The change in Intel's research agenda

Iishwar Daas Nair

MUMBAI: Intel is focusing its research efforts on a whole set of new areas that may seem very unconnected and disjointed from what Intel is now. But in the end it is all about silicon.

Intel Corporation's leadership in the microprocessor industry is undisputed. The popular notion is that Intel's research efforts are solely directed towards packing in more transistors onto the silicon real-estate, devising new architectures that speed up processing, innovating on semiconductor packaging and manufacturing and now producing chips and chipsets that enable wireless computing.

Having more than a dozen processors under development with various code-names and at different stages in the roadmap, it only seems plausible to conclude that Intel's game rests at retiring old generations of processors and introducing new ones with stronger specs, backed by high horsepower marketing. More and better and yet cheaper (the world calls it Moore's Law) drives Intel.

But as poet Robert Browning said, 'the best is yet to be, the last of life for which the first was made, Intel has embarked on a new course as its research suggests. It is focusing its research efforts on a whole set of new areas that may seem very unconnected and disjointed from what the company is now.

Intel showcased some of its leading edge research activity to a select international media at Santa Clara, CA last week. The scope was breath-taking and the areas diverse : silicon photonics, computational nanovision, context-aware computing, personal server, sensor networks, instrumentation systems, RFID, optical systems, myriad sets of new devices and even ethnographic research on how people compute in specific countries and emerging scientific disciplines like precision biology. Not that Intel is planning to enter all of these areas in the future but the diversity is needed to spot the right opportunity it can exploit to innovate and gain leadership.

In an exclusive interview with CyberMedia News, Intel Sr. VP and CTO Pat Gelsinger said, " Some of the areas that you see here are speculative and we may not go into these areas. But we spread ourselves wide and deep that no opportunity escapes us and we get to create new markets". As the CTO, Gelsinger is concerned about the US losing its edge in pure research activity and trading it off for commercial success. He said, " I have spoken about this in public, as a country we have been making bad policy decisions". He is encouraging a meaningful shift in this case for example he managed to get the National Science Foundation (NSF) fund doubled, Gelsinger added.

Not that Intel wants to center its research in the US. As a worldwide supplier of technology, which is a product of research, Gelsinger opted, " If there is a better research agenda somewhere else- say China or India, we will pursue that". That explains Intel's ethnographic research on countries like India, Malaysia and Brazil amongst others. Said Gelsinger, "We have to do culturally relevant research to be able to sell products in that country tomorrow".

Most of the work that Intel showcased was not about semiconductors. Does that mean that Intel is shifting gear? Explained Gelsinger, " Much of the work required is non-silicon. However, at the end of the day, we will embody all of this in silicon". This is because Intel has sort of mastered the semiconductor discipline and has huge investments in fabricating them. Intel's fabs have gone bigger and bigger but the net cost of manufacturing chips have continually decreased. This becomes an entry barrier to others who can do the research but can't afford to build products that it can mass produce and sell- whereas Intel has the best of both the worlds. Now, that's the Intel way.

CyberMedia News