• Smart Computing Islands on Everyday Surfaces
  August 12, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a future where you could simply place an item of food on your kitchen countertop, and with a few finger strokes, locate recipes that incorporate that item. You could even put multiple food items on the counter and search for recipes that include all those ingredients. "Object-Aware Situated Interactive System" ("OASIS") combines real-time computer vision algorithms, 3D cameras, and micro-projection for fast recognition and tracking of everyday physical objects and gestures. The Intel demonstration uses displays projected on everyday household surfaces to create interactive islands for in-home applications. It can be easily retrofitted to any home, any room and almost any horizontal or vertical surface. The project has interesting implications for future capabilities around the home.
  
  
• Mobile Augmented Reality for Do-it-Yourself Tech Support
  August 5, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a future where computer vision and Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) along with a device with the latest Intel® Atom™ processor could be used to help guide a consumer to do his own home PC repair project. The device was able to identify the model of the PC and provide text and graphical instructions to the user for each step of the repair.
  
  
• Mobile Augmented Reality
  July 30, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a Mobile Augmented Reality World Browser application on the latest Intel® Atom™ processor –based platform. The World Browser enriches the way users understand their world on an Intel Atom processor powered Smart Phone. Users can instantly access the huge reservoir of information on the web, by simple click of the camera shutter. The system identifies landmarks on the fly, using compute-intensive visual search in concert with power-efficient sensors, taking advantage of unique IA platform features.
  
  
• Online Updates in Data Warehouses via SSDs
  July 22, 2010
   
  Today's data warehouses operate on stale (day-old) snapshots of data, in order to achieve efficient data access. The rise of e-commerce and the need for 24x7 operations for global markets make online updates increasingly desirable. At Research@Intel Day 2010 last month, researchers from Intel Labs Pittsburgh demonstrated research exploiting Solid State Drives (SSDs) to enable fast data access on up-to-the-minute data. Researchers demonstrated a prototype data warehouse that caches recent updates in a SSD, and combines cached updates on-the-fly in query answers while preserving the queries' good sequential disk access patterns.
  
  
• Intel Powers Offshore Wind Turbines
  July 15, 2010
   
  Now, more than ever, there is a growing need for reliable, alternative offshore energy sources and with Intel processors powering Mainstream Renewable Power's offshore wind turbines throughout the UK, offshore wind has become a viable contender. Intel embedded technology enables increased control of turbines while reducing costs and providing real-time data processing, easy programmability and advanced pitch designs, which allow utilities to maintain a reliable stream of renewable energy to support future energy innovations.
  
  
• Energy-Efficient Hardware Accelerator
  July 8, 2010
   
  Today's microprocessors need to compute more data than ever before, while maintaining a low power state for energy and battery life savings. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is one of the most compute-intensive block ciphers for media content protection and data encryption on high-performance tera-scale microprocessor platforms. The exponential increase in data rates of real-time media processing and computational complexities of mapping modular Galois-field (GF) arithmetic and arbitrary permutations onto general-purpose microprocessors create substantial power and performance bottlenecks within the CPU core. Recently, at Research@Intel Day, in Mountain View, California, Intel Researchers demonstrated an energy-efficient reconfigurable special-purpose hardware accelerator targeted for on-die real-time encryption/decryption of media content in 45nm high-K/Metal-gate CMOS technology. The prototype chip showcases novel high-performance reconfigurable arithmetic logic and data-path circuits that are capable of performing the most commonly employed AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256 encryption and decryption standards at industry-leading throughputs up to 53Gbps while consuming only 125mW. Near-threshold voltage optimized circuits utilized on this chip enable the encryption/decryption performance to scale over a wide operating voltage range from 1.1V down to 320mV. An all-digital variation-tolerant true random number generator design targeted for secure encryption key generation is also demonstrated functioning at 2.4Gbps. See more about research projects in Intel's worldwide network of labs.
  
  
• Can Computer Gaming Help save the Planet?
  June 30, 2010
   
  Intel Researchers demonstrated at today's Research@Intel Day, in Mountain View, California, how computer games could potentially assist in environmental policymaking, with current efforts focused on water allocation policy. Researchers hypothesize that immersive games can facilitate public participation and provide insight to decision makers about the effects of various policy alternatives. In addition, game-play observation could enable more accurate modeling of human behavior. Working with colleagues at Sandia National Labs, Intel researchers simulated New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District at ScienceSim, a virtual world based on OpenSim for scientific collaboration and education. They created a role playing game that allows players to act out various stakeholder roles such as farmers, developers, manufacturers, environmentalists, and policy makers. See more about research projects in Intel's worldwide network of labs.
  
  
• Transistors - Past, Present, Future, and Future-er
  June 25, 2010
   
  The millions and even billions of transistors you need in the products you'll use more than a decade from now are already being researched and planned for inside the walls of Intel. Using its unique Research-Development-Manufacturing approach, Intel is able to develop the latest transistors and know they will be production-ready and on time to our customers. See "Transistors: Past, Present, Future, and Future-er" blog for more about the plenary talk Intel gave this week at the 2010 Device Research Conference.
  
  
• Making Improvements to Cache Memory
  June 16, 2010
   
  Today's CPUs typically contain large amounts of on-chip cache memory, which speed up access to code and data, thereby improving overall performance and reducing power. Intel engineers are looking for ways to make these memories more dense, to either increase their capacity (for improved performance) or reduce their size (for lower manufacturing cost). Floating body cell (FBC) (PDF 371KB) is one candidate to one day replace the 6-transistor SRAM cells in use today. In two presentations at the 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits this week, Intel is presenting progress in developing this FBC. One paper describes the development of a 22nm FBC memory on a bulk wafer of the kind in use in high volume manufacturing today -- earlier results were on much more expensive SOI (silicon on insulator) wafers. Another paper describes a procedure for selectively doping (introducing impurities) into an FBC's back gate, without contaminating other parts of the device . quite a challenge, given its size. Further details are available here (PDF 40KB).
  
  
• Increasing the Versatility of Chip Manufacturing Process
  June 15, 2010
   
  Intel is the only company in the world shipping products built on a 32nm (32 billionths of a meter) manufacturing process, and the only one with high-k/metal gate (PDF 13KB), a technology that delivers superior performance and energy efficiency. Now, Intel engineers have developed a new version of this process -- first created for CPUs - to make SoCs, particularly those requiring low power and RF (radio frequency)/mobile communications. A full array of features has been added, including a triple-transistor architecture with high frequency performance, low leakage power and good noise performance, and high breakdown power amplifier transistors. The latter is needed for CMOS power amplifiers in integrated radio applications such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, cellular, and GPS. The process provides noise isolation through deep-n-well and high resistivity substrates, and includes high quality inductors, resistors, and varactors. Intel is describing this new technology at the 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits this week. Further details are available here (PDF 28KB).
  
  
• 48-Core Single-Chip Cloud Computer - Reading Brain Waves with Computers
  June 15, 2010
   
  Imagine future laptops capable of vision comparable to the human eye, accurately seeing objects and motion. You could shop online using the laptop's 3D camera and display and see a "mirror image" of yourself wearing the clothes you are "trying on," seeing how the fabric drapes when you move or twirl and how the color complements your skin tone. Researchers from Intel Labs recently demonstrated (PDF 652KB) a experimental 48-core Intel microprocessor that could make this and much more a reality. Some researchers believe future computers with processors derived from this chip may even be able to read brain waves - where simply thinking about a command could make it happen. The long-term goal of the 48-core microprocessor is to add scaling features to computers in order to spur entirely new software applications and human-machine interfaces. Intel presented a paper on this technology at this week's 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits. Read more about the "Single-Chip Cloud Computer" (PDF 1.15MB) in Microprocessor Report and see more about how Intel innovation is changing the way we work, live, and play.
  
