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Intel Research Day: Showcase for Creativity

Paul Lancour — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:27:31 +0000

When Intel’s research teams think about the future of computing - from mobile devices with near-limitless functionality to technology for the developing world to virtual worlds and advanced robotics, they are literally mapping our future (a future that could include, for example, a cafe table with networking ability). In this podcast preview of the 2008 Research@Intel Day, to be held at the Computer History Museum in the heart of Silicon Valley, we hear from some of Intel’s key players when it comes to the next generations of technology. Hear what Intel Research is focusing on now from Andrew Chien, vice president, corporate technology group and director of Intel Research; Intel Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Corporate Technology Group Justin Rattner; and Eric Brewer, director, Intel Research Berkeley.

Research Day is a chance to check in Intel on the future impacts that its advanced chip technologies will have on human health, mobility, innovation and, of course, computing - from Terascale architecture, software and programming issues to visual computing challenges.

You can hear more from Andrew Chien, here talking about essential computing, “the vision that drives Intel Research.” Justin Rattner shares some thoughts on virtual words as a precursor to the 3D Internet, and Eric Brewer, also a professor of comptuer science at the University of California, Berkeley, talks about how research from his Berkeley lab could lead to better technologies for the developing world.

Past coverage of Research@Intel Day

Tags: virtual worlds, Research@Intel Day, Silicon Valley, Intel, Andrew Chien, Justin Rattner, Eric Brewer, mobility, Terascale, essential computing

Voices of Shanghai: IDF 2008

Jason Lopez — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:13:28 +0000

This year’s Spring IDF, in Shanghai, brought the global community of Intel developers to one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, to discuss one of the most rapidly-changing technologies, and the incredible impact that all of that change is bound to have. Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger, referred to Intel’s efforts broadly as “architecture for life.” If it sounds ambitious, it is.

The speed of change in the software world is daunting. In his own keynote, SVP and General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel, Anand Chandrasekher, noted that everyone is trying to “unleash the Internet, unwire it, and make it go mobile.” Again, the words sound almost obvious, like common sense. They’re not.

It’s true that Intel specializes in bringing incredible advancements to technology on a tick-tock product development schedule that allows industries to grow and thrive. You can see in the matter of weeks and months that Intel’s efforts go from being rumor to being confirmed technological advances (like the recent Dunnington news) that the world is watching itself change in real time. It’s true that a lot of time at IDF in Shanghai was devoted to presentations on specific technologies, platforms and products.

We heard a lot more about Nehalem, about visual computing, about multithreaded CPUs (And just for fun, compare this detailed look at Intel’s sometimes-inscrutable codenames with a detailed look at those same codenames, from a slightly different perspective). Keynotes from Gelsinger and Chandrasekher, along with Software and Solutions Group General Manager and Intel Vice President Renee James and Intel’s Andrew Chien helped to clarify just how much more mobile our technology will allow us to be.

But always in the backdrop was Shanghai. In this video podcast, Jason Lopez connects the dots between Intel’s efforts to push technology past its limits and Shanghai’s amazing journey to pass its own.

Tags: IDF, Shanghai, Intel developers, Pat Gelsinger, architecture for life, Anand Chandrasekher, unleash the Internet, Dunnington, Nehalem, visual computing, multithreaded CPUs, Renee James, Andrew Chien, Jason Lopez, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

IDF Shanghai: Sights and Sounds

Jason Lopez — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:51:47 +0000

In this video podcast, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger explains Intel architecture and its wide-ranging capabilities (”architecture for life”), and Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Mobility Group, Dadi Perlmutter and Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher update the crowd on the latest on the mobile Internet devices and their innovative technology, powered by the Intel Atom processor.

This year’s Spring IDF took place in Shanghai.

Tags: Intel, Pat Gelsinger, Dadi Perlmutter, Anand Chandrasekher, Intel Atom, Shanghai, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

IDF Shanghai: Keynote Demos Showcase Mobility, Innovation

editor — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:27:59 +0000

In this video podcast straight from Intel’s Spring IDF in Shanghai, the spotlight is on the keynote demos that showed power and performance in newer, smaller and more innovative form factors, many powered by the Intel’s Atom processor. Many of the demonstrations focused on mobility, and they all provided an exciting look at some of the technologies that are just around the corner.

Dr. Ren Ng, president and CEO of Refocus Imaging, led a demo of his company’s light field cameras, which record the full light field as it enters the camera, ultimately extending the capabilities of conventional digital cameras and “turning camera hardware into software.” Ng explains that by doing this, light field cameras “bring the economics and power of Moore’s Law to the camera system.” (snapshots from their Web site illustrate the demo, which they re-created live, on stage at IDF!).

Also on hand was Dr. Mendel Rosenblum, co-founder and chief scientist at VMware. He shared the stage with Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger, to demonstrate a flex migration across four generations of hardware as well as the value of the deep collaboration between Intel and VMware.

There was a live demo by Classmate PC, following the news-making announcement of the new, second generation classmate (”featuring a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery, 512MB memory, a 30GB hard disk drive and a built-in webcam“), the unveiling of Intel’s Tukwila Itanium processor (“Two billion transistors in one processor”), and a mobility-focused Asianux demoonstration of the breadth of Moblin Usage, including a new way to play video from the Web and a new way to order Chinese food.

A Montevina demo was noteworthy after Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Mobility Group, Dadi Perlmutter, revealed that Intel’s next generation mobile platform, Montevina, will provide twice the 3D processing power of any current integrated solution.

Demos showcasing Neusoft driver assistance, Fuwa robot, Adobe Air, Sobey real-time rendering and MID & mobile designs rounded out the event.

