than two times. (Credit: Juniper Foo/CNET Asia) Next-gen anti-theft for consumer laptops With people becoming more mobile, theft is a growing concern. Today's keynote gave more details on Intel's Anti-Theft technology version 2.03, which partners with antitheft company LoJack. To be released next year to the consumer space in a wider number of laptops, this will offer improved security that can remotely disable a laptop that has been lost or stolen. Tags: WiMAX, Juniper Networks Inc., Notebook, Dell Computer Corp., Intel Corp.
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