  
• Materials for EUV Lithography
  June 11, 2010
   
  One of the key challenges to successful EUV lithography is the choice of photoresist (aka "resist"), the material used to create a specific pattern on a layer of a chip. The resist must be sensitive to EUV radiation so a pattern can be created, and must resist subsequent etching or other processing steps. Intel has been evaluating various materials for this purpose on an in-house Micro-Exposure Tool. The goal is to simultaneously achieve high sensitivity, high resolution, and low line width roughness (LWR). Intel has demonstrated that a positive-tone chemically amplified resist coupled with an EUV underlayer as well as the use of an ancillary post-develop rinse material can achieve 22nm half pitch resolution while meeting sensitivity and LWR requirements. The results of this work were recently described at the SPIE Microlithography Conference (PDF 4.4MB); check out the paper for details.
  
  
• Big Strides in EUV Lithography
  June 7, 2010
   
  Intel engineers working on lithography based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation have demonstrated significant gains on tool, defect inspection and performance fronts. Lithography is the process by which intricate patterns are created on computer chips; the wavelength of EUV is more than 10X shorter than that in use today, meaning that EUVL promises a much sharper "pencil" for creating ever smaller features as Moore's Law advances. Working with a EUV micro-exposure tool (MET), the first to be fully integrated into an IC fabrication facility, Intel engineers have demonstrated significant improvements in ultimate resolution capability. Results were presented recently at the SPIE Microlithography Conference (PDF 4.4MB); check out the paper for details. After over a decade of work, EUVL has moved from research to implementation mode!
  
  
• Intel-Powered Fitness Equipment
  May 28, 2010
   
  Intel embedded technology now powers the latest Internet-connected, high-tech fitness equipment, enabling users to track their fitness goals and proactively manage their health and wellness. At its recent Tech Heaven event, Intel demonstrated (PDF 652KB) the equipment, which was designed by the visionaries at Core Performance*. These CPro* multipurpose fitness machines by Core Performance* are used by professional athletes, such as Team USA hockey player and Olympian Angela Ruggerio, as well as everyday achievers in life. This smart fitness technology can help anyone - from moms to engineers to athletes - get a personalized training program designed to meet their goals, lifestyle and fitness level. More information is available in the Embedded press kit; also check out this video.
  
  
• Fishing for Faults in the Field
  May 21, 2010
   
  As chip feature sizes get ever smaller, they become more susceptible to noise sources and radiation which can result in non-recurring errors called soft errors. Also, after a chip has been in operation for an extended period of time, degradation effects such as hot carrier injection, electromigration and negative-bias temperature instability can contribute to increases in failures in the field. One way to test for such types of errors is "on line" testing, in which tests run continuously whenever the chip is in operation. But most forms of on line testing such as those using redundancy codes come at a cost in terms of chip area, power consumption, and/or performance. Intel researchers are proposing a low cost and low intrusive approach based on looking for existing information redundancy, rather than adding such redundancy for on line test purposes. Such inherent information redundancy can be exploited to achieve on line testing with low intrusiveness and at negligible cost. Details are being presented this week at the Association for Computing Machinery's International Conference on Computing Frontiers 2010.
  
  
• Intel® Intelligent Digital Signage
  May 14, 2010
   
  The Intel® Intelligent Digital Signage Proof-of-Concept, with the Intel® Core™ i7 processor, showcases how digital signage technology can enhance the retail customer experience - such as in a store, bank or airport -with a multi-touch, multi-user interface. At its Tech Heaven event, Intel recently demonstrated this 7-foot-6-inch concept with an LCD display and holographic glass that allows consumers to explore merchandise, find out about promotions, submit feedback on products, read customer reviews, view past purchasing histories and share what they have discovered with their friends via social media and mobile phone integration. Multiple consumers can use the glass display to simultaneously explore augmented reality-enabled maps of each floor of a store. See press kit for more on Smarter Devices with Intel® Embedded and learn more about how Intel innovation is changing the way we live, work, and play.
  
  
• The Human Brain: the Ultimate Interface to Computers
  May 7, 2010
   
  People want to access information stored on their PCs and mobile devices in a more natural, convenient way. While multi-touch, gestures and voice interfaces are recent steps in this direction, Intel's aim is to enable people to use their thoughts to directly interact with computers and mobile devices. While still very exploratory, Intel research is already showing that thought-based user interfaces are not as far-fetched as one might think. In a joint project with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, Intel Labs Pittsburgh is investigating what can be inferred about a person's cognitive state from their pattern of neural activity. Researchers are leveraging a variety of brain imaging modalities, including EEG, fMRI and magnetoencephalography, in order to gain insights into how the brain processes information and how that might be used to build more natural user interfaces. See video for more on this research. See more about how Intel is changing the way we work, live, and play.
  
  
• Intel Intelligent Home Energy Management
  April 26, 2010
   
  Energy-efficient computing based on Intel® architecture now brings power-saving energy controls to your home. The Intel® Atom™ processor is the heart of a low-power embedded computing panel designed to exchange monitoring and control data with smart appliances, smart plugs, smart electric utility meters and sensors located throughout the home. Intel recently demonstrated at their Tech Heaven (PDF 651KB) event, a concept design for a central control center that provides family members with information to not only control utility costs, but also help them plan their daily activities, access personal messages and activate home security systems. See more about how Intel is changing the way we live, work, and play.
  
  
• Your TV is Your New BFF
  April 16, 2010
   
  Future technology will only get more personal. As your computing devices (PC, phone, set-top-box) get to know your interests, goals and daily patterns, they can work together to deliver a seamless, personalized experience that fits your lifestyle. Intel Labs recently demonstrated at their "Tech Heaven" (PDF 651KB) event, a research prototype that helps you identify TV content across many sources (broadcast, pre-recorded and streaming), as well as discounts and opportunities that fit your interests, goals and daily routine. These recommendations are personalized by automatically tracking your TV viewing patterns, your Internet browsing patterns and your daily activities. See blog for more.
  
  
• Real-time Privacy Monitoring on Mobile Devices
  April 9, 2010
   
  Mobile phone applications routinely access data for context-aware services, which may result in unintended security exposure. Geo-coordinates of the phone can be accurately tracked and exposed to third parties without the user's knowledge. Or applications could access the phone's microphone and record the audio. Intel Labs Berkeley and Intel Labs Seattle researchers recently demonstrated a proof-of-concept system called "mPrivacy Scope" for real-time privacy monitoring on mobile devices. It tracks personal sensor data use (and abuse) by mobile applications for flexible and complete privacy protection on smart phones.
  
  
• Eco-Sense Buildings
  April 2, 2010
   
  Buildings consume 40% of the total energy and 72% of the total electricity in the US, with much of it being wasted. There's a huge opportunity to improve this via computer-based management. Additionally, there are now strict regulatory restrictions as well as incentives for more energy-efficient new construction. Intel is collaborating with a consortium, "GIE Enjeu Energie Positive (French Web site)," along with other companies including Bouygues (construction), Siemens, Philips, Lexmark, Sodexo, Steelcase and others to examine how efficiency can be improved in all stages of the building lifecycle - from design and construction through day-to-day operations. Intel's research focuses on operational efficiency - coordinated power management of all building subsystems and proactive, adaptive control polices based on human activity within the building, as well as optimization of energy across sources and demand-response with utilities. Intel is currently developing research that will be validated in the consortium's living lab. See more about Intel Labs Berkeley.
  
  
• Intel® Atom™ Processor in Remarkable Automotive Applications
  March 26, 2010
   
  Powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor for embedded applications, Telemetria's DashTop is an in-vehicle infotainment system that connects the driver to the Internet and other electronics inside the vehicle. Dashtop not only features navigation, but can also show real-time information such as engine diagnostics, weather updates and traffic with smart routing. Check out a video of this IVI application via this MotorWeek episode on PBS.
  
  
• Disaster Communications
  March 18, 2010
   
  As witnessed in the recent major earthquakes and other disasters around the globe, people need a rapid way to communicate to obtain emergency assistance and to locate their family members, water, food, and shelter. The current primary infrastructures (cellular networks, Internet) do not satisfy these needs well during disasters. Intel Labs Berkeley researchers are working on a project that would enable citizens to continue using familiar Internet applications on their personal devices (e.g., smart phones, laptops) even when network infrastructure is degraded or barely functioning. They have designed a new protocol with the ability to automatically discover neighbors as well as architecture to support media-rich situation awareness applications. See video and read more on this project and other Intel Labs Berkeley Research projects.
  
