IDF, Fall 2005: Intel goes soft

By Tim Danton in San Francisco

Posted on 23 Aug 2005 at 01:48

When most people think of Intel, they think of that irritating 'de do do doo' jingle. They think of processors. They quite possibly think of blue men dancing. But for anyone listening to the pre-IDF speeches in San Francisco today, the impression wasn't of a big company that is being sued for alleged anti-competitive practices by AMD - this is a soft, cuddly company that cares about us, the end user.

IDF - standing for the Intel Developer Forum - is a chance for around 4,000 developers to discuss the latest technology developments, to be given detailed analysis by industry experts and to network. It's also a chance for Intel to present its vision of the technology world to IT professionals and journalists.

In the pre-IDF speeches, topics covered ranged from how IT can be used to increase wealth within the developing world to using technology to assist the elderly. But Steve Pawlowski, chief technology officer of Intel's digital enterprise group, also offered a tempting glimpse of near-unlimited future power.

'At some point in time, you could push the number of [processor] cores to 1,000 or even 4,000. We're not looking at doing that, but the architecture means you can do virtually anything.'

We may not have to wait too long either. 'By the year 2010, assuming the systems will have enough bandwidth, they could have the performance equivalent to one or two teraflops,' he said.

One thing is certain: contrary to some pre-IDF speculation, Intel will remain loyal to the x86 architecture.