Intel has announced new technologies and partnerships aimed at transforming how people experience technology from the device to the cloud. The announcements included details on new data centre product lines based on the 22-nanometer (nm) process technology and the new Intel rack scale architecture, along with details on the forthcoming fourth generation Intel Core processor family.
During her keynote address at Intel Developer Forum, Diane Bryant, Intel senior VP and GM of the Data Centre and Connected Systems Group, underscored the importance of the data centre in enabling amazing personal computing experiences to deliver realtime information and services.
She also outlined the steps Intel is taking to provide the hardware and software needed for data analytics to improve the capabilities of intelligent devices and data centre infrastructure.
“People are increasingly demanding more from their devices through applications and services whether at home, at work or wherever they may be,” Bryant says. “Intel is delivering a powerful portfolio of hardware and software computing technologies from the device to the data centre that can improve experiences and enable new services.”
Bryant outlined plans to accelerate the expansion of Intel’s offerings across the data centre processor product lines based on its innovative 22nm manufacturing technology before the end of the year, thereby enabling a more cost-effective and efficient data centre infrastructure. Intel’s broad portfolio of data centre intellectual property enables Intel to quickly integrate features into new products and bring them to market. For example, Intel is launching the new Intel Atom S12x9 processor family customised for storage today, just four months after the debut of the Intel Atom S1200 processor for micro-servers.
Intel plans to deliver two more Intel Atom processor-based products this year that promise to deliver new architectures, improved performance-per-watt and an expanded feature set.
Bryant demonstrated for the first time the next-generation Intel Atom processor family for micro-servers, codenamed “Avoton”, and confirmed it is currently shipping samples to customers for evaluation. Avoton will feature an integrated Ethernet controller and is expected to deliver industry-leading energy efficiency and performance-per-watt for micro-servers and scale out workloads.
Bryant also revealed details on Intel’s plans to develop a reference design for rack scale architecture that uses a suite of Intel technologies optimised for deployment as a full rack.
Hyper-scale data centres run by companies that maintain thousands of servers and store vast amounts of data require continued advancements in rack designs that make it easier and more cost effective to deal with major growth in users, data and devices.
Traditional rack systems are designed to handle a wide variety of application workloads and may not always achieve the highest efficiency under all hyper-scale usages.
The reference design will help re-architect a rack level solution that is modular at the subsystem level (storage, CPU, memory, network) while providing the ability to provision and refresh or logically allocate resources based on application specific workload requirements.
Benefits include increased flexibility, higher density and higher utilisation leading to a lower total cost of ownership.
During his keynote, Kirk Skaugen, Intel senior VP and GM of the PC Client Group, provided a deeper look at the forthcoming 4th generation Intel Core processor family, which he says is now shipping to OEM customers and will launch later this quarter.
“Ultrabooks based on the fourth generation Intel Core processor family will enable exciting, new computing experiences and all-day battery life delivering the most significant battery life capability improvement in Intel’s history,” says Skaugen.
“It will also bring to consumers a new wave of ‘two-for-one’ convertible and detachable systems that combine the best of a full PC experience with the best of a tablet in amazing new form factors.”
The new Intel Core micro architecture will allow the company to deliver up to double the graphics performance over the previous generation. In addition, the new graphics solution will have high levels of integration to enable new form factors and designs with excellent visual quality built in.
Along with touch capability, Intel Wireless Display (Intel WiDi) will be enabled on all fourth generation Intel Core processor-based ultrabook devices to allow people to quickly and securely stream content and apps from devices to the big screen, free from the burden of cables.
Skaugen says the China ecosystem is taking the lead on integrating Intel WiDi into systems, and announced that the leading television manufacturer in China, TCL, has a new model with the Intel WiDi technology built in. He also announced new receivers certified for Intel WiDi from QVOD and Lenovo and a set-top box from Gehua.
Illustrating the low-power advances in ultrabook devices, Skaugen showed off the new Toshiba Portege ultrabook detachable, based on the new low-power line of the third generation Intel Core processors.
In addition, Skaugen reveals that voice interaction in Mandarin is now available on ultrabook devices from Intel through Nuance.
Tan Weng Kuan, VP and GM of the Mobile Communications Group, Intel China, highlighted how the company is working with ecosystem partners to deliver the best smartphone and tablet experiences with Intel inside.
Tan discussed the company’s progress with the new Intel Atom processor Z2580 (Clover Trail+) for smartphones and the Intel Atom processor Z2760 (Clover Trail) for tablets, both of which are helping to usher in a range of new devices and user experiences.
Taking full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by Intel architecture, processor technology leadership, manufacturing and multi OS support across Windows 8 and Android, Tan discussed the company’s forthcoming smartphone and tablet products based on Intel’s leading-edge 22nm process and an entirely new Atom micro architecture.
Intel’s quad-core Atom SoC (“Bay Trail”) will be the most powerful Atom processor to-date, doubling the computing performance of Intel’s current-generation tablet offering. Scheduled for holiday 2013 tablets, “Bay Trail” will help enable new experiences and designs as thin as 8mm that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby.
Tan also highlighted Intel’s Atom SoC, codenamed “Merrifield,” which is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year. The product will deliver increased smartphone performance, power efficiency and battery life over the current-generation offering.
Intel highlights post-PC tech