  
• Power-Aware Perception
  March 11, 2010
   
  Within the next few years, your smartphone will be able to catalog your belongings, your physical activities, your favorite places and favorite things at these places - even how to get those things. It could even teach you how to fix your car or how to clean your espresso machine. The perception algorithms that make this future possible already exist as prototypes in research labs, but they aren't accurate enough and are so power-hungry they will rapidly drain your battery. At their annual open house today, Intel Labs Berkeley researchers demonstrated a new project that explores the design of extreme power management technology to enable mobile devices to support always-on mobile perception applications., i.e., image, facial, object, and gesture recognition. The research scope includes techniques and tools for power-usage analysis, automated benchmarking, application tuning, and an application developer toolkit. See more on this and other Intel Labs Berkeley Research projects.
  
  
• Intel-powered Classmate PC & the Magellan Generation
  
  March 3, 2010
   
  Interviews in Portugal with key stakeholders on the deployment of 450,000 "Magellan PCs" for students revealed that the project is so influential the students are now being referred to as the "Magellan Generation" - an entire generation experiencing education in a new light with greater access to information beyond the walls of their classroom. Children are pursuing their interests and using technology as a tool to explore, create, and share their ideas with their friends and families. They have a more positive attitude toward learning and a more widespread belief that they have a bright future ahead. This is the first nationwide deployment with universal coverage of all 1st-4th grade students using a PC based on the Intel-powered classmate PC reference design. For more information on how innovative education solutions from Intel are impacting Portugal, see "The Magellan Generation" blog. For more on Intel in education see the "Generation of Innovators" page and for more on impact, see the "Positive Impact of eLearning" white paper (PDF 449KB).
  
  
• Communication-Assisted Platform Power Management
  February 23, 2010
   
  Intel's energy efficiency research is showing how we're reducing overall platform power demands while maintaining high performance. Intel research is taking a holistic approach to power management from the network to the platform for extended battery life. This communications-based technology creates idle durations by aligning Tx, Rx and I/O break events allowing the CPU and platform to get into a low power state faster and stay there longer. This synergistic approach to power management is resulting in up to 30% CPU power savings for various workloads. See video for more.
  
  
• Small Objects, Big Worlds
  February 17, 2010
   
  Intel Labs China is showcasing how photography can be used to allow amateurs to create rich visual content including 3D objects mirror worlds, environments that model buildings and other large structures in the real world. One prototype can help users to create a 3D model from real-life images without prior known camera parameters and without any calibration reference. The other can help users to create and navigate a mirror world by using the ever-increasing volume of user-generated and geo-tagged multimedia data.
  
  
• Seamless Classroom Transitions Enabled by Intel
  February 9, 2010
   
  Sustained technology use in classrooms is hampered by difficult moments of transitions, which take time and distract from the core activity of learning. These transitions happen between lessons, individuals, study groups, and classroom-wide activities. Intel's efforts in device composition through our Carry Small, Live Large research initiative enables mobile devices such as the Intel-powered classmate PC to dynamically share their clipboard and storage for collaborative learning, and then seamlessly transition to front-of-the-class presentations using wireless display technology. See video for more information.
  
  
• Collaborative Visual Analytics in Virtual Worlds
  February 2, 2010
   
  Virtual worlds are powerful tools for connecting groups of people. Intel and Qwaq, Inc. are working together on enterprise collaboration combining Intel's Miramar 3D desktop and Qwaq Forums into a new virtual collaboration environment, enabling groups of people to connect with groups of documents. Recently, Intel and Qwaq brought 3D visualizations into the mix, enabling visual analytics usage models within a collaborative work environment. This connects groups of people with large amounts of complex information for collaborative sense-making and understanding. See Video for more.
  
  
• Enhancing Computer Vision with Parallel Programming Tool
  January 26, 2010
   
  Creating applications that take advantage of multi-core hardware requires new approaches in parallel programming. Innovative tools from Intel such as Intel® Concurrent Collections and Intel's Ct Technology can aid the development of these applications, such as computer vision. Concurrent Collections for C++ is a new language, now available, that helps create robust parallel applications, and Ct was born as an Intel research effort to extend C/C++ for data-parallel programming. See video for more.
  
  
• Computer Vision Accelerator
  January 19, 2010
   
  As video cameras are integrated into more devices from laptops to phones, computer vision capabilities have become increasingly attractive to enable applications such as gesture-based user interfaces and augmented reality. Intel has demonstrated a functional, reconfigurable hardware accelerator to enable advanced vision capabilities on mobile devices. This research from Intel Labs, St. Petersburg explores the automated design of reconfigurable accelerators based on tools-aided application analysis targeting computationally-intensive media workloads such as the SURF object recognition algorithm. See video for more information.
  
  
• Everyday Sensing and Perception
  January 12, 2010
   
  The ability to perceive user context, such as their location, activity and social interaction, is an essential ingredient for future mobile devices. Such devices could remind you to take your medication before a meal, step you through jump-starting your car or help you put a name that you've forgotten to a face. However, understanding detailed context accurately over most of a user's day is beyond the capability of today's devices. "Everyday Sensing and Perception," developed by Intel Labs researchers and demonstrated at Research@Intel Day, integrates a novel wearable sensor-augmented video camera with state-of the art perception algorithms into one of the first systems that can parse much of daily life at a useful level. See "Everyday Sensing & Perception" video.
  
  
• Don't Worry, Be Happy: Resilient Circuits
  January 5, 2010
   
  Intel recently demonstrated research on a low voltage resilient processor that automatically adapts its power-performance point to achieve the best throughput at minimum energy. The distributed sensors and error detectors on the die enable automatic reissue of instructions or automatic adaptation of the operating conditions to achieve error-free performance beyond typical dynamic guardbands set by voltage, temperature and aging over lifetime of the product. See blog and video demonstration for more.
  
  
• 32nm. Not Just For Logic Chips Any More
  December 14, 2009
   
  While Intel has been introducing a new logic process generation every two years, it has recently been developing a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) process alongside each logic process. With the 32nm generation, Intel's SoC process technology is the most advanced of any reported 32nm or 28nm process in the industry. Intel's 32nm high-k/metal gate transistor technology has been optimized for SoC platform applications that span a wide range of power, performance, and features. This technology has been developed to be modular, offering mix-and-match transistors, interconnects, RF/analog passive elements, embedded memory, and noise mitigation options. The low gate leakage of the high-k gate dielectric enables the triple transistor architecture to support ultra low power, high performance, and high voltage tolerant I/O devices concurrently. Embedded memories include high density and low voltage SRAMs. Analog/RF SoC features include high precision and high quality passives (resistors, capacitors and inductors) and noise isolation. Details were presented last week at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).
  
  
• Moore's Law Marches On
  December 11, 2009
   
  At the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) this week, Intel disclosed new details of its latest process technology, with 32nm feature sizes. It includes Intel's 2nd generation high-k/metal gate transistors, for even better performance than that reported a year ago. By one measure, known as drive current, transistor performance has been boosted by 5% and 13% for NMOS and PMOS, respectively over results reported at the same conference a year ago. Intel showed that the 32nm technology continues the trend of 0.7x reduction in gate length variation and that the magnitude of both systematic and random within-wafer variation does not increase for the 32nm technology from the 45nm technology. Intel also showed that SRAM array density, which includes memory cells, sense amps and control circuitry, at 4.2 Mbit/mm2, is the highest reported array density for a 32nm or 28nm technology. Intel is in high volume production of 32nm Westmere processors; units are now available to OEMs ahead of planned Q1 2010 introduction.
  
