Business Tech

Looking to drum up developer interest in Atom-based Netbooks, Intel has pushed out a beta version of a Software Development Kit to help companies and individuals create apps for its mobile platform.

Intel's Atom Developer Program SDK is now available to developers who want to build software for Atom-powered Netbooks running Windows or Intel's Moblin operating system. Anxious for new mobile apps to help sell Netbooks in stores next year, Intel is even dangling a few incentives. Developers who submit apps for validation qualify to win prizes such as a smart car or vacation package.

"Consumer adoption of mobile computing and Atom-based Netbooks is growing rapidly, and there is an immediate opportunity for developers to capitalize on the popularity of these small-form-factor, on-the-go devices," said Renee James, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Services Group, in a statement. "We are excited about the innovation and energy from developers around creating applications and unlocking new uses for Atom platforms."

The new SDK beta is part of Intel's Atom Developer Program, first revealed at the company's Developer Forum in September. The developer program offers tools, SDKs, and technical resources to programmers who want to create fresh apps or port over existing apps to Atom-based devices.

Citing reports from ABI Research, Intel said that more than 50 million Netbooks are expected to be sold by the end of 2009. Whether those devices run Windows or Moblin, Intel sees the Atom as the driving force behind even bigger sales next year, hopefully pushed by a string of innovative new apps.

Google's Gears technology may not have caught on widely in the world of Web programming, but operators of the iStockphoto photo sales site have become believers.

Among other things, Gears enables browsers to store data on a local computer, which most notably means that Web applications can be adapted to work even while offline. But for iStockphoto's purposes, it primarily means better performance for people using the site and secondarily lower operating costs for the Getty Images photo sales subsidiary.

"We're not requiring anyone to install Google Gears," the company said on an explanatory Web site. "If you do install Google Gears, though, iStock will work much faster."

Google launched the open-source Gears software in 2007, but so far, the sites that use it--among them Gmail, Google Reader, WordPress, and MySpace--are the exception rather than the rule.

Speed and money
The main motivation for the change was getting a faster site, which benefits iStockphoto's financial results, said Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto's chief operating officer.

"It was 95 percent performance and end-user experience, but let's face it: if I can get more pictures pumped out faster, with more searches, we sell more," Thompson said. "Cutting down a page load time for a user is more valuable to me than the money I'll save on bandwidth."

The company adopted Gears with no prompting from Google, he added. "We did this on our own," with Web programmers jumping on the project because "it's sexy for them to work on it."

iStockphoto activated its Gears support September 30, Thompson said. In the first 16 days of use, Gears saved the company from paying for the transfer of 132GB of data over the network and lightened its Web servers by 8.7 million communication requests--and that's with only 19,000 Gears-installed users, a "tiny portion of our traffic," he said. Those without Gears benefit, too, since iStock's Web servers are unburdened somewhat by those who do use it.

The technology works by locally storing various Web page ingredients--photo thumbnails, JavaScript program code, Cascading Style Sheet formatting files, for example. Older files are flushed periodically so the users' hard drives don't get too cluttered.

"It's a pretty basic implementation right now: the second time a user sees any image or requests a JavaScript file, it loads instantly," Thompson said. One of his developers described it as "the opposite of a drug dealer: the first hit isn't free, (but) every subsequent hit is."

Google is trying to propagate Gears, which is available as a browser plug-in. In a more aggressive move, it built Gears into its Chrome browser. And in the longer term, the HTML5 standard under development reproduces the local storage abilities of Gears, a move that stands to spread the technology more widely.

HTML5 good, IE 6 bad
Thompson is a fan of another HTML5 technology: built-in video. iStock licenses video content, as well as photos and other content, and currently streams it with Adobe Systems' Flash technology.

"We'd love to be able to ditch Flash on the video side, but it's probably a ways out," Thompson said, citing widespread use of Internet Explorer.

