With Intel’s 50th anniversary next month, it’s a perfect time to celebrate one of the most important technologies of Intel’s legacy: the PC. As we transition to the data-centric era, the PC remains a critical facet of Intel’s business, and it’s an area where we believe there are still so many opportunities ahead.
At the Computex in Taipei, I shared our vision for the future of the PC and introduced a wide range of new technologies that will help us and the broader ecosystem make this future a reality. One that transforms the PC from a simple computer into a platform that can power every person’s greatest contribution.
Most of us are already choosing the PC as the place to go to focus. In fact, when people really need to get things done, over 80 percent turn to their PC. At the same time, we are more distracted than ever. Data shows that on average people are interrupted every three minutes. The nature of where, how and why we work is also changing. And the way people connect with one another has changed, with technology being a key driving force.
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Against this backdrop, there is an opportunity to fundamentally improve the PC experience to meet today’s needs and help people focus on what is most important to them. To help them create and build a sense of community. But to make this leap, we need to innovate the PC around five key vectors: performance, connectivity, battery life, adaptability and intelligence.
Ultimate Performance
Our unwavering commitment to delivering the best performance continued as we announced the latest additions to our mobile lineup of the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family: the Whiskey Lake U-series and Amber Lake Y-series, featuring up to double-digit performance gains3 and integrated gigabit Wi-Fi. Expect more than 140 new laptops and 2 in 1s from OEMs starting this fall. And for desktop, by the end of this year, we’re delivering a new X-series release and the next Intel® Core™ S-series processor.
Beyond processing power, we also see the opportunity for even more PC acceleration with the introduction of the Intel® Optane™ SSD 905P, now available in an M.2 form factor. Delivering industry-leading endurance, this new, slim Intel Optane SSD is a high-performance drive that allows the processor to spend less time waiting and more time computing, enabling users to enjoy an amazing computing experience.
As we celebrate Intel’s 50th anniversary, we also recognize the 40th anniversary of Intel’s x86 architecture. In honor of that, we revealed the limited edition 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8086K processor, the first Intel processor with a 5.0 GHz turbo frequency. In celebration of this milestone, and our enthusiasts, we’re giving away 8,086 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8086K processors. Visit www.intel.com/8086sweepstakes for more information on markets and rules.
Connectivity
At Mobile World Congress, we talked about our leadership and the importance of 5G. Sprint is now joining us as a partner to sell Intel processor based, 5G-connected PCs in stores around the world. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft are working with us to deliver the industry’s first 5G-connected laptops and 2 in 1s in 2019.
As we pave the way for 5G, expect us to deliver 10 more 4G-connected PCs from partners like Acer, Asus, Dell and HP – on top of the 25 currently in market. These always-connected PCs are not only sleek and beautiful, but packed with performance.
All-Day Battery Life
The display consumes the most battery in a device, and one way we’re working to enable all-day battery life is by co-engineering the new Intel Low Power Display Technology, featured in a one watt panel manufactured by Sharp and Innolux, which can cut LCD power consumption by half. Through continued innovation with the industry, we expect to deliver an additional four to eight hours of local video playback – that means battery life could be up to 28 hours on some devices.
Adaptability
People are looking for PCs that adapt to their lifestyle and location. This can take shape in new form factors like dual screen, along with designing platforms for specific usage scenarios. We showed several examples on stage today, including a preview of an innovative Yoga Book with uncompromised performance coming from Lenovo later this year.
Additionally, we highlighted multiple creator notebooks, desktop towers, all-in-ones and peripherals from Acer, ASUS, Corsair*, Dell, HP, MSI* and Twist*. This is a category built specifically for creators that we’re enabling with our OEM partners. Creator PCs provide differentiated aesthetics and peripherals, upgradable form factors, and end-to-end technology optimized for the creator workflow, including Intel® Core™ i7 and Intel® Core™ i9 processor performance, Thunderbolt™ 3 technology and Intel Optane SSDs.
Intelligence
Intelligence will be integral to the modern, adaptable PC experience. Our plan to bring AI to the PC is by delivering tools and resources to the developer community and collaborating with OEMs to package the AI capabilities into new devices.
We introduced the AI on PC Developer Program to provide tools and training for developers – including the OpenVINO™ toolkit and Windows* ML – to fully utilize hardware capabilities to unlock AI innovation.
Additionally, ASUS joined me on stage to showcase a new concept PC called Project Precog, a convertible dual-screen notebook equipped with intelligent features for versatility and productivity. They also showed off a new ZenBook Pro*, which allows developers to take advantage of the low-power Intel® Movidius™ VPU to create AI-centric features for both existing and new applications.
There has never been a greater opportunity for Intel and our ecosystem to work together and deliver even more positive change to the PC – turning it into the best platform to power your contributions.
