CES 2008 | Intel's jam session plays up world of "personal Internet"

LAS VEGAS — Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini orchestrated what he called the first live virtual jam session Monday, combining digital motion-capture, virtual-world environments and real-time networked audio to present a concert by the band Smash Mouth.

Smash Mouth front man Steve Harwell sang on stage while his band mates, displayed as realistic digital avatars of themselves, each in different locations, played along on screen.

The high-tech stunt was meant to demonstrate what Otellini called the possibilities of the "personal Internet," drawing comparisons to the dawn of the personal computer era three decades ago.

In his Monday afternoon speech to the International Consumer Electronics Show here, he also highlighted new ultra-mobile PCs and gave details of a new "system on a chip" from Intel designed for TVs, set-top boxes, stereos and other devices that could access the Internet without the help of a PC.

Otellini and a partner illustrated how a handheld, wireless device could be used to recognize and translate street signs in China, showing the signs on the device's display in English. The device also did a real-time translation of a conversation from Chinese to English.

Rather than people going to the Internet for information, Otellini said, the personal Internet "is going to come to us."

The device's translations and other information, such as restaurant reviews and cultural background, were available instantly because the device is aware of the user's location, allowing it to provide more relevant information.

"We had what we needed when we needed it," Otellini said.

In the case of the Smash Mouth virtual jam session, different technologies — think social networking, virtual worlds and PCs souped-up with powerful processors — combine to make possible a personal Internet through which people can connect to each other around shared interests in realistic ways.

But Otellini, a self-described Intel "lifer," identified several factors delaying the arrival of this personal Internet, starting with the need to build smaller, more energy-efficient processors. "Silicon is the foundation of all things that connect to the Internet," he said.

He retold the story of Moore's Law, the idea of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors that can fit on any given chip will double every 18 t o 24 months. That law is still in effect as Intel engineers design transistors that overcome the problems of overheating and power consumption exacerbated by small chip designs.

Intel's first chip held 2,250 transistors, each 10 microns in size. The quad-core chips the company produces today have 820 million transistors.

If Intel were to put 820 million 10-micron transistors on a single chip, it would measure 9 by 6 feet and consume as much power as 200 American homes.

Now, Intel is producing 45-nanometer transistors. A nanometer is to a meter as a marble is to the planet Earth, Otellini said. Those 820 million transistors can now fit on a chip the size of a thumbnail.

Otellini showed off Intel's first "system on a chip" designed for consumer-electronics manufacturers. Code-named Canmore, the chip takes advantage of Intel's 45-nanometer transistors to fit several capabilities into a single, small package.

The Canmore chip packs high-end audiovisual processors, a 3-D graphics card and TV tuner capabilities alongside a PC processor core.

It's designed for TVs, set-top boxes, stereos and other consumer-electronics gear that will be able to access the Internet without the help of PC. The Canmore is due out in the second half of the year.

Otellini also demonstrated an ultra-mobile PC about the size of a paperback book. The device, from Toshiba, runs Windows Vista and delivers a full Internet experience, including streaming video, Flash animations and Java applications.

It also uses Adobe's AIR, a programming platform that lets developers easily move Web-based applications to run on a computer desktop.

The device uses a power-stingy Intel chip code-named Menlow, due out in the first half of this year.

Otellini said another factor delaying the personal Internet is ubiquitous wireless broadband access.

Not surprisingly, he endorsed WiMax, the technology Kirkland-based Clearwire is deploying over other wireless standards — 3G and 4G — as having the best chance to clear this hurdle. Intel invested $600 million in Clearwire in 2006.

Only the fifth president and CEO in Intel's history, Otellini presided over the company's introduction of its chips to Apple computers. He is scheduled to speak next week at Apple's Macworld conference.

Benjamin J. Romano: 206-464-2149 or bromano@seattletimes.com