Did Intel’s Next Wave Vision answer the qualcomm challenge?

Posted by Dennis Sellers Sep 6, 2005 at 3:50am

Neo is ‘Macsimum’s’ man of mystery. If we told you more, we’d have to kill you.

On August 21, I presented a Next Wave Series report entitled “Could Intel’s push for WiMAX be in trouble?” Now, with Intel’s developer conference concluded, this report reviews key developments that emerged from the keynotes of Intel executives that may have ‘turned the tables’ on Qualcomm. Along the way, you may even find an interesting twist concerning Apple, which in my view went under reported. But in the end, if you thought that the Clash of the Titans was little more than hype, then you may be awakened by a development that broke just last week that has the Industry in a buzz. This is war, folks, make no mistake about it.

Paul Otellini: Intel’s Vision

Otellini’s keynote began on a clear note. Intel and the Industry were entering a new era which he dubbed as “usage-oriented computing.” The winners of this new era”, he stated, “would be those who orient technology to do specific needs and tasks that people want done. Technology disappears behind that – into the lives of individuals.”

To crystallize their position, Paul Otellini wanted to send out a clear message that Intel themselves would reflect this new era accordingly, as a leader. He first reviewed Intel’s evolution from being predominantly a memory company during the ‘60s and ‘70s and a microprocessor company during the ‘80s until the present. “Well, today you see us become a platform company,” stated Otellini.

Otellini went on to describe how Intel underwent its largest reorganization in history, which began this past January. Gone was the era of product groups organized around microprocessors, chip sets, flash memories or communications. In, was the their new focus, organized on the basis of platforms – for mobility, the digital home, the digital enterprise, digital health and emerging markets with their channel partners.

“With a new computing era coming upon us, I think it’s time to take things up to a different level,” stated Otellini. He then described that their two current micro-architectures, one based on NetBurst and the other based on their mobile architectures, were going to be combined into one, creating a best of class architecture designed from the ground up for performance per watt without compromising on performance. “And it’s this micro-architecture that will be the basis for three new dual-core products that we’ll bring out in the second half of 2006. They are Woodcrest for servers, Conroe for desktops and Merom for laptops.” This new micro-architecture will include a single persistent platform for software developers with a common set of features such as 64-bit, virtualization and security.

Intel’s hand top: a new breed of mobile devices

After Otellini’s introductory overview of the advantages of Intel’s new processors, he went on to present a new breed of mobile device, temporarily dubbed the “Hand Top.” It combines the performance capability of a PC and the mobility of a handset. In general, these units could provide screens up to five inches, weigh in at about a pound, have an all-day battery and “always be connected,” via Wi-Fi and WiMAX built in.

Yet the surprising revelation that the Hand Top would run a full-featured operating system “like Longhorn,” as Otellini described it, means that this could equally apply to OS X. In that light, the lack luster branding of the “Hand Top” simply fades into a future derivative of the iPod. According to Otellini, this isn’t pie-in-the-sky theory or “science fiction.” In fact, these new devices will be coming to market in the first half of 2006. That just happens to fall in-line with Apple’s roll out of Intel based hardware beginning in June 2006.

Revolutionizing television

Another interesting point in Otellini’s presentation was when he described new service models that would emerge over time as this new entertainment era really kicked in. He pointed to just one example being ClickStar (associated with Revelations Entertainment) and stated that “ClickStar begins with the revolutionary premise that first-run movies will be available day and date on the internet and out in theaters< simultaneously. As this happens, as more people follow this model, I think you’ll see the beginning of this revolution start to happen and proliferate inside the home.”

Within 24 hours of Otellini’s keynote, Intel’s Don MacDonald, Vice President and General Manager of Digital Home Group, followed through with that same theme during his keynote address stating that ClickStar delivering content to the home the same day as it’s released in theaters “is a big deal. That’s earth-changing, that’s game-changing. And that will happen on the platforms that we’re developing for.”

MacDonald further announced that Intel had rejoined the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. In fact a [url=http://www.homeplug.org/en/news/press082405.asp]press release[/ur] was issued that same day that had Intel’s Matt Theall, newly appointed President of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance stating that “The Alliance recently announced the completion of its HomePlug AV multimedia connectivity specification, enabling products based on this standard to reach consumers in 2006.”

