Intel to Unveil Its Top Priorities for 2008

Intel's Corporate Technology Group has outlined five main technologies that will be the top priorities for the company during 2008. The group is comprised of about 1,000 researchers working in 15 locations worldwide. Intel has recently outlined the top 5 technologies the company will work on during this year: terascale computing, platform-on-a-chip, trusted services, a mobile computing initiative called "carry small, live large" and "ultimate connectivity".

According to Justin Rattner, Intel's CTO and director of its corporate technology group, Intel researchers are also working on other corporate technologies that will become available within three to five years, but the main focus will be shifted towards the above-mentioned ones during this year. Intel already demonstrated one of its most impressive projects, the 80-core teraflop research processor, that has been unveiled last year. "We hope to unleash the next generation of applications through our work in terascale computing, which really is scalable computing for the future," Rattner said.

Some other applications include desktop computers that are able to process graphics and special effects just like the Hollywood studios do. Although the details regarding these video capabilities are scarce, it is possible that they are achieved with Intel's many-core graphics architecture featured by the Larrabee platform.

The "platform-on-a-chip" is Intel's version of much improved system-on-a-chip integration. If the actual system-on-chip devices are impressive, yet limited as functionality, Intel plans to integrate a whole computing system, including processors, chipsets, power management and other functionalities to be found on a platform. "This grows existing markets and creates new markets [while delivering] greater benefits to the end user," Rattner claimed.

The Mobile Research Team will focus on ultra-mobile, context-aware platforms, especially on integrating radio functions into a single chip. The Intel Mexico laboratories are already developing this type of technology, but the product is still far from being ready for the markets.

The Ultimate connectivity platform is comprised of a mobile wireless phone, GPS, Wi-Fi and other undisclosed capabilities. "These mobile Internet devices will be the next important class of consumer devices," Rattner estimated.