Tags: Intel, IDF, Shanghai, mobility, Ren Ng, Refocus Imaging, light field cameras, Mendel Rosenblum, VMware, Pat Gelsinger, flex migration, Classmate PC, Tukwila, Itanium, processor, Moblin, Montevina, Dadi Perlmutter, Fuwa, Adobe Air, Sobey, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

Shanghai IDF Preview, with Intel’s Pat Gelsinger

Michael Johnson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:38 +0000

In this podcast, a preview of this year’s Spring IDF 2008, bringing thousands of hardware and software engineers from around the world to Shanghai, China, for a developer forum with a telling theme: “Invent the New Reality.”

Intel Senior Vice President and Digital Enterprise Group co-GM Pat Gelsinger speaks with PodTech’s Michael Johnson about what is going to happen at the event in Shanghai.

Here, Gelsinger talks about the scheduled keynotes and new mobile internet devices based on the Intel Atom processor. Gelsinger shares his fondest memories of IDF over the years.

If you aren’t attending in person, that’s not a problem. Intel blogs will keep the information flowing in both directions with regular updates, photos and video.

If you’re not attending the event in person, be sure to follow online at Intel’s IDF pages and check in here for more video podcast coverage.

Tags: Pat Gelsinger, IDF, IDF2008, Nehalem, WiMAX, Dunnington, Intel Research, Mobile Internet Devices, Intel Atom, Intel

What’s Inside SxSW Interactive?

Paul Lancour — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:17:23 +0000

In this video podcast, we travel to Austin, Texas and the SxSW Interactive festival, to focus on what’s inside people’s computers, and just how much they’re relying on those computers for work, communication and - all-important at the SxSW Festival — creativity.

Intel’s Bryan Rhoads took the opportunity to blog from the conference using a MID. He used the mobile Internet device to bring his blog readers along with him to breakfast, and to snap a picture of two of Intel’s tiniest products - the Atom processor and the silicon core of an Intel Core 2 Duo.

We showed those tiny products to attendees at SxSWi, and found out how some creative folks are interacting with their computers (and what’s inside).

Related Stories:
IntelMooresLaw, IntelMobility

Tags: SxSW Interactive, IntelMooresLaw, IntelMobility, video podcast, Austin, SXSWi, South by Southwest, SXSW, Intel, Interactive, ultramobile, Atom, Bryan Rhoads, MIDs, mobile Internet device, Core 2 Duo, processor

IDF Shanghai 2008: Atom-Enabled Devices To Debut

Jason Lopez — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:00:23 +0000

A new processor for the ultra-mobile market is Intel’s latest move to revolutionize mobility computing, from UMPCs to mobile Internet devices and even notebooks and desktops (er, “netbooks” and “net-tops”). While Atom (née Silverthorne) received its brand-new brand name recently, the family of tiny processors, which relies on 45nm technology just like the Penryn line of Core 2 Duo processors, will debut in devices on display at IDF in Shanghai in early April.

It’s no secret that China has come a long way in a short time — from being a country known for manufacturing cheap products for export to being, potentially, the next great IT superpower. National Science Board figures show that in 1994 there were only seven U.S. companies doing research in China. Ten years later, that number had risen to more than 500. Gartner analysts James Popkin and Partha Iyengar wrote, in their 2007 book I.T. and the East, that the world “will witness the birth of a real IT superpower if government restrictions are loosened and the Chinese instinctive talent for entrepreneurialism continues to be encouraged.”

It’s against this backdrop that the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, April 2 and 3, 2008, takes on extra significance. China now supplies the talent, within the country, to conduct advanced research in chip design. At this year’s IDF in Shanghai, Intel will provide an update on new technologies and features that enable devices with better performance, less power, more mobility, and lower cost.

If you’re not attending the event in person, be sure to follow online at Intel’s IDF pages and check in here for more video podcast coverage.

Tags: new processor, ultra-mobile, Intel, mobility computing, UMPC, mobile Internet devices, notebooks, desktops, netbooks, net-tops, Atom, 45nm technology, Penryn, Core 2 Duo, IDF, National Science Board, James Popkin, Partha Iyengar, I.T. and the East, Intel Developer Forum

Intel Atom: Chip Packs Internet in Your Pocket

editor — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:47:38 +0000

Intel’s smallest processor to date, built with it’s tiny 45nm transistors for a new wave of small, mobile Internet devices. The chip gets the name Intel Atom. There’s also Intel Centrino Atom, a combination of chip technologies for low cost, low power and high performing devices designed to bring better Internet experiences to wireless compute devices.

Intel’s Brian Fravel helped to announce Atom’s brand name on Sunday, followed by Bob Duffy and others. Outside of Intel, conversation continues. Most blog mentions highlight the tiny processor’s likeley impact on mobile internet devices. As Joel Hruska writes at Ars Technica, “The Atom architecture is intended to give Intel a foothold in handheld devices that have traditionally been the sole domain of very low-power RISC processors.” Noting that no Atom-enabled products have yet been announced, Yahoo! Tech’s Christopher Null predicts that “you should definitely expect some in the next few months.”

More info at:
Mobility@Intel blog
The Intel Pressroom

Related Stories: Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IntelMobility

Tags: Intel, 45nm, transistors, mobile Internet devices, Intel Atom, Intel Centrino Atom, Brian Fravel, Bob Duffy, Joel Hruska, Ars Technica, Christopher Null, Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IntelMobility

Intel Processing Power at GDC

Michael Johnson — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:10:54 +0000

Intel processing power was the name of the game at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. With quad core and 8-core muscle “under the hood,” gamers, developers, and graphics folks alike had a chance to see their games supercharged: faster rendering, MMOs running at ultimate speed, and easier exporting of element into game architecture.

For this video podcast, PodTech spoke with Peter De Lappe, of Softimage (also check out Softimage on the Road) on 3D game development graphics architecture, as well as Ethan Schur of TDVision, developers of Stereoscopic gaming headgear.

