Intel's Maloney kicks off Computex keynotes

INTEL'S SEAN MALONEY kicked off Chipzilla's first Computex keynote yesterday with praise for the Taiwanese motherboard makers, talk of Wimax and some optimistic talk about innovation being the way out of the present economic crisis.

Maloney, an Intel executive vice president and its chief sales and marketing officer, whooped it up about Taiwan having sold a billion Intel based desktop motherboards, adding "a billion down, let's go do another billion!" Taiwan, said Maloney, is an "innovation hub" that's helping to prove that the desktop PC is not quite dead yet.

He also took the opportunity to unveil several new ultra-low voltage (ULV) mobile processors, most less than an inch small, claiming they will "revolutionise the industry" and deliver an experience much better than current mobile platforms.

Next up Maloney showed the first public demo of Pineview, Intel's next-gen Atom processor for netbooks, claiming it will have better performance, lower thermals and lower average power draw for longer battery life. Maloney also said Pineview will be a two-chip platform to supercede today's three-chip designs, with graphics and memory controllers moving onto the processor. It will also have an increased graphics core frequency, which apparently will improve its video performance.

He added that Chipzilla is also planning to push out new mainstream desktop PC chipsets that will be capable of delivering better quality HD video by the end of the year.

"Lynnfield" will supposedly offer much improved HD capabilities to mainstream desktops by the latter half of this year, as Maloney claimed users will experience 40 per cent better performance compared with last year's "Penryn". HD video consumption is growing at an incredible rate according to Maloney, who claimed it is expected to increase at an annual rate of 23 per cent through 2012.

Intel, said Maloney, will go on to deliver "Lynnfield" and "Clarksfield" processors in the second half of 2009 and ship 32nm "Westmere" chips using a second-generation Hafnium-based high-k metal gate transistor design "soon after".

Maloney told the audience that Intel's next-generation chipsets will take its advanced 32nm processor technology and performance to mainstream PCs with offerings like 'Clarkdale' and 'Arrandale' having potential for "dramatically improving the PC experience."

As for Wimax, Taiwan has conveniently announced its first Wimax network Vmax this week, whilst Russia is set to announce its network next week. Maloney waxed enthusiastic about Wimax bridging the digital divide, making "good progress" and opening up "lots of opportunity". µ