Google Glass to be powered by Intel

Google has partnered with chip maker Intel for its next Google Glass. According to a report by WSJ, the next Google Glass will be powered by Intel and will arrive in 2015.

Wall Street Journal reports that Intel chip will replace the Texas Instruments processor which currently powers Glass. The next Google Glass is expected to have a better battery life. This a deal between Google and Intel is said to be part of a wider push into wearable's by the chip maker. According to reports, Intel also plans to promote Glass to generate new business, including pushing glass in work capacity to manufacturing businesses, hospitals and others.

Although Google has been promoting Glass for a while now, the wearable has yet to capture a market share. It has shown promise in medical and other businesses and such a professional adoption might be the right direction that Google needs to promote Glass. Google's Glass at Work initiative aims to push Google Glass usage in such industries. 

Intel has recently ventured into the wearable market with its first ever MICA bracelet for $495. The wearable is meant for fashion conscious women and comes with a stylish design. The bracelets body is laden with semi precious stones and pearls. It has a 1.6 inch OLED curved sapphire display and comes with an inbuilt SIM card, 3G and GPS connectivity. Apart from this Intel has also planned a smartwatch with Fossil and a smart bracelet in collaboration with Opening Ceremony.

Intel’s Smart Bracelet, MICA to offer Alerts and Texting

Computing giant Intel and New York-based fashion retailer Opening Ceremony revealed the features and final form of their new bracelet, the MICA. Short for “My Intelligent Communication Accessory,” the bracelet will allow you to access text messages, Gmail, Yelp, GPS, and Google and Facebook events. The device, which features a curved sapphire touch-screen display, will be available in December for $495 at Opening Ceremony’s online and retail stores.

Unlike other wristwatch computers, such as the Apple Watch and several devices running Google’s Android Wear, MICA does not have to be connected to a smartphone to operate. Instead, it’ll be powered by its own two-year AT&T data contract, “paid for by Intel,” after which Intel Vice President Ayse Ildeniz says you and AT&T will have to “re-contract.”

The bangle, which was first announced during Fashion Week this past September, is made in two colors: black and white. Both have an 18-carat gold coating. One comes with black water snake skin, Chinese pearls, and lapis stones from Madagascar. The other is made from white water snake skin, tiger’s eye from South Africa, and obsidian from Russia. When I tried one on during a quick hands-on demo, it was light on the wrist, fit well, and was comfortable to wear.

Rather than carry a display at the top of the bracelet, MICA is designed for women to glance at and swipe notifications from the insides of their wrists. These include something Intel calls “Time to Go” alerts, which combine GPS and your calendar events to estimate time it’ll take for you to travel from one place to another. Other notifications include text messages and email alerts from handpicked VIPs.

Samsung to merge bada mobile OS with Intel-backed Tizen

Samsung Electronics Co said it planned to merge its 'bada' mobile software with a platform backed by chipmaker Intel Corp in its latest push to diversify away from Google's Android.

Samsung, which emerged as the world's biggest smartphone manufacturer on the back of booming Android models in the third quarter, joined forces with Intel last year to strengthen its mobile software push.

In September two Linux software groups, one backed by Samsung, and another by Intel, agreed to jointly develop Tizen, a new operating system for cellphones and other devices, by merging their LiMo and Meego platforms in a bid to gain wider industry and consumer support.

"We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen," a Samsung spokesman confirmed senior vice president Kang Tae-jin as telling Forbes magazine.

The open-source Tizen platform supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, Internet-enabled TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems.

It would have to attract wide support from developers and manufacturers to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems available in a smartphone market dominated by Google's Linux-based Android and Apple's in-house software.

Google's Android accounted for 53 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter and Samsung's bada platform just 2.2 percent.

Motorola and Lenovo to use Intel chips in smartphones

Motorola Mobility and Lenovo said they will use Intel processors in smartphones and other devices, giving the chipmaker its first entry into a market it has long coveted.

Intel Corp. has struggled to bring down the power consumption of its chips so that they can be used in phones without draining the battery in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, phone-style chips from other manufacturers are starting to encroach on Intel's PC chips, by becoming the chips of choice for tablet computers.

Lenovo Group Ltd. will be first out the gate, with a smartphone called K800 for the Chinese carrier Unicom in the second quarter, according to Liu Jun, a senior vice president at the company. The phone will have a 4.5-inch touch screen, will use Google Android software for smartphones and tablets and will be able to stream video to TV sets equipped with Intel's Wireless Display technology.

Jun spoke as the guest of Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was making a keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He was joined on stage by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. CEO Sanjay Jha, who said he will have Intel-powered phones in testing this summer and ready for consumer hands a few months later.

Jha didn't provide any details about the Intel-powered devices, except to say that they would use Android. Motorola Mobility is set to be acquired by Google.

Intel said the phones will be able to run most applications straight from Google's Android Market. Usually, switching to another processor family means applications won't run, but Intel said it has a way around that obstacle.

