Intel makes a play for the embedded market
People shopping for Adidas trainers may soon be able to use an in-store touch-screen interactive wall display that shows them the full range of shoes in 3-D in all available colours and sizes: the system is expected to appear in May. Those shopping for Lego can already find in-store augmented reality Digital Box displays that identify the box the customer is holding, and superimpose 3-D images of the model they will be able to build. (See the videos below.) Meanwhile, a growing number of vending machines are using cameras to try to identify the age and gender of potential customers, so that they can display the most relevant products in the most attractive way…. This is the kind of thing that Intel hopes will stimulate a large market for its processors, and Atom SoC (System on a Chip) designs in particular.
It's hard to gauge the embedded processor market because the chips are invisible to users. However, Ton Steenman, general manager of Intel's Embedded & Communications Group, says Intel has had some success in the embedded business, which doesn't include phones or netbooks. "We have had over 4,500 design engagements, and over 1,500 design wins," he says. "And 60% of these Atom SoCs go to companies that have never used Intel Architecture [ie x86] before."
Steenman is based in Arizona, where he says Intel has a large operation with more than 10,000 staff. I talked to him in Shannon, in Ireland, where Intel held an Open Day for a couple of dozen European journalists to outline its ambitions in the embedded arena. Targets include home automation, automotive computing and healthcare, as well as kiosks, billboards, digital signage and other sales-related systems.
Intel reckons embedded chips will be a big business, with billions of internet-connected devices. The Internet of People will be dwarfed by the Internet of Things.
"There are a lot of new opportunities when things start communicating," says Steenman. "Embedded systems were designed to do one specific thing for the rest of their lives. Connected devices need to be designed for evolutionary development, because it's extremely difficult to predict what consumers are going to want five years from now." Remote provisioning and management now means you can update devices without having to send a service agent out.
I ask him how Intel thinks it can compete with ARM-based SoCs, which have made a huge impact based on their low power consumption. The Intel Atom has reduced x86's power requirements, but it's not there yet.
Steenman says Intel offers "unprecedented scalability, from the lowest-end Atom processors and SoCs -- with price points down to $18 -- all the way up to the fastest supercomputers on the planet", and they can all use the same software environment. Instead of today's "market fragmentation," companies can use Intel Architecture for software development, the distribution network, and the embedded devices. Steenman reckons this will save costs.
But Microsoft is promising to make Windows run on ARM chips as well as on x86, so will that make a difference?
"To a large degree, for us, I actually think it is a beneficial move," Steenman replies. "It will drive Microsoft to think about cases where you need a very small footprint and a very configurable system. It will benefit us when Microsoft has an operating system that scales all the way down. It will bring new capabilities to the embedded market. With Windows you can deliver a rich experience very quickly, and consumers want rich experiences."
Steenman foresees rapid progress in the embedded market without consumers ending up in a Bladerunner-style future. He thinks devices will move from being reactive to being suggestive: they will use their extra processing power "to figure out what you want. A really simple example is home energy management. When the system gets a good idea of your behaviour, such as when you do your laundry, it can suggest ways to save money."
However, he thinks "the next big step" will be a move to some form of peer-to-peer operation. "When you have to provision 15 billion devices, you can't make everything happen in the core any more: you have to distribute it. But I think we're some way from that…."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxWkZtUKaI Animated Lego Digital Box at Downtown Disney Orlando
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfBnzJF_o7I ISE 2011 adidas intel touch screen interactive wall