This year's IDF is reflecting the trend to mobility. The event, Sept. 10 to 12 in San Francisco, offers least two significant pieces of news to watch.
First, with Intel's recent leadership transition now complete, the company's new CEO, Brian Krzanich, and new president, Renee James, are well underway resetting the course of the company - with an emphasis on mobile computing.
On September 10, the two executives will discuss the path they have set for the company and how the focus on all things mobile - from the data center to the device - is designed energize the existing ecosystem of Intel hardware and software developers and attract new developers.
The second big news is the official introduction of Bay Trail, Intel?s first 22nm "system on a chip" (SoC) for mobile devices. Bay Trial is based on the company's much-lauded Silvermont microarchitecture and the chip's low-power/high-performance 3-D transistors are expected to power a wide range of designs.
Intel thinks Bay Trail will be a winner in mobile. Designed for both Android and Windows, Bay Trail out-smarts the competition in tablets, 2 in 1s, value laptops and desktops. Intel also hopes that Bay Trail/Silvermont will have a performance and performance/power advantage over competing ARM-based processors.
IDF highlights are also expected to include keynotes on always on, always connected personal mobility devices, including those powered by Bay Trail; on the innovation happening in mobile computing for both consumers and business; and Intel's software and services strategy. In addition, there will be held a a "mega briefing" for the media from Diane Bryant, general manager of the Data Center and Connect Systems group, on how mobile devices are putting tremendous pressure on servers and related equipment and how Intel is responding by re-architecting datacenters.
During the past four month, Intel has unveiled the
Silvermont chip architecture, aimed squarely at low-power requirements in market segments from smartphones to datacenters. The company has also released the 4th gen Intel Core (code-named Haswell), inspiring dozens of devices including Ultrabooks, 2 in 1s, all-in-ones, laptops and desktops and at a range of prices. 4th gen Intel Core is running on as little as 4.5 watts and, even more impressively, scaling up to power the highest-performing super computers and data centers.