IDF Special Report: Part I

Every Intel Developer Forum delivers some rather interesting developments and this was no exception. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini kicked off this year's Forum with some rather great insights and roadmap slides to help us all plan our own individual technology roadmaps for the near future. This report covers most of the highlights of the Otellini keynote that would appeal to most Mac users including topics such as Intel's shift to quad-processors, new Microarchitectures, NAND flash memory and other advances on the mobility front. Most of this report covers Otellini's actual quotes and keynote slides.

It's What's Inside that Counts

Paul Otellini's keynote began with a little humor which just happened to play off of both Apple's "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac" TV ad campaign and their very own IDF 2006 theme of "It's what's inside that counts." As noted in the graphic sequence below, Intel's introductory Fall 2006 IDF video ends with the laid-back Mac guy finally revealing the fact that Intel is now at the heart of the Mac platform.

Otellini introduces Apple's Phil Schiller

Paul Otellini didn't waste any time after the introductory video and quickly introduced Phil Schiller as his first keynote guest. Otellini initially played up innovation on Intel and then stated that "a company that clearly knows about innovation from the inside out is Apple. And I thought it would be very interesting to have them join us today. In fact, this marks the first ever appearance at an Intel Developer Forum of an Apple representative. So let me bring out Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Apple."

While Phil Schiller didn't announce anything new at Intel's IDF 2006, he did review Apple's entire shift to Intel being completed this year from the iMac through to Xeon Workstations and Servers.

Alan Wake: Intel's New Core 2 Extreme Video Gaming Demo

Intel's about to leap forward this November with their new Kentsfield quad-core CPU called the Core 2 Extreme which specifically focuses on satisfying the hot video gaming and consumer enthusiast markets. To show off the brute power of the new Core 2 Extreme, Otellini introduced Markus Maki, founder and chairman of Remedy Entertainment.


Remedy's new "psychological action thriller".video game titled "Alan Wake" was developed for Intel's new quad-core processor and admittedly their demo was extremely impressive. The game's detailed lighting effects, fluid maneuvering around a massive dynamic gaming environment, weather shifting and general speed reflected the strengths of the Core 2 Extreme. Yet perhaps it was the game's tornado scene ripping a barn to smithereens that was the most impressive in respect to detail. According to Markus Maki, that scene alone utilized a whole CPU core to demonstrate the power of the physics simulation which could have never been done before with previous technology.

by MacNN Staff