US chip giant Intel introduced on January 5 a speedy new generation of chips that thwart film piracy and enable quick handling of data-rich video and games. The second-generation Intel Core processors, referred to as "Sandy Bridge," have been built into computers big and small, many of which displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off here on Thursday.
"This is the best product we've ever built," said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini. "We've shifted to processor-based graphics."
Building graphics computing into chips enables slick handling of games, images and video at a time when lifestyles are increasingly shifting to online entertainment loaded with data sent online. "We are hooked on the Internet," Intel vice president Shmuel "Mooly" Eden said while showing off Sandy Bridge-driven computers at a press event. "PCs (personal computers) are no longer a luxury, they are a necessity."
Intel worked with major US and India film studios, including Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Yash Raj Films and 20th Century Fox to craft copyright-guarding technology into the chips. Warner Brothers has avoided putting high-definition or 3D releases online because of the potential for piracy.
"You've taken the excuse away from us," Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara told Eden during an on-stage appearance.
Studios working with Intel will make hot releases available to Sandy Bridge-driven PCs through online services such as Cinema Now. Films can be routed from PCs to TVs. "Our partnership with Intel creates a game changing opportunity to provide consumers around the globe our highest value content in a secure environment," said 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment world-wide president Mike Dunn.
Eden predicted that Sandy Bridge, with 1.16 billion transistors on each chip, would be "a cornerstone of the computer revolution." A million PCs are sold daily, with consumers driving the market instead of businesses, according to Intel.
Sandy Bridge enables fast conversion of video for increasingly common tasks such as shifting digital snippets from personal computers to iPads or iPods, or transferring content from handheld cameras onto desktop machines. The chips have enough power to smoothly handle real-time gesture-based controls and even enhance computer games with animated versions of players that mimic movements and facial expressions, according to Eden.
He predicted that in the coming two to four years, Sandy Bridge will enable advances that have people looking at computer keyboards as though they were from "the Middle Ages."
"Pretty soon, you will not know if you are in the real world or the virtual world," he said. Sandy Bridge chips will be featured in 500 devices from mobile handsets to notebook and desktop computers, according to Intel.