By the way, Intel’s smallest-ever processor will soon be given its brand name. This is the processor that Intel’s Denise Bohling says will bring an awesome Internet experience to small mobile devices. Check out her blog and share your guesses on the new brand name, which will be announced on March 3.

Tags: Intel, processing power, 2008 Game Developers Conference, quad core, game architecture, Peter De Lappe, Softimage, Softimage on the Road, Ethan Schur, TDVision, Stereoscopic, gaming headgear

Intel at CES 2008: Go Off and Do Something Wonderful

Jason Lopez — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:00:03 +0000

In his CES keynote, Intel CEO and President Paul Otellini introduced the concept of virtual Smash Mouth, and with a nod to the slew of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) on view on the massive CES show floor, as well as the newer, more powerful laptops and gaming systems on display, he made clear the significance of Intel’s 45 nanometer transistor technology. The bottom line, from Otellini’s keynote: “The Internet is going to come to us.” (more…)

Tags: Intel, Paul Otellini, Smash Mouth, Mobile Internet Devices, MIDs, CES, gaming systems, 45 nanometer

Mobile Internet Devices Make a Splash at CES 2008

Catherine Girardeau — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:00:25 +0000

Intel continues to develop smaller and smaller microprocessors, and to fit them into elegant platforms to run just about any kind of computer, from sophisticated server arrays to a brand-new class of ultra-portable devices, known as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). MIDs created some genuine buzz at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. Intel’s MID bar at the show was packed with consumers eager to get their hands on these ultra-portable devices, which Intel said combine performance, battery life and wireless connectivity to deliver the “full Internet in your pocket”. Adding everything you can do on your laptop or desktop to lifestyle features, like cameras, messaging, music and video-sharing, the seven brand-new MIDs at the Intel show will be manufactured by various Intel partners and are slated to hit the market by mid-2008. Intel MIDs are powered by the latest in Intel technology in a platform codenamed Menlow, based on a 45-nanometer microprocessor known as Silverthorn and a chipset codenamed Poulsbo. The Menlow platform will deliver state-of-the-art performance to an impressive variety of ultra-small devices, from iPhone-like touchscreen models from Aigo and Clarion, to devices resembling PDAs with slide-out keyboards, to some combination of the two, such as the Samsung, Toshiba, and Lenovo MIDs.

PodTech spoke with Warner Crocker, of GottaBeMobile.com, who posted his own report on the sixth iteration of Samsung’s Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC, (which features Intel technology), as well as Kevin C. Tofel, of jkontherun.com, which also covered Intel’s MID display in a post from the CES show floor.

Tags: Intel, microprocessors, server arrays, Mobile Internet Devices, MIDs, Menlow, 45-nanometer, Silverthorn, chipset, Poulsbo, Warner Crocker, Kevin C. Tofel

CES 2008: Intel’s Mooly Eden on MIDs and Sexy Design

Jason Lopez — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:00:26 +0000

Intel’s Mooly Eden has spent his career helping to design what goes inside the computer. He says that these days what the computer looks like on the outside is just as important. In this podcast from the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show he talks about the demand of users to be connected to the Internet and to each other, and the movement in the market toward high performing ultra mobile devices. Eden spoke with PodTech’s Jason Lopez.

Tags: Intel, Mooly Eden, Consumer Electronics Show, ultra mobile devices

CES 2008: What does Intel have to do with the Internet?

Jason Lopez — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:36:00 +0000

The Internet has been a technology that users go to, on their towers and now on their laptops. Intel made microprocessors that were the brains in the machines that enabled access to the Web. In the future, people will need an Internet that anticipates their needs. Intel says its vision is to create the microprocessors that will enable those devices. This could be the the year that the future is launched, when OEMs put a range of ultra mobile devices on the market. In this podcast, Intel’s Pankaj Kedia talks with PodTech’s Jason Lopez about ultra mobile devices: the vision, the underlying silicon, and the future.

Tags: microprocessors, OEMs, ultra mobile devices, Pankaj Kedia

Designing Mobile Internet Devices - Intel Chip Chat - Episode 22

editor — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:00:00 +0000

Intel Fellow and Chief Platform Architect for Intel’s Ultra Mobile Group, Ticky Thakkar, takes you inside Intel’s mobile computing platform research and development.

Related Stories: Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IDF

Tags: Intel, Ticky Thakkar, Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IDF

Intel CEO Keynote’s Utah Tech Council’s Hall of Fame

Brad Baldwin — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:24:47 +0000

Intel CEO Paul Otellini presents the keynote speech at the 2007 Utah Technology Council’s Hall of Fame Award dinner.

Otellini presents on the evolution of the transistor, and how the transistor and Moore’s law has become the basis of all tech innovation. He speaks on the way technology is transforming our world, including how tech is enhancing global communications and education. Finally, Otellini offers his vision of the future of technology — including MIDs or Mobile Internet Devices, and how technology will enhance the lives of people around the world.

Tags: Hall of Fame, Intel, Paul Otellini, Utah, UTC

A Thin Internet Portal for Mobile Devices

John Ince — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:16:19 +0000

As more and more cellphones become Web enabled, Anurag Nigam and Manish Lachwani, co-founders of InSync Inc., believe there is a growing need for an Internet portal for mobile devices. Their San Francisco-based, self-funded startup, 411Synch enables anyone to access their favorites on the Web with one touch, keyword strokes. Users can either create their own keywords or use more half a million keywords created by the community to easily find their favorite content on the Web from their cellphone, Playstation or an any Web enabled mobile device.

