In During its 43 years in business, Intel, the Santa Clara situated processor maker, has built an international reputation based on the high-quality x86-type processors it produces for personal computers, enterprise servers, storage arrays and other familiar IT machines.
With the proliferation of various types of connected devices into all corners of the globe and into all income groups, more chips and even more powerful variations thereof, are going to be needed to carry these ever-increasing data loads and deliver them in a timely fashion. These include thousands of devices that are not known for being in Intels marketing sweet spot.
For example, Intel is just beginning to supply chips for tablets and phones - by far the worlds fastest selling IT items. Addressing Intels investors earlier in 2011, CEO Paul Otellini said: Theres been so much written about tablets that I dont know where to start, except to say were on track. We are tracking 35 designs on multiple operating systems. Some are shipping now with Windows.
Intel is demonstrating some Android devices now and the tablet race is nowhere near finished. Intels ultimate goal is to be the microprocessor thats inside every part of the data centre, explained Otellini.
According to him, Intel intends to be the chip for all reasons, and the market will witness the first Intel-based phones (using new Medfield chips) in the first part 2012. In hindsight, Nokia was the wrong partner to have picked, he says.
Need for Performance
On the other side of this is the insatiable need for more and higher performance computing. The power, bandwidth and storage numbers get mind-boggling in the supercomputing sector, with large enterprises, scientific laboratories, government agencies and other sectors, clamouring for more processing power with overpowering demand. Unfazed by this demand, Intel wants to power all these yet-to-come connections with new generation, multi-integrated core (MIC) chips at every level: processors that will run all types of automated and human-driven devices from the creation of content to routers, to modems, to data centres, through processing and, finally, to storage. Were talking about all types of creational and networking devices, including sensors, videocams and scientific instruments the whole gamut of IT. But its clear that everyones putting energy into it, he said.
Otellini also said that, thanks to a well-ballyhooed partnership with Nokia that blew up in February 2011, Intel wont be powering smartphones until sometime in 2012.
He stated: We have freed up those (Nokia) resources and turned that design into a form factor/reference design.
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