Intel's Barrett says multicores are shape of things to be
 

THIS IS Craig Barrett's last IDF before he stands down so he's decided to talk about innovation such as the building blocks of innovation and inspiring innovation. He managed to get the word innovation in one paragraph at least 11 times.
He talked about trains, about TVs and said the last 50 years has been dominated by the integrated circuit. Intel is about innovation and integration, he said, driven by Moore's Law. Moore's Law is not slowing down. He wants to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the idea in 2015. Even though transistors are smaller they still look and smell like the old transistors.

Intel will be able to produce chips down to the five nanometre range. There's lots of life left in the technology but R&D always seems to circumvent the problems of shrinking chip size.

Optical computing could be as long as five years or 10 years out, but will happen, although once Gordon Moore said that Intel would never be interested in optical technology.

Silicon fries are much more expensive than French Fries, he said. A cafeteria in a modern fab costs more than the first fab he walked around in Livermore 30 years ago, which cost 300,000 dollars.

But he said that innovation comes at a price, and Intel is still about operating at the forefront of technology. VT is now called Intel Virtualisation Technology and Barrett said he couldn't believe how much they spent on marketing just come up with a name like that.

Dual core and multicore throttle the clock speed but you get more capability out of multiple and dual cores than with a single chip.

Barrett introduced senior fellow Steve Pawlowski and will bring dual cores and multicores until around 80 per cent of the CPUs they make are this type of microprocessor. End users have a demand for performance but want to use less power. Multicores, said Barrett, will make more useable software for consumers - and I guess this means that we have to rely on firms like Microsoft to make things user friendly. We do hope that Microsoft is up to this.

He showed a consumer digital home machine which he said would arrive in 2005 and 2006. He also showed a couple of Chinese machines aimed at Internet cafes and machines that will be suitable for both children and adults. He also showed a scarab that looked like a motorcyle crash helmet.

Someone called Mad Mike Martin came in driving a Chrysler Roadster which they've fitted out with Centrino technology. The car is covered by suede and can be controlled by a PDA, and also includes a webcam so you can see what's happening in the car while you're not in it. The picture is blurred because the car is running speed. Not very fast, but at speed.

Barrett said the introduction of WiMAX would get rid of the half assed broadband that the USA has. Two megs is not broadband, he said. Fifty megs is broadband.

It's important that young people are trained to become technologists in all countries, which is why Intel is spending money on encouraging that movement.

He introduced Burt Rutan, as an example of innovation. He's the chap who went into space, making the first age of private spaceflight, according to Barrett. Manned space flight has been far too dangerous for people. Barrett said he was about to retire and he wants to go into space. Rutan said that that would be possible in about five years, and in about 12-15 years from now it will cost about 30,000 dollars to go into space. So far there's only 455 people that have done it in the last 40 years. Rutan said that the initial space line companies offering rides will be able to operate at a safety level of the 1930s airliners, which will be at least 100 times safer than NASA or Russian flights.

In 25 years he can see people staying in orbiting hotels in space, maybe run b y people like Virgin. In the next 10 years we'll see spaceships which won't be boring. We can't afford to bore our children, said Rutan. Rutan calls NASA Naysay.

The point of showing off suede cars and private space ships is that technology has a job to make sure children are never bored, said Barret in closing.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21515

Bottom line -
Look for Higher Education, no matter what you do - Do your BEST and keep trying. If I'm trying hard, you have to do your part. After all, you are the ones seeing the future long before I'm gone.;)