IE is widely loathed among Web developers for its slow performance and lack of standards compliance, and even Microsoft wishes that people would upgrade from IE 6, but it's still the single most widely used browser out there, even though Microsoft released it in 2001, just before Windows XP arrived. Microsoft released IE 7 in 2006, and it tried to improve standards compliance and security with the release of IE 8 this March.

People are gradually shifting away from IE 6, but not fast enough for Thompson's taste--or plans.

"We announced we'd drop official support for IE 6 in 2010 back at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure we're going to be able to it: the percentage of users is dropping--just not quite fast enough," he said.

According to Net Applications statistics, IE 6 is used by 24.4 percent of people on the Web today, followed by IE 7, IE 8, Firefox 3.5, and Firefox 3, in descending order of popularity. Overall, IE has 65.7 percent share of usage.

iStockphoto has more early adopters in its population and therefore different browser preferences. The top five browsers on the site are Firefox, with 37.8 percent; IE, with 34.4 percent; Apple's Safari, with 22.3 percent; Google's Chrome, with 3.4 percent; and Opera, with 1.7 percent.

Among iStockphoto's IE traffic, the majority of people use version 7, but the tide is turning.

"We've seen an almost 2 percent migration of (IE) 6 to 8 in the last 60 days alone. We're hoping Windows 7 will push it even more quickly," Thompson said. "For us, even though it's a shrinking percentage, it still represents over 1 million visits per month, so I can't cut them off at the knees."

"I think we're dominated by geeks, designers, and small businesses, all who move more quickly than the enterprise--not to mention we're 35 percent Mac, with the iPhone about to overtake Linux for third place" among operating systems, Thompson said.

At the annual developer forum, Intel shows off what it can do with silicon and what to look forward to from systems built around its chips.

Intel's Moblin 2.1 to compete with Windows

The upcoming Moblin 2.1 operating system will run on mobile devices, Netbooks, and nettops, putting it in competition with Windows.
(Posted in Crave by Lance Whitney)
September 25, 2009 8:43 AM PDT

Sights from the Intel Developer Forum

IDF is overrun by people in blue shirts and beige khakis, but there are still visually interesting sights at the event.
(Posted in Full Frame by Stephen Shankland)
September 25, 2009 8:07 AM PDT

Intel tries anew to built its smarts into TVs

Interactive and 3D TV is the future, CTO Justin Rattner tells attendees of IDF. In Intel's view, watching TV will become a less passive activity.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
September 24, 2009 3:08 PM PDT

Intel unveils system-on-a-chip for TVs

The CE4100 is designed to bring Internet content and services to digital TVs, DVD players, and advanced set-top boxes.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 24, 2009 1:30 PM PDT

Intel's Maloney: Our business is do or die

Sean Maloney, a favorite to eventually become Intel's CEO, says there are good reasons the chipmaker is pushing back against Europe's antitrust charges.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 24, 2009 10:26 AM PDT

Light Peak: One PC cable to rule them all

The chipmaker wants to replace today's hodge-podge of copper cables with a single type of optical connection.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
September 23, 2009 12:54 PM PDT

Intel brings Nehalem to notebooks, makes light of cables

At Intel Developer Forum, processor chief Dadi Perlmutter also touts a new fiber-optic replacement for video, audio, and network leads.
(Posted in Business Tech by Rupert Goodwins)
September 23, 2009 12:12 PM PDT

Microservers: Blades rebooted

Intel's microserver reference design brings to mind blades as they were originally conceived by RLX Technologies during the Internet boom.
(Posted in The Pervasive Datacenter by Gordon Haff)
September 23, 2009 11:44 AM PDT

Dell launches first laptop with Intel's Core i7

Computer maker takes an early lead in embracing the new Core i7 processor, Intel's first mobile chip based on its new Nehalem microarchitecture.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 23, 2009 8:51 AM PDT

Intel shows off Larrabee graphics chip for first time

Chipmaker demonstrates Larrabee--the company's first discrete graphics processor in about 10 years--at the Intel Developer Forum.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 22, 2009 5:38 PM PDT

