Synergy XIII: Club Paradise, Palawan

N.B. There’s still time before we close this week’s contest!

Synergy is a yearly event hosted by HP and Intel and 2010 marked year 13. Back then, it was one of the more innovative types of events as it paved the way for more intimate dialogue with the press. 13 years later, Synergy is still going strong and this year we’re at Club Paradise in Palawan.

Click on to see what happened at Synergy.

It’s tough to keep on reminding myself that we’re here for business.

Yup, we’re here for work. Synergy is a very serious junket because it highlights and summarizes upcoming products and services for 2011. Since Intel is probably the most ubiquitous IT company in the world, they practically are introducing the trends for the computing industry.

As you can see, Intel and HP really takes work seriously.

This work is taken very seriously under closed doors.

Whoops =)

Anyway.

I once asked a friend about the fashion industry and how these new styles are predicted. Apparently there’s this one central body in France (??) that dictates what can be called trendy and that trickles down to the entire world to be interpreted. It’s the same with Intel. They’re that same “central body” that innovates technology found in phones, tablets, digital signages, computers and today, appliances!

This chart shows how fast the PC industry is growing. In fact if you think Android, iPod and iPhone sales are up, the figures for computer sales are so much higher.

From a mere silicon chip manufacturer, it is no secret that Intel has made waves into SaaS (Software as a Service), making technology more integrated into our lives. I remember back in the 90’s and early 2000’s where there was a sort of adrenaline rush in building a PC — the agony and ecstasy of DIY computer assembly from individual parts. Today Intel seems to have integrated almost everything into their chips — from overclocking to the video card, anti-virus (this is a personal prediction as Intel is in the process of purchasing McAfee) and soon, chips with embedded 3D.

Here’s a tip. I always had a thing against integrated graphics. Apparently, I haven’t been an observer in this space for quite a while. Maybe 2-3 years ago, GMA technology (it’s basically a graphics card embedded onto an Intel chip, thus sharing memory) really sucked for gaming. Today however, the run off the mill GMA spec comes with something pretty decent to run Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops. Apparently, Intel integrated graphics is the equivalent of a PHP 6,000.00 video card which means that if you’re still going to buy a new graphics accelerator, make sure it’s above six thousand pesos else you’re better off running native graphics!

One of the bigger unveils of the weekend was Intel’s approach towards mobile computing. They recently launched the dual core Atom processors for netbooks but with the recent unveil of the tablet market and the mass availability of mobile devices, Intel is ramping up their MeeGo software platform for 2011. If you own a Nokia N900, this is the precursor to the MeeGo operating system co-developed by Intel and Nokia. But they also have their eggs in many baskets with support for all operating systems in both hardware and software. Oh and there’s the AppUp store as well for netbooks.

To understand what Intel is actually doing, it would be best to read this thorough article on the Tick Tock process that Intel follows. Last year I also wrote a short “what if” scenario on another blog predicting a 1 nanometer chip by 2016. Basically, “tick tock” is a two year cycle on chips. Year one is the technology breakthrough and year two is when they make it smaller. Smaller means faster.

I think this last slide says it all: Intel’s basically making a breakthrough in these markets. The last market — the “embedded devices” market is probably the most exciting as we’ll soon see Intel inside our cars (just take a look at the MyFord Touch technology) and other appliances.