I think that Intel has made it clear that they’re putting their full weight behind HomePlug AV and other advanced technologies to make this happen sooner rather than later. More importantly was the fact that Intel issued one press release pumping Microsoft’s association with Viiv and a second press release that had no mention of Microsoft whatsoever. Translation: Psst – A certain cool company that starts with the letter “A” will have a similar association on our new platform! Any guesses who that might be? Yes, of course.

Radio free Intel: revolutionizing radio

If there was ever a core Intel project to keep an eye on for next year, this is it without question. This is one of Intel’s core secret weapons, designed to challenge Qualcomm head on. This project was brought to light on day two of the conference by the head of Intel’s Communications Circuits Lab, responsible for the Radio Free Intel project.

However, being that most of us in the Mac Community are completely oblivious to this key project, the presentation did little to clarify the significance of this technology. Reading the little that was stated was like walking into theater to watch the last 5 minutes of a film. Therefore, I’ll only present one key statement that was derived from the presentation and then provide with you with a little background on the project itself. Here’s the statement:

“The die we have today is ready for 100 MHz baseband bandwidth. Today’s radios only require 20 MHz. So we’re ready to basically deal with anything that a new standard like 802.11n can throw at us. We’re ready for the future.”

The key to this statement revolves around the importance of 802.11n which builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas. This relates back to Intel’s recently announced agreement with Arraycomm that will bring the benefits of Smart Antenna Technology to WiMAX 802.16.

How important is this standard going forward? You’ll soon find out by the end of this report!. Until then, here’s a basic overview of this vital project.

What is radio free Intel?

Radio Free Intel is a technology-based vision of integrating flexible, low-cost radio capability into every silicon product Intel makes. It forms the technological foundation for realizing a day when all computing devices communicate and all communication devices compute, anywhere, any time. With its technical core of silicon radio, Radio Free Intel is expected to deliver significant manufacturing advantages in cost, performance, and time-to-market.

“The idea behind Radio Free Intel is that all wireless protocols can be executed on a common set of hardware ingredients that are integrated in Intel silicon,” says Steve Pawlowski, Intel Fellow and Director of Communications and Interconnect Technology at Intel. “To achieve this vision, the analog radio frequency and the baseband logic sections need to be reconfigurable to adapt to different protocols and different environments.”

Using its world-class CMOS process technology and the power of Moore’s Law, Intel envisions integrating analog-based radio technologies onto a single, silicon die — in effect digitizing radio. Take note that this was the silicon die that was presented at the conference, as noted above.

So what might the future look like? The move to digital logic is expected to revolutionize radio just as it has done with electronic devices. The intelligence that comes with processing capability, for example, could allow products with embedded silicon radios to connect to multiple networks, regardless of their respective protocols or requirements.

These products might range from today’s mobile computers and PDAs to clothing and jewelry, home entertainment systems, medical instruments, or valuable, and potentially profitable, devices and applications yet to emerge.

Reconfigurable, agile radios: Even more useful, these “agile radios” could seamlessly switch between networks, automatically reconfiguring themselves after identifying the best and most cost-effective connection at that time.

Agile radios would simultaneously switch between and interacting with multiple wireless technologies, including other radios. Meanwhile customers would enjoy seamless and reliable connections, allowing them to focus on what they want to accomplish, not on the technology.

Radio Free Intel will provide this wireless connectivity across multiple networks using different protocols such as Ultra Wideband (UWB), WiMAX – IEEE 802.16e (wireless broadband/PDF), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). Its versatility will adapt to future technologies, specifications and standards.

It’s worthy to note that Radio Free Intel appears to be a challenger to one of the key aspects of the PPC CELL project in respect to networking. You could refer back to various points presented in the CELL patent itself to make the comparison, here. If true, it would be another piece of the puzzle explaining Apple’s crossroads decision to go with Intel. But that’s a subject for another day. Until then, here’s a Radio Free Intel overview Flash demo.

Intel’s response to the Qualcomm challenge

In my view, it was Intel’s Mobility Group that came in like a hammer to drive home the PC industry’s vision for a wireless world. Smack – The gloves were off! In a flash, Intel cleverly if not brilliantly changed the entire nature of the argument that stemmed from the media’s myopic focus on bandwidth – to the advantages that the PC industry would collectively bring to the wireless broadband arena. Here are the four key points that I think Intel made, in random order.