  
• Intel Turbo-Charging Transistors
  December 10, 2009
   
  Intel has reached a milestone in its quest to make transistors switch ever faster while using less energy, by integrating a high-k gate with a compound semiconductor transistor. Details were presented this week at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). Intel has been researching the possibility of replacing the silicon channel of the transistor by a compound semiconductor material such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs). Up until recently, such transistors used a Schottky gate with no gate dielectric, and were subjected to large gate leakage. Intel has now identified and integrated a high-k gate dielectric to reduce leakage with these so-called QWFETs (quantum well field effect transistors). The prototype device was fabricated on a silicon wafer substrate, pointing towards eventual process synergy with the existing silicon infrastructure. By using a high-k dielectric, gate leakage for short channel devices was reduced by 1000x compared with a Schottky gate, while the electrical oxide thickness was reduced by 33%, leading to higher switching speeds, which in turn leads to improved chip performance. More details are available in a blog by Mike Mayberry.
  
  
• Organic Photovoltaics
  December 7, 2009
   
  Future generation organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology holds the promise of ultra low-cost renewable energy because of its potential for high-speed manufacturing in roll-to-roll printing production. OPV's are also light-weight, thin, and flexible for ubiquitous use. However, current capabilities are limited to < 1 cm2 sizes due to the critical dependence on nanoscale morphology of the organic material. Researchers at Intel Labs Seattle are investigating how to solve the manufacturability problem by introducing hard templates into the OPV device structure to scaffold the organic inks. The templates can be produced in high-volume and work well as a mold for the organic ink solutions. Learn more about this research project.
  
  
• Sleep Talking PCs
  November 30, 2009
   
  Emerging "anytime" device usages pose a difficult choice for consumers: either having a fully powered-on system that is energy inefficient and costly; or, shutdown their systems to conserve power, but prohibit "anytime" services access. Intel researchers have developed technology that allows devices to enter standby (S3) sleep state while maintaining full network presence, so the system can wake up on network service requests. Energy savings estimates are more than 40 TWhr over 100 million devices. See blog for more information.
  
  
• ACM Symposium "Best Paper" Award
  November 23, 2009
   
  At the recent ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, Intel Labs researchers were awarded a "Best Paper" award for their report on "FAWN: A Fast Array of Wimpy Nodes (PDF)." The team of researchers, from Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Labs Pittsburgh, combined low-power, embedded processors typically used in netbooks with flash memory to create a server architecture that is fast, but far more energy efficient for data-intensive applications than systems now used by major Internet services. A next-generation FAWN cluster is being built with nodes that include the Intel® Atom™ processor. For more information, see article in ScienceDaily.
  
  
• Safer & Smarter Roads
  November 16, 2009
   
  A number of traffic accidents are caused by worn down car tires. Intel along with industry players, Kontron and ProContour have developed tire-tread monitoring embedded technology that is making roads smarter. Kontron, a member of the Intel® Embedded and Communications Alliance has developed a camera with an Intel® Core™2 Duo processor that captures tire tread depth as a tire passes over a specialized grate. This technology can alert drivers when their tires need replacement to avoid potentially dangerous driving situations. Learn more about embedded solutions for safer roads.
  
• Delivering 1 Million IOPs Using Seven PCI Express Prototype SSDs!
  November 9, 2009
   
  Recently Intel showcased more than 1 million IOPs (input/output operations per second) supported by a single mainstream server using 7 PCIe solid state drive (SSD) prototypes. With this proof of concept, Intel is identifying platform bottlenecks and working on engineering improvements for future storage products. To get this kind of performance from conventional hard drives, you would need many storage racks, filled with ~4,000 hard drives - an expensive, space-consuming and power-hungry proposition. Intel used one dual socket server with an expansion box and consumed only ~400 watts (more than 100x lower power than a hard drive configuration would have). We used a challenging workload for a single 1U server: 4Kbyte transfers with a 2:1 read/write ratio. Meanwhile, the CPUs were only about 50% utilized, leaving plenty of power left for applications. This could enable an online retailer to host an unprecedented number of website transactions while containing costs or a game developer could bring products to market faster. For more info, see Senior VP & GM, Bob Baker's Intel Developer Forum Keynote "Silicon Leadership - Delivering Innovation" and recent press.
  

  Amazing performance from this small setup

  1 million 4K two-to-one read/write IOPs as measured by the IOMeter tool
• On-chip Highways: 2D Interconnect for Tera-scale Processors
  October 28, 2009
   
  The ability to integrate hundreds of Intel Architecture cores into future microprocessors will help deliver the power of Moore's Law to new user interfaces and visually compelling experiences. A high performance, resilient, core-to-core interconnect will be as important for these tera-scale microprocessors as a well-designed highway grid is to moving goods and services across a country. Recently Intel demonstrated a next generation 2D interconnect prototype that provides high data bandwidth and low latencies between cores, memory and I/O. The demo also featured our -MCEMU FPGA-based many-core emulation platform developed at Intel Labs, in Braunschweig, Germany, and a 3D visual interface developed with UC Irvine. For more information see a webcast of the demo from the recent Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
  
  
• Medical Imaging with Many-Core
  October 16, 2009
   
  Physicians today are collecting more complex imagery on their patients than ever before. Combined with the need to accurately diagnose disease and develop treatment strategies in a minimally-invasive manner, new imaging modes, methods, and hardware are needed. In collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, Intel is presenting a paper at the IEEE VisWeek09 Conference today titled "Mapping High-Fidelity Volume Rendering for Medical Imaging to CPU, GPU and Many-Core Architectures," outlining how medical imaging benefits from the parallel processing architecture in the Intel microarchitecture, code-named Nehalem. Medical volumetric imaging requires high fidelity, high performance rendering algorithms. We've now achieved more than an order of magnitude performance improvement on a number of large 3D medical datasets.
  
  
• Fast Food Made Faster, Smarter
  October 12, 2009
   
  Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), known for making a science of fast food preparation and customer service, are getting a boost with embedded technology. WAND Corporation's Digital Restaurant, powered by Intel processing technology, gives QSRs the ability to immediately alter images, prices and display configurations on digital menu boards and point-of-sale terminals, as well as track the success of marketing programs through sales transactions. The remote management capabilities available through Intel® Active Management Technology gives QSRs the flexibility to respond quickly to customer trends, inventory outages and competitor price drops. Learn more about Intel solutions for digital signage and retail.
  
  
• Robots Among Us
  October 5, 2009
   
  Take a closer look the next time you visit a hospital, factory or store - there may be a robot that is monitoring radiation levels, carrying heavy loads or promoting new products. Robots powered by Intel processors and based on MobileRobots' Motivity can accommodate environments and alter behavior to suit current conditions, including navigating around people and objects, and "learning" the surrounding layout. This is one example of the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015.
  
  
• Shaping the Mobile PC's Future
  September 23, 2009
   
  Intel Rock Star Ajay Bhatt today at the Intel Developer Forum presented how mobile processor power/performance continues to improve with every generation of process technology and how the revolution in the mobile platform enables thinner, lighter notebook PCs with longer battery life that are indispensible in our day-to-day lives. Download session materials to learn more about enhancements to come to Intel® Architecture mobile platforms. (Locate course number: MPTS001 in the content catalog).
  