Intel CEO looks beyond the PC

Paul Otellini shows off 22-nanometer silicon to the IDF crowd and talks of moving Intel's Atom technology beyond Netbooks to places like car dashboards.
• Video: Intel shows off new 22-nanometer wafer
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 22, 2009 11:16 AM PDT

Intel to introduce first mobile 'Nehalem' chip

Chipmaker is expected to roll out the first Core i7 processor for laptops on Wednesday. Laptop models from major PC makers are also expected.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 22, 2009 12:45 PM PDT

HP unveils Skyroom video collaboration tool

The $149 telepresence software, shown off at the start of Intel Developer Forum, allows video conferencing and desktop sharing.
(Posted in Business Tech by Erica Ogg)
September 22, 2009 9:15 AM PDT

How Intel's supercomputer almost used HP chips

In the 1990s, Intel seriously considered building the world's fastest supercomputer with a rival's processors, but the Pentium Pro arrived in time after all.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
September 22, 2009 8:09 AM PDT

Intel debuts concept notebook with four displays

Yes, that's four--one primary LCD screen and three auxiliary OLED ones above the keyboard. The aim here is to allow the user to organize information the way he or she prefers it.
(Posted in Crave by Juniper Foo)
September 22, 2009 7:45 AM PDT

Investigating Intel's Lynnfield mysteries

The recent announcements of new Core i7 and Core i5 processors, which use the Intel chip design code-named Lynnfield, raise some interesting questions about the company's product strategy.
(Posted in Speeds and Feeds by Peter Glaskowsky)
September 21, 2009 6:30 AM PDT

Intel and Apple--future rivals?

As Intel readies its most potent chip yet for small devices, Apple is already a competitor.
(Posted in Business Tech by Brooke Crothers)
September 20, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

previous coverage

Intel forum debuts to include USB 3.0 gear

A laptop and a video camera using the next-generation USB technology will make an appearance at the Intel Developer Forum next week.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 17, 2009 12:40 PM PDT

Moore's Law expressed as fewer chips

Intel plans to express Moore's Law as integration of functions into fewer chips later this month at the Intel Developer Forum.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 13, 2009 9:00 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel has moved its latest desktop and server chip architecture to the laptop with the announcement of its 45nm Core i7 mobile processor, based on its new Nehalem microarchitecture.

Officially launched at the Intel Developer Forum here Wednesday morning, the chip is initially available in two standard and one Extreme Edition versions. Formerly known as Clarksfield, the quad-core chip combines Intel's Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading technologies.

"It's a 2GHz chip, but with Turbo Boost it can go up to 3.2GHz," said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel's PC Client Group. Turbo Boost works by switching off cores when not in use and overclocking the active cores left. "Clarksfield is the best quad-, dual-, and single-core chip," said Eden.

The chips run at 45 watts, 55 watts for the Extreme Edition, and have an integrated memory controller--the first Intel mobile chips in this lower cost, higher performance configuration.

Dadi Perlmutter, newly promoted general manager of the Intel Architecture Group in charge of processors, said next year would see the Westmere 32nm designs in laptops, with the Arrandale processor adding on-chip graphics for another boost in performance and better power savings.

He also said that Intel was working on new security features for laptops. "Working with LoJack and available next year," he said, "we'll have new capabilities that let you send a message to a lost or stolen computer. If you're nice, you can say 'Please return my computer.' Some say 'The data is shredded, and so are you.'"

Intel also unveiled Light Peak, a new optical fiber interconnection technology that it hopes will eventually replace most or all of the current cabling that computer and mobile users have to deal with.

Running at 10Gbps--enough to transfer a Blu-ray movie in under 30 seconds--and with a maximum reach of 100 meters, Light Peak is designed to carry high-definition video, networking traffic, and high volumes of other data at the same time. Capable of scaling up to 100Gbps, Intel says it is planning to have components ready for manufacturers in 2010.

