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Intel Corporation unveiled a new design of the Intel-powered classmate
PC today at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. As announced in a keynote by
Andrew Chien, Intel vice president, Corporate Technology Group and director of
Intel Research, the second-generation Intel-powered classmate PC is an
affordable, fully functional, rugged Internet-centric computer platform. These
simple-to-use PCs have wireless capability, longer battery life, water resistant
keyboards and are more shock resistant if dropped. Intel is calling this
category of PCs "netbooks"
The Intel designed
computer offers different choices to manufacturers so each can tailor laptop
models for a variety of education needs. The new classmate PC blueprint is the
latest innovation and educational tool for parents and teachers to use
technology, computers and Internet access to better educate students around the
world.
"Only 5 percent of the world's children today
have access to a PC or to the Internet," Chien said. "Education is one of the
best examples of how technology improves our lives. We have seen how technology
helps teachers create fun learning experiences more efficiently. We have also
been touched by children's excitement when they are inspired by technology. The
Intel-powered classmate PC is one of the ways we support the IT industry in
spreading the benefits of technology in education for children around the
world."
The
second-generation classmate PCs are built on Intel® Celeron® M processor with
802.11b/g Wi-Fi and mesh network capabilities. The top range of these netbooks
includes a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery life, 512 MB memory, a 30 GB HDD
(hard disk drive) storage and an integrated webcam. An Intel powered classmate
PC supports Microsoft* Windows* XP and variants of the Linux* operating
environment. When pre-installed with the education software stack, these
netbooks are ideal for classroom-learning environment. Software and content
will be available in more than eight languages.
More than 80 software and hardware vendors,
content providers, educational services providers and local OEMs have been
working with Intel to develop a complete infrastructure that supports the
Intel-powered classmate PC. They were present at today's announcement in Shanghai.
Chien also said future
Intel-powered classmate PCs will be built with the Intel® AtomTM processor. It
is an energy-efficient, low-cost computer chip designed to provide wireless
capability to small mobile computing devices such as netbooks.
The updated
child-sized computer will continue to be deployed as part of the Intel World
Ahead Program, a global initiative aimed at spreading digital accessibility and
educational opportunities.
The Digital Transformation
Chien also discussed
how the second-generation classmate PC is a proof point of the digital transformation
he believes is underway today. He highlighted several more digital advances
including the use of a cascaded silicon Raman laser as a low-cost Methane gas
detector and talked about a novel "holistic" platform power management
technology to significantly improve the energy efficiency of a wide range of
platforms. He addressed emerging digital consumer applications such as personal
robotics and computational photography as fronts where this transformation is
taking place by demonstrating "Fuwa," a personal robot from the Fudan University
and ReFocus Imaging's light field camera.
Intel architecture is also transforming with the multi-core
movement in mainstream, parallel computing. This will require new programming
techniques and languages at the heart of Intel's tera-scale computing research
program. Chien, along with Dr. Zhang Xia, chief technology officer of Neusoft
Co., demonstrated Ct, a new parallel programming language from Intel research
that will make programming for many-cores more efficient than what is possible
today. Chien says
Intel's research is poised to tackle both the opportunities and the challenges that
lie ahead with the Digital Transformation.
Renee James: Creating the Future in
Software
Also at IDF, Renee
James, vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions
Group, illustrated the crucial role software plays in unlocking the power of
hardware and ultimately creating a better computing experience. She highlighted
visual computing and mobile applications for MIDs as two important, rapidly
growing areas of software development and announced the Intel® C++ Software
Development Tool Suite for Linux* OS Supporting MIDs.
James also
announced the Intel® Certified Solutions program. This new software testing and
validation service will enable Intel® Software Partner Program members to
deliver high-quality solutions that are certified to meet rigorous standards
for security, interoperability and maintainability, and are optimized for Intel
technologies. This new service offering, provided by SpikeSource*, will help
software vendors reduce development costs and produce more trustworthy solutions
that work well on Intel platforms. In conjunction with this certification
initiative, Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, has made an
additional investment of $10 million in SpikeSource. Intel and SpikeSource are
initially offering the service as an early adopter program with broader
availability expected later this year.
Intel and Epic
Games launched the "$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest" for
aspiring game developers to create modifications ("mods") for the PC version of
"Unreal Tournament 3." Winnings
include an Unreal Engine 3 license and more than $500,000 in cash and prizes,
including Intel® Software Development Products and PCs based on Intel® CoreTM2
Extreme quad-core processors.
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