  
• Intel Supply Chain Improvements Lead to Satisfied Customers
  September 23, 2009
   
  Intel has made significant improvements in its supply chain, as Intel Senior Vice President Bob Baker outlined in his keynote this week at the Intel Developer Forum. Intel's 'Just Say Yes' initiative has led to significant improvements in customer fulfillment. Manufacturing cycle times have been reduced by 62 percent. Our ability to respond to customer change orders - both positively and quickly - has improved 300 percent. Our turnaround time from customer order placement to delivery has improved 25 percent just in the past 12 months. Our delivery performance to committed dock date has improved significantly. Each of these supply chain improvements has led to more satisfied customers. See Bob Baker's keynote materials for more info on how Intel is improving its supply chain.
• Ultimate Multi-Tasking Concept PC
  September 23, 2009
   
  Today at IDF, Intel showcased the world's first multi-screen, multi-touch concept mobile PC made possible using Intel's standard voltage CPU and Intel Graphics. This concept was developed as an inspiration for next generation notebooks. Without compromising on the activity on your main screen, it allows you to organize and enjoy information your way, in snack-able bits, using the multiple auxiliary screens strategically located just above the keyboard.
• Composition and the Collaborative Office
  September 15, 2009
   
  Today's conference room equipment is often inefficient and cumbersome, between initiating conference calls and passing projector cables from one presenter to the next. Using wireless display and mobile device-to-speakerphone dialing demonstrated recently at Research@Intel Day, users can have more effective meetings by seamlessly switching between presenters and more easily establishing conference calls. For more information, see the "Carry Small, Live Large" Research Program.
• New Entertainment Experiences in the WiMAX Connected Vehicle
  September 9, 2009
   
  Today's personal and in-vehicle entertainment devices are highly incompatible with each other outside of a simple wired connection that enables only rudimentary interactions. In the new mobile world, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) used with Intel® Atom™-powered, WiMAX-enabled automobiles, can deliver a personalized, enhanced in-vehicle entertainment experience, as demonstrated recently at Research@Intel Day. Personal preferences contained in MIDs can customize the in-car entertainment experience while WiMAX-based wireless Internet services link drivers with the world around them to enable exciting new safety, entertainment and communication experiences for tomorrow's automobiles.
• Enriching the Living Room Experience
  August 31, 2009
   
  The combination of mobile devices and consumer electronics equipment can deliver a rich living room entertainment experience when they are aware of and interact with each other in new and unique ways. Researchers at the recent Research@Intel Day demonstrated how Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and notebooks can be used with a set top box running Intel technology to wirelessly show photos and videos, interact with applications, and play games. See "Integrating Mobile Wireless Devices into Future Living Rooms" video for more information.
• Wireless Resonant Energy Link: Efficient Wireless Power
  August 24, 2009
   
  With the dramatic rise in the number of electronic devices we each use in our everyday lives powered by batteries that often need recharging; the costs, resources and management of multiple, incompatible power cords, and adapters have become cumbersome and time consuming for the typical user. Intel Labs Seattle researchers demonstrated recently, at Research@Intel Day, "Wireless Resonant Energy Link" (WREL) - the transfer of electricity without using any wires. This technology could allow people to cut the last cord that keeps mobile devices tethered. See video for more information on this research.
• Face Tracking Enhances Speech Recognition
  August 17, 2009
   
  A classic speech recognition problem is how the computer can determine whether the user is talking to the computer, or to someone else. Intel researchers have developed an innovative solution with face-tracking software that processes video from a camera above the PC screen to determine whether the user is facing the PC or looking away. When the user is facing the PC, audio input and speech recognition is enabled; when the user is looking away, it's muted. This application utilizes two compute-intensive and highly-parallelizable workloads: image processing and speech recognition, and is currently most feasible on multi-core PCs. For more information, see video from Research@Intel Day 2009.
• Next Stop: Intel® Atom™ Processor Innovation on the Railroad
  August 10, 2009
   
  The great American railroad system has come a long way since the steam engine. Taking railroad technological innovation a step further, Intel, UC Berkeley and Intel Capital company Arch Rock are in the testing phase for Intel® Atom™ processor-based wireless sensor system that would allow train operators to monitor the railroad system in real-time. The tiny sensors, which are partially powered by the vibration of the car itself, communicate via Wi-Fi-enabled handheld devices, enabling personnel to monitor the location of each railcar, its operating condition and parameters affecting the cargo. This is one more example of how the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015 are enhancing our lives now.
• Saber Fencing with Parallel Computing
  August 3, 2009
   
  Last year, Intel and Microsoft funded the establishment of a Universal Parallel Computing Research Center (UPCRC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the goal of bringing parallel computing applications to the mainstream. At Research@Intel Day 2009, researchers demonstrated an application that the UPCRC is working on to parallelize attendees to participate in a tele-immersive 3D environment. Participants in two separate spaces engage and interact in a 3D virtual environment to complete tasks or play games such as Tele-Immersive Saber Fencing or Tele-Immersive Jump Rope. For more information, see video from Research@Intel Day 2009.
• Real-time Ray Tracing: 3D Water and 3D Display
  July 27, 2009
   
  With the power of upcoming many-core architectures Intel is developing, real-time ray tracing (using the physics of light to realistically render an interactive 3D scene) comes closer and closer to the desktop. At Research@Intel Day 2009, Intel researchers showcased the latest innovations from our Real-time Ray Tracing project, including more realistic 3D water and the ability to render more than 500 animated characters at once, and showed a version rendering multiple camera views on a stereoscopic display, in which viewers can see the 3D depth of the scene without the need for special glasses. See video from Research@Intel Day 2009 for more info.
• Massive Cache for 8-core Xeon Processor
  July 20, 2009
   
  Intel recently presented details at the 2009 VLSI Circuits Symposium in Kyoto, Japan about an innovative 24MB cache for an upcoming 8-core Xeon® processor for servers. The design features that enable this cache will in turn enable a very high performance Xeon processor, which is at the same time extremely energy-efficient. See blog: "Massive cache for 8-core processor designed for high performance, low power, high yield" for more of the details behind how Intel is making this happen to bring you tomorrow's low power microprocessors!
• Pimp My Tractor: Farm Equipment gets an Intelligent Overhaul
  July 13, 2009
   
  Hungry for innovation, future tractors will be equipped with technology based on Intel Atom processors. Intel Atom processors are ideal for embedded computers, such as those in tractors, which need to withstand dust, heat, humidity and vibration. Tractors using Intel Atom processors also benefit from Intel Atom processor's energy-efficient performance and low thermal characteristics that enable small-footprint onboard automation and computers. These tractors could feature GPS navigation and sensors to analyze soil conditions, as well as automated computers to control plowing, harvesting and maintenance alerts. In addition, this technology allows farmers to monitor tractors from remote locations. This is one example of the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015. Learn more: Embedded Internet.
• Identifying Insecure Applications to Keep Private Data Private
  July 7, 2009
   
  Users expect networked applications (such as on-line shopping sites) to treat their private data responsibly and to protect it, but the truth is that many applications actually have leaks that allow private data to escape. To address this concern, and give end-users some control, researchers at Intel Research Seattle are developing a tool, "Privacy Scope," which runs along with a browser, detecting leaky systems and warning the user before they actually submit their private information. For more information see Intel Seattle Research Trustworthy Wireless research project and Trustworthy Wireless blog.
• Communicating During a Disaster - Making the Impossible Possible
  June 30, 2009
   
  Significant infrastructure is required to enable uninterrupted communication during periods of high demand after major disasters. People need to locate their loved ones as well as critical resources such as food and water. They also need to obtain official instructions and basic survival information. The current communication infrastructure (cellular networks, broadband) may not sufficiently meet these needs. For example, a cellular base station may have only 8 to 24 hours of backup power and today's cell phone batteries tend to drain in a day or two. Intel is researching three technologies to help solve this problem: handheld devices capable of ad-hoc peer-to-peer communications, a collection of automobile-based store-carry-forward gateways capable of relaying messages between vehicles, handhelds and the available infrastructure, and a Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking architecture capable of tolerating significant connection disruption while also providing necessary privacy and security. See Disaster Response Communications and Intel Research Berkeley research projects and Disaster Response Communications video for more information.
• Intel Researcher Wins Industry Award for Improving Chip Reliability
  June 23, 2009
   
  Intel researcher Shubu Mukherjee is being recognized for his contributions to the reliability of microprocessors and other silicon chips by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH). Mukherjee will receive the group's 2009 Maurice Wilkes Award for the techniques and methodologies he's developed that have laid the foundation for cost-effective solutions that can balance a processor's soft error rate (SER) with performance, power, and area. The award is being presented on June 23rd at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture in Austin, TX. Mukherjee is a principal engineer at Intel and the author of a highly acclaimed book titled "Architecture Design for Soft Errors," published in 2008. See ACM SIGARCH press release for more information.
• Confrontational Computing
  June 18, 2009
   
