Intel gives thanks for online video

YOUTUBE IS GOOD for the semiconductor industry, according to Intel senior Veep Anand Chandrasekher, head of the firm's ultra mobility group.

Chandrasekher also reckons the Internet is growing at such a pace, and permeating our lives to such an extent, that by 2015, the world should have about a billion mobile internet devices.

"The Internet is awake. It is more living than anything that has organic cells. It is a living and breathing entity," gushed Chandrasekher during his keynote at Semicon 2009, in a similar speech to the one he has delivered at countless other events this year.

Encouraging the audience to guess how many websites (or rather, URLs) existed currently, a person in the cheap seats shouted out "one trillion!"

"Well, that is our national deficit..." joked Chanrasekher, before going on to say that the number was indeed correct. Then, with feigned amazement, he threw out the usual stats about the sheer number of facebook apps and YouTube videos, positing, as always, that the Internet drives the tech industry. Ergo, semiconductor firms should be glad people like to watch so much online smut because it keeps it keeps the firms in business.

Chandrasekher admitted it wasn't easy to invest in new technology during an uncertain economic climate, but said that innovation was the way to dig the industry out of any hole it found itself in. So, if your firm is feeling a credit crunched, Intel advises you to hug your nearest company engineer and start innovating. Then surf the internet for pr0n ensuring Intel keeps selling monster servers.

Chipzilla's veep also tooted the performance horn, emphasisng the importance of compute power for rich media. This is where the Intel sales pitch really got underway, with Chandrasekher waxing lyrical about Intel's 45nm technology and promising better from second-generation 45nm offerings and upcoming 32nm process technology. Intel has channeled a whopping $7 billion into its 32nm plants.

Just as we began falling asleep, Chandrasekher pulled out a few props, including a prototype multi-tasking Moorestown-powered device capable of streaming several HD videos at a time, playing a hundred hours of music on a single charge, running Quake Open Arena and seamlessly sending media all around a digitally connected home with the push of a button.

We've heard it all before, but seeing the demo live on stage still impressed.

Chandrasekher concluded with a promise that Moorestown - which purportedly consumes 50 times less power than its predecessor - would be Intel's big push into the more advanced generation of MIDs. We just wonder how many more times we'll have to hear the same speech before we can buy the hardware. µ