"We know that legacy takes a long time to change," said Perlmutter, "but we're hoping that over time, this one single cable will replace huge amounts of cable." He said that the primary advantage of this wired system for mobile users is that "the amount of connectors you have in the back of your notebook is a limit to how small it can get."

Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet UK reported from San Francisco.

Open source offers a fantastic way to reach developers and users of one's technology. Ironically, however, the very group most inclined to adopt open source is the least likely to pay for it.

Therefore, to make an open-source business thrive in enterprise software, vendors must learn to distinguish between developer-users and IT operations-buyers. As I'll explain, however, open-source companies may need to guard against becoming too successful in order to preserve their exit opportunities.

It is, of course, quite possible to make money in open source. Lots of it. Red Hat, for example, is approaching $1 billion in annual revenue. MySQL had generated more than $90 million in sales the year it was acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion.

That's real money.

It doesn't, however, come from the developers that download open-source code. Developers, in former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos' words, "spend time to save money."

Hardly the ideal customer.

Developers download software, which a great way to initial a buying conversation but a terrible way to finish it. Open-source companies talk about selling support, but this is a losing proposition. Developers, after all, are highly likely to support themselves through online forums or other means. They don't pay for software, and they don't buy support. Not most of them, anyway.

This is one reason that pure-play support models simply don't scale in open source. They focus on the exact wrong audience.

Sure, there's a honeymoon period for new open-source companies that launch support offerings around established community-led projects. Some developers buy support, either through personal need or corporate requirements. After that initial rush for support, however, it's a tough slog selling support to developers. It's like selling ice to Eskimos.

This brings us back to a real dilemma in open-source companies: how to monetize popularity (i.e., downloads).

Developers are the most efficient way to spread adoption of one's product but perhaps the least efficient way to monetize it. To get paid, vendors must learn to separate IT developers from IT operations, and build offerings for both.

Red Hat is a classic example. People think that Red Hat sells support. It doesn't. Not really.

The primary reason enterprises buy a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscription isn't for Linux support, and certainly isn't for the bits: you can get the bits free from CentOS, and support comes heavily discounted from Oracle.

No, the reason companies purchase a RHEL subscription comes down to certification that RHEL works with a wide variety of hardware and software, as well as with the Red Hat Network, which delivers updates to an enterprise's RHEL servers.

In other words, IT operations pay Red Hat to help manage their Linux servers in production. The money is in operations.

Red Hat isn't alone. Look at JBoss. The company started minting money, once it licensed Hyperic's software to build the JBoss Operations Network.

SpringSource took it one step further and actually bought Hyperic, the company, as the foundation for its Build-Run-Manage message, a message founded in selling to IT operations, not developers. (Rob Bearden, chief operating officer at SpringSource, was deeply involved in both decisions and remains one of the smartest people in the industry on building open-source businesses. If there's any wisdom in this post, it is his.)

For new open-source companies grappling with how to supercharge sales, the answer is operations. It may not be a systems-monitoring tool like Hyperic or Zenoss, but it likely is about systems management, as operations need and pays for it.

There you have it: the secret to your billion-dollar open-source opportunity. Except for one niggling fact: despite the value of IT operations to make sales, it's really developers who create the most company value, from an asset perspective. SpringSource's sales didn't justify its $420 million valuation. Its developer base did. Developers have strategic value, in terms of IT operations and creating tactical value.

In fact, SpringSource's valuation might well have gone down, had it been making more money, just as TechCrunch's Michael Arrington astutely argues could happen with Twitter. Sales provide a measurable, tangible valuation. Developer traction creates an amorphous, strategic value.

Hence, while IT operations is the crux of making sales in open source, it might well be that open-source companies should focus on community development and avoid making too much money so that they can maintain a healthy valuation. But not too healthy: there isn't an incredible amount of IT vendors that can swallow $1 billion acquisitions, the IPO era seems to be over.

Is this the new open-source entrepreneur's dilemma?