Tags: Anurag Nigam, Manish Lachwani, 411Synch

Digital Divide in India

Kamla Bhatt — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:58:04 +0000

The digital divide issue is being addressed in some pretty innovative ways by startups in India. In this video clip you will meet Babaji, who works as a security guard for Read-Inc Technologies. He has access to a laptop and has learnt how to use Microsoft applications like Excel, and maintains the timesheet for his company. Note that Babaji has that ubiquitous mobile phone, which many predict will become the primary access device to the Internet in India.

Tags: digital divide

Live at IDF: Engaging With Global Intel Software Communities

Catherine Girardeau — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:27:49 +0000

In what Intel called the “first ever software keynote address,” Intel Vice President and General Manager of the Software and Solutions Group Renee James kicked off Day 3 of the Fall IDF in San Francisco.

James, who manages the global network of teams that interact with all of the software companies that do business with Intel, spoke about, “Where Innovation Happens: Engaging with Intel Software Communities.”

In this podcast, we hear how the “community” aspect turns out to be key, as the relationships James oversees encompass the entire product lifecycle from early planning all the way through to sales and marketing. James devoted some time during the keynote to a few of those communities, including Moblin.org, a new community site that hosts the Mobile & Internet Linux Project, an “umbrella, open source project” for mobile Internet devices (MID). Another community, www.lesswatts.org, is a developer community for reducing power consumption that’s supported by Oracle (the site explains that, rather than being “about marketing,” it’s about “creating a community around saving power on Linux, bringing developers, users, and sysadmins together to share software, optimizations, and tips and tricks.” There’s also a global developer relations group, in addition to engineering and product teams.

James also pointed to whatif.intel.com, an Intel initiative that encourages communities to weigh in on the software development process, providing resources like, at the moment, an Integrated Debugger for Java/JNI Environments, for example.

In addition to supporting such a diverse array of global communities, James also oversees Intel Solution Services, Intel’s worldwide professional services organization.

At Intel, James was the product and program manager for the first software video codecs (Indeo), and was a member of the team developing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the unification of Unix on Intel Architecture.

To learn more about the Intel Software Community, click here.

Tags: software keynote, Software and Solutions, Renee James, Fall IDF, software companies, Software Communities, Moblin.org, Mobile & Internet Linux Project, open source, mobile Internet device, MID, Oracle, Linux, developer relations, software development, Integrated Debugger, video codecs, Indeo, Application Programming Interfaces, APIs, Unix

IDF Beijing: Where Does Wireless Go From Here?

Catherine Girardeau — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 03:00:53 +0000

In this keynote from Day 2 of the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, David (Dadi) Perlmutter and [tag]Anand Chandrasekher, Senior VP and General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, discussed the latest trends in mobile computing, and rolled out Intel’s strategy around Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs). Chandrasekher made a number of ecosystem announcements to demonstrate momentum in these categories, including the formation of the Mobile Internet Device Innovation Alliance (MID Innovation Alliance). And Intel announced its intent to pursue Linux as an OS alternative for Mobile Internet Devices.

Tags: Intel Developer Forum, Beijing, Perlmutter and [tag]Anand Chandrasekher, Ultra Mobility Group, Intel, Mobile Internet Devices, MID, Ultra-Mobile PC, UMPC, Linux

Making Mobile Productive and Secure for Small Business Travelers

Catherine Girardeau — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:00:47 +0000

Mobile technology isn’t just cool; it’s essential for today’s small business. Our experts separate the hype from the hard truth when it comes to getting business done securely on the road. Join Anita Campbell, founder of Small Business Trends and small business thought-leader; Jeff Zbar, “The Chief Home Officer” and nationally-recognized expert in living the home-office lifestyle; and Pamela Baker, technology guru for Success Magazine, as they share their insights into making mobile technology pay off for you.

This podcast was commissioned by Success Magazine.

(more…)

Tags: Mobile, Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends, Jeff Zbar, Pamela Baker, Success Magazine

Partners Extend and Enhance Home Automation Offerings

Brad Baldwin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:46:11 +0000

Platforms are validated as partners develop solutions. Control4 invited a number of their key partners to display and show their solutions at CES. The solutions enhance and extend the lighting, climate, audio/visual, and security benefits. From Somfy’s solutions to manage window coverings and lighting, to iPort’s solution that leverages the iPod for digital content, to Key Digital’s HD video and audio offerings for night-club owners, there are a number of solutions to benefit those seeking to create the everyday easy home. Other partners include: Vision Art (custom framed art to cover HD TVs); Card-Access (wireless controls); Home Automation, Inc. (audio, lighting, theater), Eaton (wireless controls); Wellspring Wireless (metering products based on ZigBee); DSC (security), Johnson Controls (light commercial market); and Ember (ZigBee Provider).

This podcast is brought to you by Rocky Mountain Voices.

Transcript:

Host: Brad Baldwin – Rocky Mountain Voices
Guest: Kim Anthony Parker – iPort
Guest: Kip Meacham - Card Access
Guest: Gina Lutkus – Somfy
Guest: Key Digital Systems - Speaker
Guest: Thomas Pickral - Home Automation Incorporated
Guest: Dave Froerer – VisionArt
Guest: David Richard – Eaton Home Heartbeat
Guest: Wade Smith – WellSpring Wireless
Guest: Abbas – DSC
Guest: Terry Hoffmann – Johnson Controls
Guest: Nick Finamore – Ember Corporation

Dave Froerer – VisionArt
Hello, my name is Dave Froerer with VisionArt. VisionArt is a system that we manufacture to conceal plasma TVs and flat panel, any flat panel TV that’s mounted either inside the wall like this one is, or can also be mounted - surface mounted on the outside of the wall. We have about 300 pieces of art and about 40 frames. You can also do custom art; you can also do custom frames. So, these are clay prints and it is rolling up and down, so the whole frame doesn’t move. So, you have a beautiful piece of art and instead of watching the TV — and then when you want to watch TV, you hit the ‘TV On’ on your Control4 remote of course and the art rolls up into the top of the frame. We make every single one of them one at a time for every plasma TV and flat panel on the market. So you tell us what TV you have, and we make it for that exact TV dimensions. We also have a cooling system - if you put it inside the wall so that you don’t have to worry about burning up the TV or the LCD. We have about 300 pieces of art; so we have books like this that are available or everything is on our website, it is visionartgalleries.com. There’s also a link on the Control4 site on the vendor partner area back to our website. So you can view all the frames on our site and all the art. You can also click the frame and it will go around the art for you. You can go to another section of our website and you can play with the wall color after you’ve pictured art and your frames.

