INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2011 – With more than 1 million computers selling each day, Intel Corporation introduced its game-changing 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family today at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Intel highlighted several surprising new features, services and partnerships that combine to deliver an entirely new visual experience with processor graphics built in. More than 500 desktop and laptop PCs are expected from all major OEMs worldwide throughout the next year.
New features include Intel® Insider™, Intel® Quick Sync Video, and a new version of the company’s award-winning Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi), which now adds 1080p HD and content protection for those wishing to beam premium HD content from their laptop screen to their TV. The company also revealed working with CinemaNow*, Dixons Retail plc*, Hungama* Digital Media Entertainment, Image Entertainment*, Sonic Solutions*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment*, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution*
“The new 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors represent the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any other previous generation,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, PC Client Group, Intel. “The built-in visual capabilities enabled by these new processors are stunning. This, combined with improved adaptive performance, will revolutionize the PC experience in a way that is obvious for every user to see and appreciate – visibly smarter performance.”
New Visual Experience for Today’s Lifestyles
The 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family is the first “visibly smart” microarchitecture to combine visual and 3-D graphics technology with performance-leading microprocessors on a single chip. Incorporating the newly architected Intel® HD Graphics on each 32nm die enables significant graphics performance improvements over previous-generation graphics for both HD media processing and mainstream gaming. The chips improve performance and yet still offer great battery life and the ability to design thinner, lighter and more innovative laptops and all-in-one PCs.
New processor graphics technology will focus on the areas where most people are computing today: high-definition (HD) video, photos, mainstream gaming, multi-tasking and online socializing and multimedia. Enhanced visual technologies such as next-generation Intel® HD graphics are built into every 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor. For consumers, this means a dramatically improved PC experience, with better overall power management, greater efficiency and great battery life.
Additionally, a surprise new feature of the next-generation PC and laptop processors, Intel® Insider™, will give consumers access to movies on their PCs in full high-definition that were not available before. To explain the importance of this feature, Eden invited Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Home Entertainment Group president on stage.
Tsujihara explained, “Warner Bros. sees the PC as one of the most broadly available and versatile platforms for delivering premium digital entertainment, and now that Intel has made it more secure, we’re able to provide new releases and popular catalog titles in full HD to the PC through our WBShop* storefront and from partners like CinemaNow* on the same day as DVD and Blu-ray* releases.”
Eden used a clip from the feature film “Inception”* from Warner Bros.* and demonstrated how easy it would be to get the movie from CinemaNow* and watch it in full HD on a laptop.
In collaboration with Hollywood and Bollywood studios along with leading content distributors such as CinemaNow*, Dixons Retail plc*, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment*, Image Entertainment*, Sonic Solutions*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment*, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution* and others, Intel creates a protected environment for the distribution, storage and playback of premium content. This enables content owners and video services to release more movies in high definition. Commercial distribution of HD premium content using the Intel® Insider™ technology is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2011.
Building upon this Intel® Insider™ innovation, Eden then showed how consumers can now also use Intel® WiDi 2.0 to beam content such as the “Inception” film to their big- screen HDTVs. Additional Intel® WiDi 2.0 improvements include support for 1080pHD as well as protected content either streaming from the Internet or played locally from a Blu-ray or DVD playeriii.
Another unique element of the visual experience built into the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family is Intel® Quick Sync Video. This built-in hardware acceleration takes the wait out of editing and sharing videos with astonishing performance that completes in minutes what used to take hours. Now faster than ever, consumers can edit, convert and share videos with friends and family. Intel estimated that a 4-minute HD video that used to take 4 minutes to convert to play on an iPod* would now take just 16 secondsii.
The power of the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors for immersive mainstream gaming was demonstrated with a teaser from Valve’s* Portal 2*, one of the most anticipated game releases of 2011. Eden did the demonstration with precision Hydra motion controllers from Razer* using Sixense* MotionTouch* technology.
Smart Performance, Energy Efficiency and Intelligence Merge
The Intel® Core™ i3, i5 and i7 processors also include the enhanced Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. This feature automatically reallocates processor core and processor graphics resources to accelerate performance, giving users an immediate performance boost when and where it’s needed.
Other new chip features include Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), Intel® InTru™ 3-D, and Intel® Clear Video Technology HD. Intel InTru 3-D enables immersive stereoscopic 3-D to 3-D-capable HDTVs or monitors via HDMI 1.4, making movie excitement almost come out of the screen.
Intel® AVX increases performance for such demanding visual applications as audio processing and professional video image editing such as stitching together multiple photographs. Intel® Clear Video improves the visual quality and color fidelity during video playback for a spectacular screen experience.
To make it easy for users to find a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™-based system that is just right for their particular needs, Intel is also announcing a wide array of SKUs including Intel vPro™-enabled processors.
The chips are made on Intel’s 32nm manufacturing process on the company’s second-generation high-k metal gate transistors. These unique advantages further boost performance; reduce power consumption for better battery life and smaller designs, and lower overall manufacturing costs.
Intel announced more than 20 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 6 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® WiFi and WiMAX adapters. More than 500 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from all major computer makers worldwide based on these products.
The quad-core-based systems (four processors inside one chip) will be available on Jan. 9 with additional dual-core versions in February. Video, benchmarks, photos and more details are available at www.intel.com/newsroom/CES.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.