Otellini demonstrated an Intel-made prototype phone, running Android, that he said could get eight hours of talk time and six hours of movie playback from its battery, comparable to smartphones with standard processors. At the same time, Otellini said, the greater processing capability of Intel's Atom chip means the phones can run more programs at the same time.

Microsoft Corp. dealt Intel a blow last year by announcing that it would release its new operating system, Windows 8, in one version for Intel-style chips and other for phone-style chips that are based on designs from Britain's ARM Holdings PLC. Windows has run exclusively on Intel-type chips since the mid-90s.

Intel teams with Google on smartphone chips

Intel Corp and Google Inc launched a development partnership, the latest effort by the world's dominant maker of PC microprocessors to break into the booming smartphone market.

The two companies will work together to optimize future versions of Google's Android mobile software for Intel's "Atom" processors, hoping to speed the development and time-to-market of future Intel-powered smartphones.

The move could jump-start Intel's efforts to expand into the market for mobile phones and touchscreen tablet devices at a time when sales of PCs are slowing.

The first Android phones featuring Google chips should be available in the first half of 2012, Intel executives said at the company's annual developer conference in San Francisco.

Intel is allying itself with one of the biggest players in the mobile industry. In August, Google announced plans to acquire mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

And Android software, which Google licenses free to manufacturers, is currently the most popular smartphone software, ahead of Apple's iOS as well as software by Microsoft and Research in Motion.

While Intel is the world's No. 1 maker of PC microprocessors, it has struggled to gain a foothold in the new class of mobile gadgets such as smartphones and tablets.

Today's crop of smartphones, from the iPhone to devices based on Android software, use chips from companies like Texas Instruments and Samsung which in turn license technology from ARM Holdings.

Those chips are considered more power efficient than Intel's - a key factor for handheld, battery-powered devices.

While Android technically already could support Intel chips, the new partnership will make it much easier for a manufacturer to bring an Intel-based Android phone to market.

Until now, it has been up to phone manufacturers to make their Android phones compatible with Intel chips, whereas future versions of the Android software will work with Intel chips right out of the gate, and will be optimized to take advantage of Intel's technology.

Intel launches Core vPro processors

Intel has officially launched the second generation of its Core vPro processor family, which packs the technology and performance improvements of its Sandy Bridge architecture with security and identity protection technologies primarily aimed at businesses, but which may benefit consumers too. Among the new vPro’s capabilities is a new “poison pill” function that can disable a processor via a SMS message sent over a 3G cellular network in the event a machine is stolen.

“Businesses face numerous challenges today, but also opportunities in the wealth of new technologies that are helping workers be more productive, businesses to be more creative, and IT to be more innovative,” said Intel architecture group VP and general manager Rick Echevarria. “The new Core vPro processor family has the capacity to offload tasks or even better share them to get the most from companion devices. With such performance, the PC could be a service provider, coordinating encryption, virus scanning, near transparent syncs and remote control.”

Like the Sandy Bridge Intel Core processors that Intel has already shipped for consumer PCs, the new Intel Core vPro line features enhanced Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, along with new Intel Advanced Vector Extensions that the company says can speed business applications by as much as 60 percent and multitasking by up to 100 percent, at least comparing a new Intel Core VPro Core i5 to its previous Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Intel says encryption can also be handled up to 300 percent faster.

Intel has also introduced its Anti-Theft Technology 3.0, which will work not only on the new Intel Core vPro processors but also the consumer-oriented second-generation Intel Core systems. The new version of the anti-theft technology enables “authorized IT or service personnel” to send a special SMS message via 3G cellular networks that can shut down a machine in the event it’s lost or stolen, disabling the system and preventing access to encrypted data. With the new version, the system can now be unlocked in the event the machine is recovered. Systems can also be set up to require an encryption login when woken up from a standby state.

The Core vPro and second-generation Intel Core chips also support Intel’s new Identity Protection Technology by generating a new six-digit numerical password every 30 seconds when connected to supporting online banking, commerce, and other secure sites: even if someone phishes the connection or executes a man-in-the-middle attack, the connection will become re-encrypted after 30 seconds. Symantec and Vasco are already rolling out support for the technology.

Intel says OEMs like Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu, and HP are already gearing up a spate of notebooks, convertible tablets, and desktop systems built around the Intel vPro line. And we bet the company is hoping it won’t have to do a recall on these.

$250,000 Turing Award to MIT Professor Barbara Liskov

MIT professor Barbara Liskov has been honoured with Turing Award. Google Inc and Intel Corp supported, Turing Award is one of the most prestigious honors in computing, which is given for helping to make computer programs more reliable, secure and easy to use. This time Turing Award worth $250,000 has been given to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

MIT professor Barbara Liskov was honored for pioneering new designs in computer languages that gird everyday digital applications. Professor Barbara Liskov is only the second woman to win this prestigious prize. The prize money for the Turing Award comes from Google Inc and Intel Corp.