Kip Meacham - Card Access
Hi my name is Kip Meacham. I’m the Vice President of marketing for Card Access. We are an ecosystems partner with Control4 and have actually produced some of the first products designed specifically for the Control4 Home Automation Platform. For example, this device introduced in November is our in home wireless contact switch. It allows you to interface multiple contacts including an integrated magnetic contact and two external contacts of the installers choosing into a single wireless device. It will also measure temperature internally and externally and when powered by DC power, will act as a ZigBee repeater in the ZigBee mesh. We’re announcing at this show, a wireless contact relay allowing us, as you’ll note on this little functional fountain, our ability to turn that fountain on and off wirelessly, again using the Control4 Home Automation Platform. What Card Access has done, is building a variety of wireless products, our expertise being in developing high performance Wi-Fi and other wireless technology radios; and we are integrating that wisdom into the products that we’re delivering to the marketplace.

Gina Lutkus – Somfy
Hi, how you doing? My name is Gina Lutkus from Somfy Systems. Somfy systems is a manufacturer of tubular motors for window treatments. As you can see here we have teamed up with Control4 and we have a device called RTS 2 R232 and how that works is, whether we are using a battery operated shade, a low voltage or hard wired motor, we are able to tie it into a Control4 system. You can see on the Control4 system, this is the main screen, we type in — we have it on the blind shade, we want to bring the blinds up, we touch the upper end, the blinds go up and the light goes off. That’s one scenario that you can have in your house. You can also bring the shades down as well; the shade comes down, the light goes on. It’s another option or scenario that you could have in your house. Like I said before, if somebody offers a battery operated low voltage and hard wired systems, our radio brand name is called RTS which stands for Radio Technology Somfy. So the device that we would use to connect to the Control4 system is XN2 or R232 to RTS device to be able to control that making you control upto 16 different channels, whether you want individual window treatments or group of window treatments.

Kim Anthony Parker – iPort
Hi, my name is Kim Anthony Parker. I’m the Director of Product Development for iPort and today we’re showing integration of iPod to the Control4 system; and the thing that we love about Control4 is their ability to distribute this content that’s on your iPod throughout your entire house; and the thing about iPort is, we’ve allowed iPod to now make that information available to you over RS232. So, with that being said, now you can, with Control4, take your system remote control or your mini touch screen or your TV GUI or your 10-inch touch panel or all those products that Control4 offers now, and we go to music - we select music, we then select iPort as our source and we’ve set it up. So now you can see - you can browse the music just like you would on the iPod. So we want to go, select an Artist, we select Artist and then we select an artist and then we go and play the song or the album and hit select and now we’re playing the song that we’ve selected. So, now this would be something that would be distributed through the entire house or played just in a local room. The nice thing about it is it also plays your Apple protected iTunes downloaded songs so that you are not having to worry about if a customer says, “Ay, how come my iTune songs aren’t playing?” This does all that because it actually doesn’t analogue audio output. So, simplicity, easy to program, it’s a module that’s already built with your composer software. You just drag that module over into the home - your project file and then make your connections; your RS-232 connection and your audio connection and you’re off and rolling.

Key Digital Systems - Speaker
Brad, thank you for the opportunity to present my product line to you. A brief history of the company before we talk about the line and how it works with Control4. Our company is founded by Mike Tsinberg, with 39 HDTV patents. He is the number one patent holder in the industry and he is the founder of HDTV broadcast technology and DVD encoding technology. Our product line is composed of switchers, distribution amps, Matrix Switchers, video processors as well as video transcoders. One of our most exciting products is the HDMI2×4 Distribution Amp and Switcher, which basically gives you the flexibility of having both audio and video control - meaning, in the marketplace today, a lot of custom installers have problems with video resolutions not sinking up in HDMI as well as audio not sinking up because of the nature of the HDMI handshake. If there is ever a miscommunication that takes place, or the video resolutions aren’t set up properly or the audio resolutions aren’t set up properly, what you have is a miscommunication and an improper HDMI system; Key Digital addresses that - as well as Control4 being a tremendous partner to us, we have all the drivers available and we work with Control4 to have seamless integration with our products in their control system, and we thank them for the opportunity for being at the show with them.

Thomas Pickral - Home Automation Incorporated
We are HAI - Home Automation Incorporated, my name is Thomas Pickral, I am Manager of Business Development and what we’re showing here today is integration between HAI’s family of whole house automation systems and Control4’s Home Theatre Controller. What HAI specializes in is Lighting Control, Temperature Control, security in whole house audio, and what we are doing is, integrating that into control4’s Home Theater Control so you’ve got the ability to manipulate these things through your television or through a Control4 touch screen. So, HAI products like ‘security systems’ or ‘thermostats’ can be controlled through the interface on your television using the Control4 remote. So if you wanted to — while you’re watching TV, control the temperature on the thermostat, would have the ability to come in here for instance, you can down the temperature down to 72 degrees and it will update our current thermostat. You can do the same with ‘Security’ for instance. So if we wanted to go head and arm our security systems, we’d have the ability to do that - again, just right through the television. Now in addition to the interface provided by the Home Theatre Controller from Control4, HAI is also providing the ability to access these things through the telephone or through the web. So you’ve got the ability to log on and control all these devices - the telephone, by simply picking up the phone inside the house or from outside of the house by calling in or through the internet. So, we’ve got a product called Snap-Link which is this whole USB key and what Snap-Link does is, stores all the information for your house and you could plug it into any PC in the world and log on and control all these different devices. We’re also showing it here on this Samsung Ultra Mobile PC just as a demonstration, this is an off-the-shelf item we bought from BestBuy and it’ll allow you to again, come in here and control different devices like thermostats, adjust settings in here if we want to, or lighting control, and it will even let you view IP cameras.

