Vision - November/December 2007 - (Page 12)

visioNary We also showed the world’s first working chip built using 32-nanonmeter technology which is the next-generation beyond 45nm. Those were the three big product news items. There were other second-level announcements in terms of platforms for notebooks and consumer electronics and our product line designed for handheld devices called MIDs or mobile Internet devices. We think these devices represent the natural evolution of the phone. It has full computing capabilities and full Web capabilities, does not compromise on battery or form factor, is small enough to fit in your pocket and by the way, has voice capability. It’s similar to an iPhone in size. Intel Stats Founded: 1968 Business Model: World’s largest semiconductor maker Net Revenue: $35.4 billion in 2006 Employees: 88,000 (as of 12/30/06) Locations: 56 countries •Launched more than 40 new microprocessors •Shipped more than 70 million 65-nanometer processors •Introduced three major platform upgrades: Centrino, VPro and Viiv •Shipped world’s first processors using 45-nanometer manufacturing technology R&D: $5.9 billion in 2006 Exchange Ticker: INTC Geographic Regions: Americas, AsiaPacific, EMEA and Japan Website: www.intel.com generations beyond that in development at Intel. That’s our job—to keep Gordon Moore’s Law alive and well—in order to help our customers. The Internet is driving change in nearly every business. How is it affecting Intel? We believe that all consumer electronics products will eventually access the Internet. There is no product, technology or business opportunity that we are looking at today that does not access the Internet. It’s a requirement. We see connectivity itself in terms of the quality of connectivity, speed of connectivity, price of connectivity and the ubiquity of connectivity. We’ve been at this a long time. We’re one of the three companies 30 years ago that developed Ethernet. One of the technologies we’ll talk about at CES is WiMAX. WiMAX is about ubiquitous wireless broadband technology. As WiMAX continues to take hold, the existence of competition will result in lower consumer costs with higher bandwidth. Will that replace laptops? I don’t think so but who knows? Right now the direction for people that want a full computing experience is to own multiple devices. Around the world, particularly in emerging markets, the first Internet experience may be on a handheld device and we would like that to have Intel inside. capabilities driven by chip technology. The CE industry is not yet fully on the same cycle as Moore’s Law—this will be one of my messages at CES. Being a first mover will require accelerated innovation. What are the best growth opportunities for Intel during the next five years? The core PC business, computing will be our prime area of focus. We’re also very excited about the opportunities in consumer electronics, especially if that’s how content and services will be deployed or that’s how people will talk to their friends. Even things like the boom boxes of the future will have an Internet connection because your music is all up in the Internet cloud. Last time we looked, the semiconductor content of the consumer electronics industry was something like $300 billion. That is an existing large market segment where we can play in a big way. Will there be chip customization? We will likely offer semi-custom versions for large customers. Volume economics make that difficult for smaller customers. It’s just too expensive, but for large customers, you could invent derivative designs and create ways customers can exploit their own intellectual property. How important is brand to your global strategy? It’s essential. It’s the way we convey who we are and what our products represent. Increasingly, what we do is fairly complicated and we can’t explain integrated memory controllers, multiple microprocessor cores, integrated graphics… people’s eyes glaze over. What the brand is intended to do, particularly at the platform level like Centrino, is convey a usage model so Centrino reflects the best in laptops. The best performance, the best form factor, the best wireless connection, the best battery life… Rather than talk about those in gory technical details—it’s easier and more effective just to say it in a bold simplistic ad—to use our brand to talk about how Intel makes complex technology simple for people to use. What is the tick-tock product development strategy Intel is pursuing? Tick tock is the name that we give to the development cycle. The name conveys predictability and a cadence—tick-tock, like a pendulum. It conveys a sense of continuity for driving technology. Ticks are the new generation of silicon technology—moving from 65nm circuitry to 45nm for example. Tocks are the new generation of architecture—the chip design—that you build on that silicon technology. So every year you either have smaller chip feature sizes or a new design with new capabilities. This is how Intel is accelerating innovation and performance. What are some of the key risks in the consumer electronics industry today? There are too many copycats. It’s relatively easy for someone to copy and mimic a derivative of your winning design. And it’s very difficult to protect that winning design. In any technology-based industry, innovation is what brings in new customers. Moore’s Law is on a cycle of 18-to-24 months—with substantial reductions in cost over time along with new increased How are Intel products becoming more energy efficient? Energy efficiency and performance per watt is a key design attribute for all of our products including the microprocessor. It’s selfevident that battery life has to be very good in a very small device. So form factor and performance are very important. It’s important even in desktops because they consume www.ce.org Can innovation continue at the same pace? Well we already showed 32 nanometer technology and we have at least two more 12 November/December 2007 http://www.intel.com http://www.ce.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Vision - November/December 2007

Vision - November/December 2007 Contents Shapiro's Spectrum In This Issue The Economist C4 Visionary Tech Speak Going Global Eye on Business Tech Policy Special Supplement: CES Unveiled 2008 CES Technologies to Watch Eastern Europe Embraces CE M&A Fest Displaying the Future CEA Newsline Market Insider Just the Stats

Vision - November/December 2007

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