The Association for Computing Machinery, which honors the Turing Award, said Barbara Liskov revolutionized the programming field after she was the first US woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in computer science. Liskov got her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1968, and she has been an MIT professor since 1972.

According to MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif, “Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world. Every time you exchange e-mail with a friend, check your bank statement online or run a Google search, you are riding the momentum of her research.”

The prestigious Turing Award is named for the late British mathematician Alan Turing. Past winners of this award include Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn. Professor Barbar Liskov will be honored with Turing Award on June 27 in San Diego.

On the occasion of her winning the Turing Award, Professor Barbara Liskov participated in an interview with the MIT News Office, which you can find here.

MIT Professor Barbara Liskov on winning Turing Award

Intel launches Atom processor

Intel has launched the Intel Atom Processor N270 which would power an array of small-sized devices, from simple point-of-sale (POS) terminals to in-vehicle infotainment systems, digital signage, digital security systems and miniature medical patient monitoring systems. It is releasing some reference designs for development of local platforms based in Intel architecture.

The embedded hand held appliance reference design was targeted at portable appliances for areas, including sales force automation, financial inclusion, inventory management and general point-of-services applications in restaurants and airports.

The processor measures less than a 25-paisa coin in size and consumes less than 2.5 watt of power. R Ravichandran, Director (Sales), Intel South Asia informed that the single core processor is validated with Mobile Intel 945GSE Express chipset. He further added that there was tremendous opportunity for these smart solutions in the market as the number of Internet-connected devices reaches into billions, performance expectations rise and device size shrink.

Intel India Unleashes Xeon 7400 Processor

Intel has announced to launch it’s latest state-of-the-art chip, Xeon 7400 series, made by Intel’s India unit. The new microprocessor, designed by Intel’s Bangalore unit over a record period of two years, is based on the powerful 45 nanometre technology and it will be used in the servers to boost their operations.

The giant chipmaker has clarified that they have no intention to create virtual bridge between Intel and AMD by introducing the first of it’s kind 6-core x86 microprocessor Xeon 7400 from it’s India’s off-shore unit. The newly introduced Intel microprocessor is powered with six processing cores with each of it’s chip. Designed by 1.9 billion transistors, the Xeon 7400 will support shared cache memory in the tune of 16 MB.

By introducing the chip, Intel has now allowed servers to have maximum 96 processing cores inside with active support from 16 processor “sockets”. Speaking the occasion of new launch, Intel’s South Asia sales director R. Ravichandran said, “This new processor series helps IT manage increasingly complex enterprise server environments, providing a great opportunity to boost the scalable performance of multi-threaded applications within a stable platform infrastructure”.

After successful launching of the new chip, India has entered in the list of exclusive countries that have high expertise and infrastructure to design and fabricate such a complex microprocessor. Entire design operation of the chip, including it’s front-end and back-end design, pre-silicon logic validation etc., has been performed by about 300 people at the Bangalore unit of Intel. “The quality of available talent, technology ecosystem and business potential are factors which make India a strategic business site for Intel,” says Intel India president Mr. Praveen Vishakantaiah.

The new Intel processor, Xeon 7400 series, is highly compatible with the Intel Xeon 7300 series and the Intel 7300 chipset.

With availability of the new Intel Xeon 7400 processors, VMware customers will now be able to move freely between two servers running on different Intel chips. Earlier, people had to use same type of Intel chips on two servers to allow vMotion to work, but now no such limitation exists.

Internet PC to cost Rs 5000

There is good news for those who want to use computer only for checking emails or such low end tasks. Internet PC will soon be a reality for such low-end tasks and will come at much lower costs without including high-profile advanced features of PC world.

Intel has recently announced launching of a new processor namely “Atom” in their just now concluded Intel Channel Conference (ICC). Atom is being designed by Intel, keeping in view of manufacturing only email enabled high power Internet PC. According to Intel, Atom is likely to be available in the market before end of September 2008. ICC is a platform for Intel to share it’s business findings and future business plans with it’s channel partners, which is presently figuring around 2000 in India. It is held twice a year across different centers in the country.

Once Atom is unveiled, making low-end Internet PC will no more take much time. Atom will take least power to operate and these will be highly efficient to look after email requirements. Owing to the low-power requirement and limited functionality, costs of the PC’s developed using Atom will be much lower, said one analyst. The chip will also find applications in mobile Internet devices, making mobile Internet more powerful and efficient. The new innovative technology of Intel will lead the way for making more powerful low-power processors in near future, market observers feel.

Indian Institute of Science have been working on a low cost computing device. After the participation of Intel in the connected Indian movement, internet access through broadband seems affordable for a common man.

The Minister of Communications and IT, Mr A Raja has announced that the low cost computing device will be based on Intel’s Atom and will be priced at about Rs. 5000.