  As if your spouse or colleagues arguing with you isn’t enough, now your web browser can argue with you too (or…argue for you!) Much of the information on the Internet consists of opinions, arguments, and beliefs. Not everything on the web is accurate, and extracting useful and reliable information can be challenging. At the Intel Research Berkeley Lab, researchers have built “Dispute Finder,” a tool that augments existing web browsers and shows you when claims you’re reading are in disagreement with claims elsewhere on the web, overlaying a network of factual claims on top of the existing web. For more information, read about Confrontational Computing on the Intel Research Berkeley Lab web page.
• Expanding Long-Term Memory for Chips
  June 16, 2009
   
  While performance-improving cache memory gets a lot of attention, there is an increasing need on today's chips for programmable read-only memory (PROM) as well. This is used to permanently store information for such user-visible features as code storage and on-chip encryption keys, as well as yield-enhancing functions such as cache repair and post-silicon circuit tuning. PROMs rely on electrical fuses for in-factory programming. Salicided polysilicon has traditionally served as a fuse element in several generations of CMOS technologies, but Intel's recent transition to high-k metal-gate technology requires a significant shift in fuse design to metal fuses. Intel has developed a new metal fuse-based 3-D high-density PROM technology that is fully compatible with high-k metal gate. The new technology has been developed for Intel's 32nm process, on which it has a 1.37 square micron cell. It is readily scalable for future logic technologies. Details are being described this week at the 2009 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto, Japan.
• Ahoy! Intel® Atom™ processor provides a low-cost way for sailors to phone home
  June 8, 2009
   
  When sailors aboard the Hapag-Lloyd Bangkok Express container ship want to phone a friend, they use a satellite phone - which is standard, but the costs of $2.25 per-minute are hard to swallow. To ease the burden on their pocketbooks, the ship will soon have an Intel Atom Z5xx-based communications system makeover. Mounted on the outside of the ship, and designed to withstand extreme temperatures, the Intel Atom processor-based system will connect with the best available and most cost-effective network - such as 3G, satellite or Wi-Fi - to enable the crew to more easily communicate with people on shore. This is one example of the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015. Learn more: Embedded Internet.
• Carbon Nanotubes for Chips of the Future?
  June 4, 2009
   
  Intel Ireland researchers, as part of the CARBonCHIP consortium, are investigating the use of carbon nanotubes - long cylindrical carbon honeycomb sheets - for possible use in future chips. These materials have some unique properties such as very low resistance when bundled together in high densities and high current carrying capability, but their precise manufacturing and placement are notoriously difficult. A key outcome of a recent 3 year project was the successful carbon nanotube growth and integration on silicon achieved in via holes (vertical interconnects in chips). The team also proved that the pores in zeolites integrated in trenches and vias on silicon could be filled with carbon nanotubes. This technique helps to confine and arrange small diameter carbon nanotubes on silicon to achieve the densities required for future interconnects. The results are being presented today at the EuroNanoForum conference in Prague.

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  SEM image of high dense selective growth of CNTs in to vias

  On the left a cartoon showing the proof of concept of zeolite integration in vias; on the right top down SEM image showing zeolites perfectly integrated in to vias
• Air Quality Measuring & Reporting
  May 29, 2009
   
  Intel researchers are developing compact, sensor-equipped mobile devices that can measure environmental data such as air quality and enable people to share that data and impact real-world environmental action. With nearly everyone now carrying mobile devices wherever they go, a huge opportunity exists for anyone to collect environmental data. One feature of these sensors is the ability to measure particulate matter, a critical air pollutant. As part of this research, Intel is also exploring new communication paradigms that empower people to help communicate air quality from exact locations to help impact environmental change. Read more about this research and view the video: Common Sense Mobile Air Quality Sensors at Intel Research.
• Deterministic Parallel Programming Language for a Multi-Core World
  May 26, 2009
   
  Future microprocessor chips will scale by adding new cores rather than increasing frequency. Programmers need an easier way of exploiting parallel processing than the current dominant parallel processing paradigms. As part of Intel's collaboration with UC Berkeley and Microsoft at the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center in Berkeley, Calif., researchers are designing and building a new parallel language with two distinguishing features: deterministic execution and efficient use of high-performance parallel libraries and frameworks; resulting in easier, faster, and more cost-effective programming. For more on Deterministic Parallel Programming Language and other research, see the Intel Research Berkeley website.
• Paving the Way for Moore's Law for Decades to Come
  May 20, 2009
   
  Hundreds of research institutions around the world are looking into emerging devices that could someday replace charge-based CMOS, which forms the basis for today's computer chips. There have been predictions that as CMOS transistors continue to shrink, a point will eventually be reached at which quantum mechanical effects make them unusable or their power dissipation becomes prohibitive. Intel is actively involved in the International Planning Working Group for Nanoelectronics (IPWGN), which collects and publishes data to stimulate and enhance inter-regional research cooperation in nanoelectronics. Among other things, the IPWGN tracks publicly funded research activities in three major regions - US, Europe, Japan. Some of the research topics include non-Boolean logic devices, metrology and characterization, modeling and simulation, and environmentally benign manufacturing. As part of the IPWGN, Intel is reporting out at the International Nanotechnology Conference (INC) today in Los Angeles. The IPWGN is reporting that a great deal of progress is being made but no clear path beyond scaled CMOS has yet emerged. The IPWGN did identify numerous examples of inter-regional collaboration that could lead to a new path for Moore's Law, thereby ensuring the benefits of more computing capability at a lower cost per function.
• Ultra Low Voltage Video Encoding Accelerator
  May 18, 2009
   
  In order to improve performance/watt in future processors, Intel researchers are exploring circuits to accelerate key algorithms. Researchers have developed an ultra low voltage special-purpose video encoding accelerator implemented in 65nm CMOS. This accelerator circuit could make video compression and encoding almost 10x more energy-efficient than today.
• UbiFit Garden - Technology for Physical Fitness
  May 14, 2009
   
  Intel researchers are developing concept technology, "UbiFit Garden," which uses self-monitoring and positive feedback to encourage people to be more physically active. As a user performs physical activities, a garden blooms on the background screen of their mobile phone. Activities are detected automatically by a wearable sensing device, then manually added and edited through a journal on the mobile phone. If the user is more active, more flowers bloom in their virtual garden. Different flowers represent different types of activities, e.g., cardio, strength, flexibility and walking. A butterfly indicates that the user attained their weekly goal. For more information on the project see the Intel Research Seattle web page on Everyday Behavioral Monitoring and University of Washington web page on Human-Computer Interaction & Design.
• Open-Source Virtual World Platform
  May 11, 2009
   
  Imagine joining your friends who live across the country for a pickup game of softball in a virtual park, or wandering through a virtual shopping mall from the comfort of your home and trying on outfits perfectly simulated so you know they will fit, or bringing together your worldwide organization in a private, secure virtual conference center to plan next year's strategies without having to purchase a single plane ticket. Intel is working to bring these and other immersive, connected experiences to mainstream virtual worlds by helping in the development of open-source virtual world platforms such as OpenSim. By developing such tools, which anyone can use to create a high quality virtual environment, Intel is helping to open up access for individuals, universities, and companies that want to start building the 3-D Internet of tomorrow. Intel is working with the OpenSim community to continuously improve the performance and capabilities of this platform, and is leading by partnering with the Supercomputing'09 conference to develop the ScienceSim virtual world. See OpenSim Performance Profiling to see examples of how Intel is improving the performance of not only ScienceSim, but the OpenSim platform itself. For more info, see Intel blog "ScienceSim -- what could you do with a 3D internet?"
• Energy-Aware Network Proxy
  May 7, 2009
   
  PCs and set-top boxes left powered-on yet idle, lead to wasted energy consumption. Ideally these devices would enter low-power sleep modes but today this would degrade functionality to the point that they lose their network "presence" so they can't run tasks they need to run. Using a network proxy to maintain a system's network presence and wake it only when necessary is a very energy efficient approach. Intel researchers are designing a proxy architecture, and accompanying API, intended to be general and flexible so proxies can be designed for both home and office environments, and for different targets in terms of complexity versus savings tradeoff.
• Intel-powered Classmate PC Aids in Wildlife Conservation
  May 4, 2009
   
  Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, India is world famous for its tiger habitat along with other wild species living in a protected environment. Intel is working closely with scientists from the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) to aid in ecosystem conservation through innovative use of the Intel-powered classmate PC to collect and analyze field data on real-time basis. With its unique features, the classmate PC is an ideal device to aid in the data collection, analysis and transmission process in adverse weather conditions. Intel collaborated with Tata BP Solar to create a solar unit that could charge Intel Classmate PCs anywhere, even in the remote forest areas.
• Cluster-Based Scalable & Programmable Routers
  April 30, 2009
   
  The Internet uses a vast network of closed specialized hardware-based routers to send information in "packets" nearly instantaneously. As new services such as video and mobile computing become the norm, there is a growing need to move from simply moving packets as fast as possible to a more programmable and extensible routing infrastructure that can be customized and adapted quickly. RouteBricks is an Intel Research Berkeley Labs project to evaluate the packet processing capability of emerging multi-core servers and exploring novel approaches to clustering these servers to build routers that are incrementally scalable and yet fully programmable. See RouteBricks video for more information.
• Intel: Clone Cloud
  April 28, 2009
   
  Smartphones and emerging Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) are giving us access to more and more of our computing applications on-the-go. As this trend continues alongside a revolution in visual computing on the desktop, people will want the same immersive experiences on their mobile devices that they get on their PC. Intel's Clone Cloud research aims to make it possible to execute rich applications on resource-constrained mobile devices by off-loading computation to available cloud resources in nearby datacenters. The idea is to "clone" the entire set of data applications from the mobile device onto the cloud and selectively execute some operations on the clones, reintegrating results back to the mobile device. Intel's research also seeks to make sure that as this is done, the system remains secure in the face of adversity, protects the privacy of sensitive data, and ensures critical operations are only performed by those who are authorized and that service is consistently reliable. See Clone Cloud video and Intel Research Berkeley Lab web page for more information.
• Protecting your PC from Malware Attacks
  April 23, 2009
   
  Malware including viruses, trojans, and spyware are increasingly stealthy and cost billions of dollars of damage per year. Intel researchers are developing Processor-Measured Application Protection Service (P-MAPS), a technology that can dynamically protect application software on commercially available computers using Intel® Virtualization Technology and Intel® Trusted Execution Technology. This approach enables a trusted application within an un-trusted environment. The trusted application can then securely interact with network services to enhance protection of user information or service data. The research will lead to increased security and assurance for consumer's utilizing Intel platforms. Visit P-MAPS blog and read the whitepaper, Dynamic Software Application Protection, for more information.
• UbiGreen Technology Encourages use of Green Transportation
  April 22, 2009
   
  Intel Research Seattle Lab is working on "UbiGreen," a technology concept that uses on-body sensing, activity inference, and a personal mobile display to encourage individuals to make green transportation choices. The system tracks transportation patterns and rewards the user for making more "green" choices, i.e., walking, cycling, taking the bus or carpooling. The user's mobile phone background screen changes - a tree will bloom or a polar bear's ecosystem will grow. For more information, see video.
• Encrypting the Internet: HTTPS Everywhere
  April 21, 2009
   
  Today, because of the high cost of the hardware used to implement HTTP security, secure transactions are used on a small amount of the Internet traffic (for things like shopping, banking etc.). Researchers at Intel are developing a technology that reduces the amount of CPU performance required to do cryptography for compute intensive symmetric and public key algorithms. The technology can reduce server RSA and AES workloads (the algorithms used for security) by more than 50% for ecommerce and banking applications. This means that a server could support double the number of secure transactions than is possible today, and could enable Internet security to be used more broadly. See Research@Intel blog on this topic for more information.
• Pulling Power out of Thin Air
  April 16, 2009
   
  Building on their Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) technology, researchers at Intel's Seattle lab have developed the WARP (Wireless Ambient Radio Power) device. WARPs harvest ambient energy from TV transmission towers that is normally lost into the atmosphere. From a distance of 4.1 km, researchers powered a thermometer and its LCD using 'free' energy. The harvested energy, 60uW, is minimal but could potentially be used to power small devices or WISPs. Read more about this research.
• Wireless Sensing Network
  April 13, 2009
   
  Intel researchers, in conjunction with the University of Washington have developed the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP). A WISP is a standard RFID tag with the unique inclusion of a 16-bit general purpose microcontroller that supports sensing and computing. Like any passive RFID tag, the WISP is powered and read by a standard off-the-shelf RFID reader, harvesting the power it uses from the reader's emitted radio signals to operate the microcontroller. One application of WISPs could be to monitor temperature, moisture, light and more in a building. This information could then be used to enable finer HVAC control thus leading to a more efficient building environment. Read more about this project.
• Personalized Sports Highlights from your Future PC
  April 10, 2009
   
  Imagine it's playoff season for your favorite sport and you are trying to follow multiple games taking place at the same time. Or you're following the Tour de France and have hours and hours of video recorded on your DVR. There is simply too much to watch and you don't have the time. What if computing technology could give you a customized highlight reel of the most interesting things that happened? Intel is working on ways to allow future PCs to interpret video streams and understand the content of personal video, to help people quickly find what they want to see. The Intel China Research Center has worked with Tsinghua University in China to prototype an application that uses computer vision and the power of many processor cores to identify events in soccer games, tracking players, the ball, the goal, and several other features of the game. This information is used to generate short clips that capture the events that interest you most. Want to see only the goals? The fouls? The fights? All of this will be possible in the future. Watch this video to see a demonstration of both this Soccer Highlights application as well as our Real-Time Ray Tracing research.
• Industry-first Hardware Demo of Group Scheduling for WiMAX
  April 8, 2009
   
  At the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing today, Intel researchers showcased an industry-first hardware demonstration of Group Scheduling for VoIP Calls on WiMAX that will increase managed call capacity by 40%. Mobile-broadband networks, based on IP technologies, are known for high packet-data efficiency and less so for voice (VoIP) efficiency. A key requirement for IEEE 802.16m, the next-generation WiMAX standard currently under definition, is support of a large number of VoIP users. Intel's next steps are to scale the prototype to an even larger number of calls and under varying channel conditions. See blog for more information.
• One Step Closer to 60-GHz WPAN for Multimedia
  April 7, 2009
   
  At IEEE WCNC 2009, Intel disclosed work to implement Single-Carrier Block Transmission (SCBT) easily in 60-GHz WPAN (wireless personal area network). 60-GHz WPAN, now being standardized in several IEEE groups and consortiums, can reach an unprecedented ultra-high data rate of multi-Gbps. This will enable abundant wireless multimedia applications such as uncompressed high-definition video streaming. In 60-GHz WPAN system design, there are two competitive techniques: OFDM and SCBT. OFDM was widely used in wireless systems such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3GPP LTE, however, using it at 60-GHz will encounter serious technical challenges such as power amplifier's non-linear distortion and sensitivity to carrier frequency offset (CFO). SCBT can significantly alleviate these problems and improve the link performance due to its hardware-friendly property. Our work makes it possible to implement SCBT easily in 60-GHz WPAN. For more information see "Gigabit WPAN and WLAN: Opportunities and Challenges." For information on additional standards bodies see WirelessHD and ECMA TC48.
• Transistors that Keep their Cool
  April 3, 2009
   
  Intel recently disclosed advancement details on a P-channel transistor, built on a silicon substrate, that makes use of compound semiconductors, also known as III-V materials because they are made of elements that straddle silicon in the periodic table, silicon being in column IV. This research resulted in the highest performing P-channel transistors reported to date. A year earlier, Intel described III-V N-channel transistors, also built on a silicon substrate. When combined, these two results could form the building blocks for CMOS logic circuits, which use both N-channel and P-channel transistors. Potentially suitable for future microprocessors, they run far cooler - at about ½ the voltage, consuming only 1/10th the power of today's transistors.
• Modeling of Rough Surfaces in High-Speed Buses
  April 1, 2009
   
