CES 2005 Kicks Off A New Year Filled With High Tech

With keynotes from Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman and chief software architect; Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel; and Carly Fiorina, the chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, CES provides a cross-section look at the latest technologies from providers of content, software, hardware, and silicon.

Executives from IBM's PC business, which was recently sold to Lenovo Group of China, are expected to provide additional information about how the companies will be transitioning the business and how the two companies will work together to continue to serve IBM's enterprise customers going forward.

Intel will be providing additional details surrounding the introduction of its newest platform for mobile computing called Sonoma. Sonoma is expected to include a new Pentium M processor with a faster front side bus, a tri-mode wireless LAN, and a new chipset called Alviso, which supports third-generation graphics, enabling support of such standards as Direct Media Interface and high-definition audio.

The largest purveyors of satellite radio services are expected to use the conference to highlight their advances, even as they struggle to find profitability. Even though XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio have increased total subscribers to all-time highs in 2004, both companies continue to operate in the red, with XM reporting a loss of $118 million, and Sirius reporting a loss of $169 million in the third calendar quarter.