David Richard – Eaton Home Heartbeat
Dave Richards, with Eaton Home Heartbeat Products and we are here in the Control4 booth, showing off our brand new product called Home Heartbeat. The product is very unique in that it is a home awareness type product using this ZigBee technology. We use a simple base station like what you see here, the base station reports to a home key, and then we have any number of various sensors like a water shut off sensor, a front door back door open and close sensor. We have range extenders, power sensors, all types of sensors that can be placed throughout the home and it is truly wireless. So there’s no new wires, and the great thing about the product is that all of these sensors report back to this base station and will give the home owner an alert of the status of that device. So, if a front door is open and it’s not supposed to be, an alarm goes back to this base station, reports to the key fob, where that alarm shows up on the key fob - and not only on the key fob but it also calls your cell phone or gives you an email report of the alarm. What’s also great about this is that — I’m kind of getting lost, but anyway let’s keep going. What’s nice about this is that because we do use the Zigbee technology, we’re allowed to communicate to the Control4 products like what we’re showing here. A simple open and close of a front door can now be reported back through the Control4 system where you can have a light turn on, you can also control ramp rate of how that light comes on based upon the open and close. The same thing can be utilized with a water sensor, if the water sensor detects water, it also can report back to the Control4 system, where then we can choose to turn the water actually off by utilizing our Home Heartbeat automatic shut-off valve or we can choose to do other types of functions through the Control4 system such as bring lights on or give you a blink because there is an alert going on. So the system reports utilizing alerts; you can receive an alert both through the home key while you are at home; it will vibrate or light up and give you an alert through the home key. You can also get alerts through your cell phone, and you can also get an alert through email, and we also introduced a brand new product here at CES, which is our Web portal. So, now you gain full control over the system, so I can see what’s happened in the past week, what’s happened in the past day, and also the alerts report back to the Web portal.

Wade Smith – WellSpring Wireless
I’m Wade Smith, I’m the CEO of WellSpring Wireless, and we make a broad line of sub-metering products that use ZigBee radios, and Control4 is kind enough to bring us in to talk about how we interoperate with their system, and we have here two example products, one is the utility meter - water meter in this case that’s tied to an automatic meter reading system with a two-way radio - ZigBee radio, and shut-off valve that’s battery operated so that the valve can change position in order to sense leaks and to curtail water use if the water bill isn’t paid or if there’s water found down the floor that prevent a catastrophic flood, also to sense small leaks that might lead to mould growth. So, we have another product here which is used in sub-metering of apartments and multi-family condominiums, co-ops, that sort of thing; simply - functionally the same as the utility product but with a smaller meter - 8 gallons per minute, same 2-way radio, in this case a (Inaudible) separate battery; and both of these products essentially function identically, but work at different ends of the marketplace. You can get more information on our Website which is wellspringwireless.com. So, I want to add my special thanks to the folks at Control4 who were kind enough to invite us into their booth to have us be one of the many companies that demonstrates how ZigBee makes our systems able to communicate with each other and operate together.

Abbas - DSC
Hi, my name is Abbas (ph) and here I am representing DSC. DSC is a leading Intrusion security provider that actually designs, manufactures and provides and sells Intrusion security control panels; and what we’re doing here, we are demonstrating the integration between a Control4 system and a DSC power series platform. DSC realizes — recognizes that this is where the market is going to go; it’s going to go into the point where everything is integrated. We are going to have a single point of control, where you control all the different components in the house from your — from the comfort of the home owner’s sofa. So what you see here, you have the DSC system with the new product that we’ve introduced, which is called IT-100. The IT-100, it’s a bridging module between the DSC control panel and the Control4; it’s a serial interface that enables Control4 to basically perform and control the DSC control panels. And some other functionalities — this is a demo screen of what the interface GUI looks like, and basically all you have you to do is, by moving your bunch - you’re armed with code — and by pressing on the remote control itself, you can enter the code, and that code will basically arm the system; and you could do it — just as easily, you can disarm the system by going to “Disarm with Code”, and you can enter the code in here. By entering there okay, you basically disarm the system. So, this system — this demonstration demonstrates the easy integration between the Control4 and the DSC Intrusion Security System via the IT-100.

Terry Hoffmann – Johnson Controls
Hi, I’m Terry Hoffmann and I’m Director of Building Automation Systems, Marketing for Johnson Controls. We are very glad to be here at the Control4 partner pavilion today, and we are demonstrating to people how Johnson Controls takes the Control4 technology and expands it to be used by people in the light commercial marketplace. The Control4 system, as we deliver it, is called Touch4 and it has some attributes that are slightly different than the residential systems that we all know. This slide summarizes those; it gives us low cost automation for residential and commercial systems, but focused eyes (ph) on the commercial; control and scheduling of lighting, audio, comfort, access, shades and blinds, monitoring, alarming of temperature, humidity, occupancy, and interface with the security system - all of those things that you might find in a normal Control4 system. We have added a BACnet interface through this system, so that we can do commercial temperature control, and in general some of the features like password, and scheduling and especially the alarming have significantly been enhanced for that real commercial building network that people are looking to expand the control system into. So, thanks a lot for stopping by.

