From cool tech to TV tech
As for the technologies on display, Intel did its bit to ensure there was enough to satisfy, but definitely not enough to gratify. The Larrabee demo was so poor it might have been better if Intel had not shown it at all; Light Peak was launched but is still some three years away - and even then only if the specification is quickly ratified. However, importantly, the mighty Intel roadmap remains unchanged as Chipzilla continues to turn out good processors by the millions.
Even Intel chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, reeled off a keynote concerning future technologies that centred all around the TV, as if Intel had become one big, fat, lazy couch potato.
Widget TV is not only old news, but news which didn't ever pique anyone's interest the first time around, and as for 3D television, we're getting a little tired of chip firms encouraging us to wear dorky 1970s glasses in our living rooms. Face it, we're not going to.
With no ultimate geek contest, no Makers Fair and no super-cool technological innovations to talk about, IDF 2009 was less of an "event" and more of a PowerPoint-heavy business seminar, as far as the press were concerned.
The immense passion that one would expect from a technological juggernaught had temporarily left the building. Let's see if it makes an appearance next year.
A failed IDF? Not really. Intel will continue to sell millions and millions of chips. An absence of real competition in the x86 space intimates that profits will continue to remain healthy. The chip giant doesn't need to push the boat out at all, and that's the pervasive feeling from IDF.
Ultimately, it's a catious, unexciting IDF that puts pragmatism ahead of whimsy.
