Intel’s New Norm

By Suzanne Deffree -- Electronic News, 1/5/2006

LAS VEGAS -- Who decides what’s normal in the consumer electronics industry? Apparently, Intel CEO Paul Otellini does.

Otellini today at the afternoon keynote here at CES defined normal in terms of technology as what consumers have come to expect and enjoy on a daily basis, for example wireless access and downloadable entertainment like MP3s.

“Technology moves from new to normal very rapidly,” he told attendees at the Las Vegas Hilton. “All of this is made possible by Moore’s Law.”

Otellini presented this idea, supporting Intel’s Centrino platform as a major driver and promoting Intel’s new dual-core Centrino, dubbed Core Duo, as what will make the next generation of laptops -- ones Intel believes will be able to multitask various entertainment downloads with ease -- the “new normal.”

“This new microprocessor, we believe, is the processor for the next era of computing,” he said.

Core Duo is three times smaller than a Pentium and 100 times more powerful than the original Pentium. The MPU is available and shipping now into laptops, desktops and handheld devices.

“This device will have a very rapid ramp. It took us one year to ship the one millionth Pentium processor. We will ship the millionth Core Duo in three weeks.”

Looking to the home, Otellini reintroduced the entertainment PC, a concept Intel originally announced at CES 2004. The entertainment PC would merge the TV and PC, making the PC the heart of the home. At the core of this, he said, will be Intel’s Viiv technology, originally announced at Intel Developer Forum, fall 2005.

All PCs based on Viiv will ship with a remote control, the Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition operating system and media software that allows consumers to interact with their PC in the same way they operate a TV. With an optional TV tuner card, the Viiv PC will be able to record, pause and rewind live TV programs, and store them on the hard drive for later viewing or content on demand. Viiv also includes an integrated media server engine to reformat various digital content files so they can be viewed on a selection of devices verified by Intel to work with Viiv-based systems.

A distinguished cast of actors and movie makers including Director Brad Siberling, Business Partner Lori McCreary, Actors Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Danny DeVito, and Director Tom Shadyak joined Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel Corp. (center) on stage to share their excitement about ClickStar at the 2006 International CES.

While streaming content around the stage’s home set, Otellini touched on 60 Viiv partners – including AOL, Tivo, Yahoo, DirectTV, ESPN, GameTap and MovieLink – that will help Intel build a content library available to Viiv devices. Intel also brought out Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman and Danny DeVito, who are all working with Intel’s ClickStar film company to produce movies that will be accessible via the Internet and come at no cost to the user.

 “We believe Viiv will completely change what you view as normal in home entertainment,” Otellini said.

Viiv is available now and is shipping in laptops, some at a suggested retail price below $900.