Nick Finamore – Ember Corporation
Hi, my name is Nick Finamore, I’m with Ember Corporation. We are a proud member of the partner pavilion today here at Contol4’s booth at CES. Quite excited to be here; we’re the only chip vendor, we provide chips and software that actually to Control4’s devices as well as the many of the other members of the partner pavilion that you see here today. We provide chip and software technology that allow these devices to talk to one another, and for Control4’s system to be able to control and use, sense and monitoring information from those devices. What’s really exciting about what Control4 is doing is, they’re integrating multiple systems; people are providing lighting systems, providing security systems, media control and other devices and our chips can go into all of those devices, so that they can be managed and controlled with Control4’s system. What you’ll be seeing in the future is more devices, more manufacturers, who’re going be building devices with our chips and software in them that will allow them to be integrated with Control4’s system. So we are quite excited to be here with Control4, who have got many other customers that are building devices that will be integrated with Control4’s systems in the future. So, you can count a long list of manufacturers down the road that will be on our technology and using Control4’s systems.

Brad Baldwin – Rocky Mountain Voices
This has been a Rocky Mountain Voices Podcast. Visit is on the Internet at www.rockymountainvoices.com

Tags: Control4, CES, Rocky Mountain Voices

Seagate Q2 Earnings Review Podcast

John Furrier — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:04:13 +0000

PodTech Founder and CEO John Furrier discussed Seagate’s second-quarter earnings with CEO Bill Watkins. In this podcast, Watkins talks about the company’s year-to-year revenue growth, the completion of the Maxtor merger, its new product line and expected profitability over the next two quarters.

Transcript:
Host: John Furrier - PodTech
Guest: Bill Watkins - Seagate

John Furrier - PodTech
We are here with Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate for the quarterly earnings. Congratulations, I guess some big numbers. Tell us a little bit some of the things that went on, came off CES, great launch there, new consumer brand. Last quarter numbers were different, we talked about that. Tell us, what happened this quarter?

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again I think it really was an outstanding quarter and outstanding in all levels of the company. As we looked at the quarter, I think from our introduction of new products, yield improvement in cost savings, the ending or finishing up, if you will, of the Maxtor integration on that merger that got completed. I think that in certain parts of desktop market pricing was a little bit better than we thought, but net-net it was just across the board, company wide people executing little a bit better than planned. So, we end up beating the guy in this place - that’s for sure.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, you beat the guys. Let’s talk numbers. What were the numbers?

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, we came in $3 billion of revenue, which is the first time…

John Furrier - PodTech
Huge.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
For the first time, we’ve ever done $3 billion as a storage company and again you think about that stuff. That’s probably 30-40% on an annual basis up. So, again very, very great attraction of the products as you saw on CES, where the new products come out the consumer retailed it almost 200 million in the retail, 180 and 190 retails. So, again I think it was across the Board, it was just a great quarter. We obviously had in the gaming section a big quarter in gaming for the Christmas rush. So, again it was three billion of revenue.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, the Maxtor thing is complete.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Yeah, we’ve really finished the whole integration of Maxtor. We currently have approximately 200,000 drivers left to sell, but all the manufacturing is done, all the restructuring, the layouts are pretty much finished and what will remain will trick out this quarter.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, we were at Seagate booth at CES we had the Bloghaus, with all the bloggers, which is great, a lot of fun, but those all the new products were out there. Talk about the new stuff that’s coming out.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again I think what’s excited about being Seagate and being as a part of any storage company today, is this onslaught of video applications content we moved around and what we saw at CES, was Seagate’s newest product rollout, is really to take advantage of all this content being moved electronically around. So, we opened up with the whole new backup that drives that. That not only backup, your data allows you to accessing your world, it allows you to synchronizing with all your devices, so immediately if you backup of song, video, it goes to your devices, whether it’s a video iPod et cetera, or whatever. It allows you access those backup data.

We also launched a whole group of products that are mobile products, which give you same functionality, but allow you to take it into your hand and go and so you can download onto one of your mobile external devices all your settings, your PC, your favorite IP sections, et cetera, take that with you and go. Wherever you’ve got a keyboard and screen, you’ve got an instant computer, with all your personal settings. So, again it’s all about giving you mobility, giving you security, giving you ways of backing up and accessing that data and then synchronizing that data through all these multiple devices that you use.

John Furrier - PodTech
The consumer finds it sexier too. I mean, they were really nice designed products. At the Bloghaus, everyone was talking about it the lights and it looks cool. Talk about like the new products that are coming. Any new cooler drives…

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again we think — we’re going to see a whole list of products. We started with a launch — I think we’re going to talk about — we’ve new external drives that are going to be wireless that allow you access these handheld devices phones, our storage capabilities allow you to back and load more data in a handheld device. We’re going to have a whole new rollout of our Maxtor brand coming out, that is really based on reliability and backup, but again we’re going to launch some new products. We’ve gone to kind of new concept here, where we’re bringing in a frog designed it actually did the same, we’re bringing in people who we think have expertise in consumer designs and they’re helping us design.

At Seagate, we’re very focused on the technology and we much more looking at industrial applications, so again sort of creative ideas and things like that. We’ve reached out to those people that do a great job and Frog (Inaudible) has done some stuff for us, but again it’s really bringing in a whole new sort of coolness to hard drives. Again, like I said this before John, we’ve always been kind of like in Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain. No one knew about us and it didn’t matter, we weren’t cool.

Today, we’re not brought in then forefront, you see them out there, they’re utilized, they’re enabling you to move this content without storage device you cannot move this content electronically. So, it’s really changed, the face of company is changed, where we going as direction and is really made this (Inaudible) exciting place to be.