  High-frequency electrical currents travel only near the surface in transmission lines used to shuttle information in and out of microprocessors. As a consequence the roughness of the metal traces making up a bus can have a significant impact on bandwidth. Last week at the Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium in Beijing, researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle, in collaboration with Intel, reported on the numerical validation of a new analytical model of this phenomenon. More details can be found in upcoming papers in the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques and at the 59th Electronic Components and Technology Conference in San Diego.
• Virtual Dressing Room 3D Internet Experience
  March 26, 2009
   
  Imagine having a "dressing room" experience when you're shopping online. Virtual dressing rooms are an example of a 3D Internet experience that will become possible with future tera-scale processors containing 10s-100s of cores. Some of the basic software capabilities to do this - computer vision, physics modeling, and human body tracking - are areas Intel has been actively researching. In the future you may be able to walk into a booth at a department store and a computer, a few webcams, and some computer vision software could take a scan of your body. Then later at home, when you shop at that store's website, you could click on an article of clothing and it could appear on your virtual body approximately as it would look in real life. Physics modeling would even make the fabrics appear to move in a realistic way and you could see how it would appear for you to walk a virtual runway wearing the outfit. Read the Research@Intel blog to learn how Intel is researching the technologies to make this and other immersive connected experiences possible.
• Advances for High-bandwidth Digital Radios
  March 24, 2009
   
  Gigabit wireless will enable better user experiences and new applications in areas such as wireless synching of a mobile device, wireless display and high-speed wireless networking. To achieve these levels of high-speed, high-bandwidth data transfer in technologies like 60GHz requires advances in radio technologies. Intel researchers have developed a new digital conversion technique for multi-Gbps data rates in emergent radios that provides better accuracy at comparable power efficiency to state-of-the-art analog to digital conversion components available today. This research is a key step toward digital radios with high performance and low power in a smaller footprint that could enable new form factors and smaller devices.
• Technology for Honeybee Tracking
  March 19, 2009
   
  Honey bees have been a focus of attention because of their vital role in pollinating agricultural crops, and because of long term and recent precipitous declines in colony numbers. The flight activity of a honey bee colony is an important indicator of its strength and condition. Researchers at Intel have developed the hardware and software for a system that monitors arrivals and departures of bees at a hive entrance. Although challenges remain with the research, scientists are hoping this project will aid in finding answers to potential causes of the declines. See honey bee monitoring blog & video for more information.
• Great Graphics Performance for Small Mobile Devices
  March 17, 2009
   
  Delivering great graphics performance on very small devices, like a phone or handheld device, has always been a challenge because of the inherent limitations of cramming and cooling high performance components in a very small, battery operated device. One technique to get around these limitations is executing multiple computing instructions at once (called SIMD, or Single Instruction, Multiple Data) so that the onscreen graphic images are done faster. Intel researchers have developed a SIMD Accelerator that consumes about 10 times less energy than the accelerators used today, making it ideal for small devices. This advancement could enable richer multimedia and more immersive visuals, particularly on Mobile Internet Devices and other small devices in the future. This is a research project aimed at enhancing future Intel products.
• Technology to Help Fight Skin Cancer
  March 12, 2009
   

  Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., with melanoma accounting for more than 75% of skin cancer deaths. However, despite its fatality, if discovered early, skin cancer is highly curable. Dermoscopy is a non-invasive imaging process for skin cancer screening, a first line of defense. Traditionally doctors augment personal expertise with medical literature that is typically indexed by disease rather than by relevance to the current case. Intel researchers have built a system that enables doctors to make more informed decisions about a given case, by presenting relevant annotated cases from large medical image databases. The system pulls images from the database based on the actual content of the image, not text or metadata associated with the image. With the help of this system, a Physician could take a photograph of a skin lesion and compare that image to thousands of images in the database. The most similar images would be presented to the Physician to assist in diagnosis and treatment decisions.
• Remote Eye Care for Villages in India
  March 10, 2009
   
  For the past few years, Intel researchers worked with a hospital in India to provide remote eye care to villages located miles away from the hospital. The researchers developed the technologies necessary to wirelessly connect the hospital to several villages, some more than 30 miles away. The technology worked so well that now Intel is creating the "Rural Connectivity Platform," a product designed to bring connectivity to remote areas. The Intel Remote Connectivity Platform is designed as a low cost wireless point-to-point solution for emerging markets. Special emphasis has been placed on creating a platform that is simple to setup, easy to maintain, sturdy, robust and with strong weather proofing. Intel is working with other companies to bring this product to market. For more information visit the Intel® RCP goes commercial and Intel® Rural Connectivity Platform becomes a reality blogs.
• Multi-Client Display Linking
  March 05, 2009
   
  As a part of Intel's "Carry Small, Live Large" initiative, Intel researchers are working on technology to enable multiple mobile devices to dynamically work together to create a larger display. The displayed output from new and legacy applications will span the multiple devices creating a much richer visual experience. Imagine you and 3 friends placing your mobile devices together while on the road to review the video of the day's events.
• World's First Embedded Balanced Antenna for Digital TV on Your Laptop
  March 03, 2009
   
  Intel researchers have developed the world's first embedded balanced antenna for digital TV. This patent-pending Intel innovation will enable on-the-go users to watch digital television on their laptop without the need for an external antenna. Eliminating the external antenna reduces the number of items to purchase, carry and keep track of.
• Digital Techniques for Better Radio Sensitivity
  February 25, 2009
   
  Analog radio signal processing is often inherently inefficient, requiring filtering in order to correct spectral impurities - a step that is required for good signal sensitivity and robust data transfer. Intel researchers, in an industry first, have used digital (as opposed to analog) techniques to perform frequency translation and calibration leading to a reduced amount of analog components and therefore smaller radios which could enable new and smaller form factors.
• Hot Time in the SOCity
  February 23, 2009
   
  CPU Thermal/power management is crucial to System On Chip (SOC) designs and platform performance and energy efficiency. Intel researchers have developed the first-ever temperature sensor for microprocessor applications using digital 32nm CMOS (using Intel's high-k metal gate technology), which uses numerous remote sensors to measure temperature over the entire multi-core die. This results in improved processor power management and lower power consumption.
• Energy-Efficient Transistors
  February 19, 2009
   
  Each of the 45nm transistors in the upcoming 8-core Intel® Xeon® processor uses 1/7000th the power of the original 4004 transistors that Intel was manufacturing in 1971 - quite a statement in energy efficiency. If the fuel efficiency of automobiles had improved at the same rate, a car would get 200,000 miles per gallon. You could put one gallon in your tank when you first purchase a car and never have to stop at a gas station again for the life of the car, and still have plenty of fuel to spare. And each transistor today takes up 1/40,000th the area of the transistors in the 4004.
• 200Gbps Optical Transmitter
  February 18, 2009
   
  Intel's Silicon Photonics research vision is to use CMOS manufacturing to produce integrated optical devices that provide the high bandwidth of optical I/O with substantial cost, size, and power savings. Recently at the 2008 International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco, CA, Intel detailed a prototype integrated Silicon Photonic test chip (see blog for more info) capable of delivering data rates exceeding 200 gigabits per second. Intel researchers plan to scale such devices to over one terabit per second, allowing computers to share vast amounts of data very quickly.
• Sensitive Robot Hands
  February 13, 2009
   
  Intel researchers are taking tips from nature to create increasingly more sensitive robot hands. The technology, called Electric Field Pretouch, emulates senses that some animals, such as sharks, use to sense their surroundings. More sensitive hands will allow robots to interact with people more naturally. For example, in the future, when a robot is helping an elderly person get off the couch, it will hold and assist even more carefully and gently.
• Moore's Law: Saving You Over $100 million - One Microprocessor at a Time
  February 12, 2009
   
  At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, Intel revealed information on the upcoming 45nm 8-Core Enterprise Intel® Xeon® Processor including that it will be manufactured with 2.3 billion transistors. Nearly 40 years ago, in 1971, Intel's first processor had just 2,300 transistors and sold for $30. Now, in 2009, you will soon be able to get 1,000,000x the transistors for not much more. If you consider inflation, today that 4004 would cost over $120. And if you multiply that by 1,000,000 (for 1 million times the number of transistors), today you get the equivalent of 120 million dollars worth of transistors in one microprocessor!

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