Point # 1 PC-like performance: “I want to spend a few minutes now talking about the other mobile computer, which is the phone…” Intelligence is beginning to matter inside of phones. Now there’s an enormous amount of discussion about the bandwidth, GSM, GPLS-Edge, 2G, 2.5G, 3G. Those things do matter, but also the performance inside of the device because the more capability to do applications, the more services that can be offered for the cell phone user. And there’s a reasonable linear relationship between the amount of computing power in there and the ability to run some of these new applications that we’re beginning to see.”

Point # 2 PC pro apps: “Not surprisingly, we’re beginning to see a fairly sharp ramp in smart phones. This was a very small category. It’s going to become a very large category. The fact that you carry the device with you pretty much always just means it makes sense to be able to run more and more applications – provided they’re good applications…” “And so we are beginning to see a very sharp ramp in smart phones, and that’s very much the market segment that we’ve been trying to help in our work with low-power microprocessors.”

To drive home the message about good applications, Sean Maloney pointed out that Motorola’s new Moto-Q phone and Blackberry challenger, due to arrive this fall, is powered by Intel’s Bulverde processor running Windows Mobile 5.0. Okay, you could beg to differ what good applications really are, but at the moment, Windows applications are what drive the enterprise. And when you combine that thinking with that of the 2006 “Hand Top,” that will be able to run a full version of Windows and/or OS X, it becomes evident that the PC industry is going to storm the hand set industry with a compelling PC-side advantage: Advanced Operating Systems and applications that people are used to!

Point # 3. Supporting open global standards: “Now the way we look at it, there are two things that really, really need to happen to keep this going. If you look at the growth in the last three years of Wi-Fi, what it’s done in notebook computers, what it’s done in devices going into the home,. what was essential to that was that it was an open global standard. So an open global standard where we as a community can work together, compete with each other, cooperate with each other, and keep this thing moving forward. That’s essential.”

“Okay, what I’d like to do now is spend a few minutes talking about open standard wireless. If we look at the development of Ethernet going back to the early 1980s, what you see over a 15 or 20 years is orders of magnitude reduction in cost. The reason why they came about is that the industry stayed together working through the IEEE on the standards…” “Collectively, we worked together for a global standard so that chips would work anywhere in the world. We saw the same phenomena with Wi-Fi.”

“We can compare Wi-Fi to the growth of wideband CDMA [Qualcomm], a first rate technology that has been growing very rapidly. You could see that Wi-Fi, even though it started later, has grown as quickly, even faster than that [Wideband CDMA] did. That’s been a very attractive thing for the industry as a whole, and we’re still in pretty much the early, early days of deployment.”

When reviewing a map of Wi-Fi hotspots, Intel announced that they’re working with UPS and SBC to install another 5,000 hotspots across the United States. Another Wi-Fi slide was presented illustrating the U.S. urban momentum towards Wi-Fi that now represents roughly 200 programs either underway or planned. While Intel isn’t involved with all of these programs, Sean Maloney did emphasize two such projects that they’re involved with in particular, being Philadelphia and Corpus Christi. “So, momentum is still moving ahead with Wi-Fi. It’s a global thing,” added Maloney.

Although Intel made a rather minor reference to the Philadelphia Project, you have to dig a little deeper in order to understand the significance of that point in their war with Qualcomm. There’s an 18 minute video available from ZDNet that covers the “Wireless Philadelphia” project very well. They present Philadelphia’s CIO, Dianah Neff, explaining the politics and technology behind this project. In that video you’ll clearly hear a statement that was put forth by Qualcomm, attempting to put pressure on this project with a tax payer’s argument, which Dianah Neff unabashedly dismissed. Unfortunately the video is not available in QuickTime.

Point # 4 Universal video standards: “Now having said that there’s a strong interest in video, there’s also a need for us to do broadcast video out on these devices, particularly in areas where people are commuting or they want a handheld with a slightly larger screen [Think Hand Top], and they want to look at broadcast signals. So I’m delighted to be able to show you today, the world’s first DVBH on L-band demonstration working with Crown Castle and DiBoom.”

“Essentially what we have here is a live service; DVBH itself is capable of doing 16 video channels streamed. What we have here is five getting streamed live from Pittsburgh via satellite, and then from a Crown Castle transmitter by the way, are significant in the U.S. in base station infrastructure. The video runs at 25 frames-per-second and is a beautiful clear image. It’s live, being broadcast over the L-band right now. And we’re picking it up not just in this PDA, on these PDA devices here; we also have it going into this notebook computer here. This technology, which is again, a global standard. That’s what we like about it. It’s not just in the U.S.; there’s a strong pickup in Europe. And we are partnering with Crown Castle and also DiBcom. DiBcom are the silicon providers who have produced the world’s first DVB-H silicon running here on Windows mobile. We’ll be working with these two companies on application, not just for hand-held but also for Centrino that people moving around with notebook computers and with smart phones will be able to do, not just point to point, but also pick up broadcast signals as well.”

