User-aware computing could materialise

By Martin Czernowalow for Intel

San Francisco, 26 Aug 2005

Research into user-aware platforms - that will be capable of self-maintenance, adapting to environments and responding to users` needs - is progressing, a senior Intel executive said yesterday.

The group`s long-term research goal is to develop smarter, safer, adaptable products, Justin Rattner, senior fellow and Intel corporate technology group director, told delegates at the Intel Developers` Forum in San Francisco.

An electronic product currently has no way of "knowing" how it is being utilised, who is using it and what the user would like to accomplish, he commented.

The future of electronics will be driven by this need for intuitive technologies that will require a new generation of user-aware platforms, Rattner said, adding that user-aware platforms will place new demands on the way the industry develops hardware, software, services and interfaces.

The evolution in processor architecture is towards supercomputer-like performance. To enable platforms that are more aware and have more functionality, Intel envisions putting tens to even hundreds of energy-efficient computing cores inside a single processor, Rattner revealed.

Each chip, he said, will be capable of dynamically assigning clusters or individual processing cores together with the necessary memory and bandwidth to specific tasks, such as "seeing", "listening", network security, gaming and "understanding" commands.

The use of sensor technologies, combined with logic within systems is being investigated, as self-maintenance requires an "awareness" of surroundings which will allow an automated respond to threats that endanger the system`s ability to function, he said.

"Perhaps the most difficult challenge of building a system that intuitively respond to ever-changing needs is helping it understand the context of 'who`, 'what` and 'where`," said Rattner.

Intel will work closely with industry players, such as original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors and developers, to make this vision of user-aware computing a reality, he concluded.