When you hear “Intel” you may, like me, instantly see that image of the Blue Man Group advertising their iconic Pentium III and P4 processor lines. Those ads are well over a decade old now, and Intel is a very different company.
In August, Intel held their annual IDF (Intel Developer Forum) conference in San Francisco. As their CEO, Brian Krzanich, laid out in his keynote speech, the old tried and true formula of “preview the next generation of intel products, and [show the] future intel roadmap” was not going to make IDF 2015 a successful event. While they did preview their latest core processors, the focus of the event was much more about “Computing as an Extension of Us”, with a big focus on the Internet of Things, and looking beyond the keyboard & mouse for a broader understanding of what can be an input device.
Of course, IDF is designed to sell more Intel products, and while their focus was soft on core processing, we heard a lot about their new “system-on-a-chip” package, called Edison. The basic idea behind Edison is for it to be the simple “brain” to a new generation of non-PC devices. Developers can coble together Edison with some sensors, and start designing their new tech on a very low budget. As one developer said “we are in the midst of a technology renaissance like we’ve never seen before”, and Intel is hoping that they, and Edison, will be at the center of this movement.