John Furrier - PodTech
They’re all just fundamental, almost like a microprocessor was in original PC, you had to have it and now people are embedding in their lives. Just quick back on the revenue, three billion that’s huge number. You said storage company has never done that before. You blew away earnings; talk about the outlook from a numbers perspective, also Maxtor is fully integrated perhaps just coming out at CES we’re seeing that. What’s the outlook for next quarter and the quarter after?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well can — we are doing something kind of usual, usually coming off in December quarter, our business is somewhat cyclical and ideally at Christmas — there is so much storage bought for Christmas whether it is in gaming, DVR, set-top boxes et cetera, PCs, notebooks. And so, historically you tend to have a 10% down quarter coming off of December in the March quarter. We had actually given a forecast for the March quarter very different than that, what we are saying is revenue will be flat at three billion. We’ll improve gross margins and earnings will be in the $0.55 or $0.60 range, which would be a tremendous again, over and proven again.

So, the reason for this is, that the Maxtor products are behind us and so this would be the first quarter where we actually 100% manufacturing, if you will, the Seagate product lines. We’ve got new 1.8 inch drives that now we’ve announced and now launching, we are in fact qualifying, we’ll start to see revenue and earnings this quarter from those programs.

We have a very new two-and-a-half inch 10,000 RPM, and 15,000 RPM, which in fact is the fastest drive in the world for the enterprise market that we are getting tremendous acceptance on so. Again, we are announcing really, actually we’re saying, “We’ve got a whole revenue of three billion in our March quarter,” which is probably 10-15% above what historically would be. And we are going to grow earnings to that $0.55 to $0.60 range. Again, in a down quarter, but again a lot of the things in work that the teams have been doing are really show down and show up.

John Furrier - PodTech
That’s great. Actually storage is growing like crazy in everyone’s life, you guys have great traction. Talk about the leadership from Seagate, in terms of in the marketplace, obviously have the technology leadership, talk about that and then talk about how you guys are going to be competing in the consumer area?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, again as we think about, what’s critical to us at Seagate, it’s has really taken this technology leadership and transferring that into product leadership and in cost leadership. We think that — I think historically a lot of companies tried to be a technology leader, they tried to be a product leader or tried to be a cost leader. What we think is critical for our business, is really fitting all three things take your technology, but, it’s not enough, just to not to be a technology, you’ve got to turn into product leadership, and it’s just not enough to just be the product leader, you’ve got to have cost leadership there.

So, we think with our vertical integration strategies, our tremendous investments and how we platform those investments that allows us to really access technology, and bring it to market to cheaper than anybody else, just this tremendous advantage. And again that’s how — I think right now, over the t third of every drive in the world, the Seagate drive, and we obviously intend to improve on it.

John Furrier - PodTech
Tell, about the Seagate brand, changing — you mentioned some the changes, leadership is obviously there, how do you want people to know the Seagate brand in the market?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, I think — obviously we think about it from a consumer application and again I think to some extent it’s a same principle to OEM or Dell. You want to trust us, I mean as we think about — it’s one thing to put your data on a hard drive or your spreadsheet and that implies a certain amount of confidence or liability et cetera, but when you put your pictures, your files, your music, your video, your home pictures, I mean these are priceless things, and I think what’s important for us, that not only we developed the products and the services for you, we have to deliver a product from a reliability that you trust us, you are trusting us or myself, well trusting is the most important things in life.

So, as we start looking at consumer branding, we are going after that sort of attitude that and making maybe real life how important is that back it up, put it on reliable person or reliable company that’s going to value that and take care of that data, to that data is not $5 or $10 or $9.99 that’s you and your life and your most important things.

John Furrier - PodTech
How about the macro market conditions out there for your growth and leadership out there, what are the key things that you think about?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well again, as we think about it, we think is about getting content electronic distributed. And again we — anytime we move a song, a video or anything electronically, it creates an ecosystem that you need to have a storage at the enterprise level, where that content is held, and it’s delivered to your home. You need a storage device at your home to receive it, and then you move it your hand where you’re going to need a storage device, and then normally you’re going to move it to your car. And then everywhere along that cycle you need to back it up.

So, just the idea, or the behavior of moving content electronically, create six are seven drives or storage systems force. Sometimes, it’s going to be a flash in the hand, but again most that is going to be a hard drive, and so we get the benefit. More content is moved, whether it’s through the Internet, through your PCs et cetera. It created tremendous ecosystem, where we get to play it all every areas of those markets.

John Furrier - PodTech
We are here with Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate. Sum up for me the quarter that you just did and then the next quarter coming forward in your words.

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, again I think it’s very easy, to kind of excited about a quarter or whatever, I think that what — if I was to look at this, this quarter, next quarter, what you see is the opportunity. And it’s not of whatever we satisfied with $0.58 in March, or satisfy the fact we hit three billion. It’s the opportunity set is out there. And if we execute as a company, we can be in a dominating position in this industry. We can’t be a very large storage company; point-billion, those type of numbers are not impossible for us. The opportunity sets out there, we need to continue our execution.

John Furrier - PodTech
Storage of the center of the universe and people’s lives, great opportunity, you’ve blown away the number three billion in a quarter, blown away estimates, lot of leaderships, congratulations and thanks for the Podcast.

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Yeah, still more to come. Thanks.

Tags: John Furrier, Seagate, Bill Watkins, Maxtor

Intel’s CES Preview and Peek into 2007

John Furrier — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 20:35:29 +0000

Intel is one of many companies attending CES 2007 in Las Vegas next week. PodTech Founder and CEO John Furrier visited with Intel’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Sean Maloney to explore top tech-lifestyle trends for 2007 and the impact of new innovations coming from the chipmaker.
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Tags: Intel, CES 2007, John Furrier, Sean Maloney