If It's Tuesday, It Must Be IDF

The Intel Developer Forum kicks off Tuesday and that means we'll be getting another bi-annual peek the chip giant's grand product strategy for the coming year and beyond. But at this year's event in San Francisco, there is likely to be a good bit of buzz around non-technological topics as well -- starting with the surprising executive shake-up at Intel last week and continuing with recent revelations about the European Commission's May antitrust ruling against the company.

The question is, will Intel address those issues at IDF?

It's unlikely that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel will want to spend much time on its legal issues this week. The EC last week published a summary of Intel's appeal of the May ruling and whopping $1.45 billion fine and on Monday revealed more details about the years-long EC investigation that led to that ruling.

But it might be necessary for Intel to touch on last week's organizational shake-up, perhaps even during Intel CEO Paul Otellini's opening keynote Tuesday. Intel has said that the reorganization -- which divides the company into three main business organizations headed by a trio of top executives who report to Otellini -- was in the work for months. That may be so, but one surprising byproduct of the shake-up was the departure of long-time Intel stalwart Pat Gelsinger, a co-general manager of the company's now-defunct Digital Enterprise Group who landed at EMC.

Gelsinger, a prominent spokesman for Intel and an engineering legend, had been slated to deliver a keynote at IDF before the shake-up that seems to have sent him packing and has started the rumor mill spinning. One Intel spokesperson, when asked about the likelihood that Otellini would address the reorganization, told Channelweb.com that IDF is a developer conference, not an investors' meeting. Fair enough, but with news this big at a public forum this large, can Intel really afford not to get out in front of the gossip?

At the end of the day, the Intel spokesperson is certainly correct about the main purpose of IDF. This show is about the technology. No doubt we'll hear plenty about the now (Nehalem) and the near future (32nm), with lots of Windows 7 and netbooks thrown in. And Intel execs from top to bottom always enjoy laying it on fairly thick about the Moore's Law-driven relentlessness of their leadership in the semiconductor business.

Specifically, Intel plans to talk to some 5,000 IDF attendees about several current and future technology developments, including:

-- The upcoming Westmere and Sandy Bridge family of chips that usher in the company's next-generation 32-nanometer process technology and for the first time integrate graphics into Intel processor packages;

-- Current features on Nehalem-generation, Core-branded processors and platforms like Turbo Boost, business-class technologies like vPro that enable remote system management, security and virtualization in professional environments, and advances in processor idle states to improve battery life for notebook chips;

-- Larrabee, the long-awaited discrete graphics product from Intel that employs an x86 microarchitecture - the "Intel Architecture," in the chip giant's parlance -- for visual computing;

-- Progress on Intel's System-on-Chips (SoCs) that pack multiple computing functions into a single, tiny processor package for embedded systems and mobile computing devices;

-- Jasper Forest, a new dual-core Xeon server chip built for storage and communications solutions that integrates the I/0 hub directly onto the processor, delivering a 27-watt system power savings over the Xeon 5500 series of chips.

Next: IDF And The Channel

We know what Intel wants to discuss at IDF. What are whitebox partners expecting to talk about at the event? For starters, channel partners appear to be relatively disinterested in the organizational goings-on at Intel.

"Intel is Intel. If one person leaves, two great people will take their place," said Prit Grill, owner of Fremont, Calif.-based Mega Micro Devices, when asked about Gelsinger's departure.

That's a sentiment shared by Rick Schwendiman, CEO of ENS Consulting in Lakewood, Colo. Commenting in the ChannelWeb Connect community, Schwendiman said the reorganization "signals a more collaborative effort from Intel," and that he expects to hear a lot of welcome news from Intel's motherboard partners.

"The low price points of the new chips mean a big refresh in 2010," he said.

Joe Toste of Equus Computer Systems would like to hear more from Intel on products like the Intel Modular Server that has picked up steam for his company in recent months but aren't as well known outside of the system integrator channel.

"We've actually sold more Intel Modular Servers in the last two months than we did in the first 14 months [of its release]," said Toste, vice president of marketing at Minneapolis, Minn.-based Equus.

Other channel-oriented products and programs that Toste tips as newsworthy include Super Micro's SuperBlade boards and chassis for Intel-based servers, and Intel's own Classmate netbook program for whitebook builders like Equus that play heavily in the education market.

Larger system builders like Equus, Amax Information Technologies of Fremont, Calif. and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Colfax International have also found a lucrative line of business-building, custom server-based appliances for independent software vendors (ISVs). It can be difficult to compete with Asia-based computer makers on high-volume appliance orders, Toste said, but Equus generates good revenue on smaller engagements and especially on prototyping appliances for ISVs.

Intel's single-socket Xeon products, rounded out nicely this month with the new Lynnfield family of Nehalem-based chips, are another opportunity-in-the-making for the channel, said Todd Garrigues, the chip maker's North American channel products marketing manager. The channel can time its go-to-market plans for new Lynnfield-based desktop and server products with the coming holiday rush, Garrigues said, when larger OEMs generally focus a lot of their energy on the consumer market.

"There's six total SKUs on the Xeon side and where the channel really wins is when it's really well stocked at launch, which is the case here," Garrigues said, adding that there were opportunities for whitebox builders to lead on new Core-based systems as well.

"One thing that's different about this launch than some past ones is that there are several Micro ATX boards coming out at launch. When you have a lower-cost Micro ATX solution plus powerful processors, that's a very good opportunity for the channel."