After a major reorganization and more than a year of nipping at the heels of its much smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, this fall’s Intel Developer Forum might have been host to nothing more than a giant hangover of despair.

But for the most part Intel seemed re-energized, and I saw no evidence of anyone moping around about colleagues who had been victims of the company’s recent workforce reductions [http://www.edn.com/article/CA6368854.html] that totaled about 10 percent.

Rather, executives were abuzz about new opportunities for big data center growth, driven by Web 2.0 and Software as a Service (SaaS). That certainly seems to be a tide that could raise all the boats in the harbor. 

And it’s a tide that is bringing a flotsam of goodies to all of Silicon Valley. My commute time from San Jose to San Francisco for this IDF was significantly increased this time around. It took me two hours on Tuesday in heavy traffic that reminded me of the boom times before the dot-com crash. And it wasn’t even raining.

Intel is no exception, and I must have heard executives mention it no less than a dozen times during this fall’s IDF so far. 

The company is also pinning its hopes for its Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) on the rise of Web 2.0. Intel doesn’t anticipate these things being replacements for cell phones. Rather, the company is pushing this mobile device as super portable Internet connection that lets you get to MySpace and YouTube while you are standing in line at Starbucks. It will all be connected via Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMax broadband wireless networks here in the United States.

Intel hopes we will soon all be looking at these devices every 30 seconds instead of our Blackberries. And I must agree that the Web interfaces on my Blackberry and my personal smart phone do leave a lot to be desired.  (I am one of the 50 percent – a statistic from Intel’s UMPC guru Anand Chandrasekher – of smart phone owners who carry a second cell phone). But do I want to add a third device?  Please, do you know how long it takes me to get through airport security already?

Which brings me to Intel CTO Justin Rattner’s keynote address opening joke – a little skit. In the skit Rattner is trying to get through airport security. A TSA official takes one look at his laptop and asks, “Is that a LIQUID crystal display?” The official then breaks off the display from the notebook and dumps the display into the trashcan at the security checkpoint, handing the keyboard part back to Rattner.

Well, it was funny if you were there. If he ever decides that this CTO thing is not working out, Rattner certainly could have a future in Hollywood.

Jessica Davis
Senior Editor, Electronic News