Right until the very end of Maloney’s keynote, he stressed the importance of common global standards: “And this is extremely important, because this is the way you could get the networking and then the notebooks, or any communications device, to be spread around in a similar manner,” as was being done with WiMAX. And lastly, Maloney announced that Intel’s next generation of XScale application processors, codenamed Monahans, would be adopting H.264/AVC – See PDF page 15. For the record, DVB adopted H.264 back in 2004 to Apple’s delight.

Oh, one last thing: Just before concluding this report, a stunning development broke late last week that was a vital piece of evidence relating back to the importance of the Radio Free Intel project. Although the following report doesn’t make mention of this project by name, you could extrapolate that fact by what’s at the center of this debate, being the future of 802,11n – which is a key component emphasized in the quote presented earlier in context with Radio Free Intel.

Another Intel led Coup?

In my last report I presented the Political Coup that was reportedly led by Intel back in 2004 that stunned many in the industry. And once again, it would appear that something similar is now underway – as presented in the EETimes report entitled “Intel-led alliance stirs angst over future wireless spec.” Here are just a few of the key excerpts worth noting:

Intel has convinced fellow chip makers Broadcom, Atheros and Marvell to join forces outside of an IEEE wireless LAN group to develop an interoperable physical and media access control (MAC) layer scheduled to be presented for IEEE acceptance by November.

By working independently of the IEEE’s 802.11n next-generation task group, Intel has angered task group members who accuse the Intel-led alliance of everything from co-opting the IEEE process to outright antitrust violations that could draw Federal Trade Commission (FTC) scrutiny.

Suspicions have been amplified by the PC-centric nature of the alliance as well as the secretive approach the group has taken, including the signing of nondisclosure agreements. The omission of Airgo Networks Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) from the alliance has also fueled accusations that the alliance is trying to offset Airgo’s competitive advantage.

Airgo is the only company shipping a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) product. All agree that MIMO will be integral to whatever spec comes out of the 802.11n group. Airgo is claiming a two-year advantage over competitors.

“Elantis also worries that the new alliance would not cater to core customers — namely, handset manufacturers — given its PC focus.”

The goal, he added, is to develop a baseline specification for laptops that allows them to implement a basic 2×3 or 4×4 MIMO system. “Keep in mind that we want the flexibility to discuss multicast and network and application-level interoperability to keep it extensible,” Gopi said.

Howard Morse, a partner in the law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath (Washington), argued otherwise. The former assistant director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition said the new wireless alliance raises antitrust issues, particularly given the large market share held by the four members.
The EETimes report is worth a full read if you have the time, as it really demonstrates how the two sides of the broadband wireless isle have differing agenda’s. Yet shouting “anti-trust” is a typical tactic from an opposing side, which up until now hasn’t had a worthy competitor to deal with. Sorry guys, but having a consistent broadband wireless platform that includes notebooks, at the very least, is something we on the PC side think is reasonable. But there’s always two sides in any debate, and I’ll leave it at that for now. That said, this is one hot potato!

The bottom line

The one common theme that emerged from Intel’s conference in my opinion, was that Intel and the PC Industry were collectively going to take wireless broadband to the next level – putting an end to the mess that’s presently with us. Be it PC-like power coming to mobility in 2006 or the PC industry’s strength in Operating Systems and applications. Be it WiMAX in the home or next generation Radio technologies from Intel and their partners – change is on its way, whether the “other guys” liked it or not! The bottom line is that Intel’s Next Wave Vision for wireless broadband looks like a winner, and one that most certainly answered the Qualcomm challenge handedly – if they indeed succeed in implementing their strategy as envisioned in a timely manner.

Like you, I can’t wait to see Apple’s entire Next Wave strategy finally come to market in force. There may have been a hiccup or two along the way due to their switch to Intel, but I think we’re beginning to see that Intel’s leadership is exactly what Apple needs in a partner – to see them through – all the way to the top!

Cheers!
neo@macsimumnews.com

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