INTEL Previews IDF

Since you've all heard about IDF, I won't bother you with explanations regarding INTEL's activity concerning the 2006 INTEL Developer Forum. The CPU and motherboard roadmaps are already available so there is much to discuss at IDF but less to launch. At least this is what INTEL wants us to believe.

It seems that this year's IDF is not among the richest festivities with INTEL in a continuous effort to reduce costs. The officials have already cancelled 7 events around the globe focusing only on the last 3 of them, which were said to be of most importance: Peking (April 17-18), San Francisco (September 18-20) and Taipei (October 15 - 16). As for the expenses regarding the new IDF, no official figures have been published but expect $3-$5 million to be spent by INTEL on every conference held at the following IDF.

I don't believe INTEL to have many tricks to expose at IDF mainly because most of its future plans are already well known. However, there are still gaps in the information sheets that concerns 45nm CPUs and many expect to see a working 45nm product.

Looking from a different point always results in a different picture. And this applies also to IDF, at least when you think that all spring IDFs (until now) were held in the USA. But it seems that this year the tradition will be broken as the spring 2007 IDF will take place in China. I can't say much about this decision but the message is pretty clear: INTEL has more important partners outside the USA than inside it. And they are making sure everyone gets that.