Spring 2003 IDF - Day 2: 13 Instructions For Prescott

Perhaps the more important focal points of the keynote addresses from Anand Chandrasekher and Louis Burns. Anand spent the majority of his keynote time talking about convergence and Centrino. Louis, on the other hand, took us on a tour of what is happening in the future with the desktop processor and chipset platform.

One thing that was made clear is that times are changing and Intel is ready to change with the times. Still, we believe that some sort of new innovation will be necessary to get things moving again. By "moving" we mean that IT sales need to increase, of course. It is interesting that so much focus has turned to build outs of computer technology that are beyond the biggest market players. A wise man once told us that "Good business is where you find it," and that has never been more evident than now.

The convergence vision is something that needs to happen to drive sales, or so Intel believes. The question is, will the buying public buy into this as well?

What will it take? Prescott, Centrino, Tejas, Marble Falls or Powersville? Perhaps a better clue to this is the ability to enable hotspots for Internet access worldwide. Never has the hotspot concept been more alive than at this year's IDF. A map was provided everywhere, detailing hotspots where you can pull out your wireless laptop and connect to the Internet. Will wireless hotspots be the vehicle that drives the changing face of technology? Only if more lighter portable platforms are introduced, and these will need to feature better battery life. This this is a primary goal of the Centrino platform. What is clear is that much work needs to be done, considering the vast amount of potential that it takes to deliver a true convergence vision.

Sometimes we hear people talk about the next killer application that will revolutionize computing and it is clear that something needs to give. Users are demanding more and more from the computing platforms, and delivering that will take new technology. Today we found out more about the vision for that technology.