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

The tech world is all too familiar with Twitter's "fail whale" and have become accustomed to Gmail failures (which are inevitably chronicled on Twitter.) And while sometimes it's infrastructure (such as routers and switches) rather than software that fails, it often seems as if we too readily accept that software will inevitably breakdown.

Mark Donsky, director of product management at Coverity, commented recently about a recent static analysis of open-source projects performed on the Scan site that showed a 71.9 percent correlation between the number of lines of code and number of defects found.

This is of course, not an open-source problem but a general issue that occurs as more code is integrated into products. I've been told that Windows is developed with two quality assurance people to every engineer as the product has grown over the years.

Coverity is focused on software integrity and advocates static analysis early in the development cycle. While testing of all kinds, including static analysis are obviously good ideas, the tools and methods vary dramatically by engineering organization. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University and the Object Management Group (OMG) recently paired up to form a consortium to establish standards for software quality.

... Read more

Globalfoundries has named former Cypress Semiconductor executive Jim Kupec to its top marketing position, as the newly established company begins to assemble its executive team.

Globalfoundries is the chip manufacturing company recently formed by a joint venture between Advanced Micro Devices and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

Kupec spent 15 years with Cypress Semiconductor, rising through a variety of engineering, operations, and management positions to the role of senior vice president, according to a statement from Globalfoundries.

After leaving Cypress, Kupec became president of United Microelectronics Co. (UMC) USA. Taiwan-based UMC is one of the largest contract chip manufacturers in the world and competes with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Globalfoundries will compete with both of these companies for customers.

Most recently, Kupec served as chief operating officer of eSilicon, an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) design and manufacturing services company.

"The addition of Jim's extensive foundry experience, on both the supplier and customer side of the business, underscores our commitment to building a world-class global foundry services provider," said Doug Grose, CEO of Globalfoundries, in a statement.

Intel is accused of monopolistic business practices pretty much all of the time. So much so that the big bully boilerplate isn't worth repeating.

The latest reports of charges against Intel are interesting because of the timing. According to this March 10 headline, the Korean Fair Trade Commission has ruled against Intel. That would be news if it hadn't been news eight months ago. Here's an English-language summation of the case that was news in June 2008. (CNET News report here.)

Not that all complaints about Intel business practices are unfounded. Certainly not. But how many times do we have to hear the "news" that Intel leveraged its market position to finesse a deal? (Answer: ad nauseam.) In this case, the American Antitrust Institute selectively translated text from an old 133-page report to show that Intel coerced Samsung (and others) into using Intel chips instead of those from Advanced Micro Devices.

Again, worth putting out there eight months ago but probably not today.

And let's remember that, of course, Nvidia and AMD never do this in the graphics chip market when they're trying to reel in a customer. No enticements, no sweeteners to close the deal. Absolutely not. Perish the thought.

But I shouldn't rush too quickly to Intel's defense. There will be plenty of real news related to Intel's market dominance in the coming years. The intensified focus now on Intel's business practices is happening against the backdrop of the severe financial straits of its sole competitor. No one wants to see AMD go away. (No stronger advocate of this than AMD itself.)

That said, the question should always be asked: is it really unfair competition or is it merely unfair as Intel's less-successful rival sees it? The grumblings I most often hear about are MDF and bundling. Different parties' interpretations of Intel business practices (real or imagined) connected to Market Development Funds and bundling are too varied and too byzantine to cover here. But that two-second Intel jingle at the end of a Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Sony TV commercial can have, for AMD, an ominous ring to it.

All of the above gets (very) complicated because of Intel's dominant market position. One question is, where does MDF end and alleged brass-knuckles, restrictive bundling begin?

"So, Mr. Computer Maker, want some peppier graphics in that Netbook? We got this thing called the GN40...So you might want to reconsider that Ion thing." Nvidia may have a point here. But are they being out-bundled or simply out-maneuvered by Intel? You decide.

Production isn't the only thing being scaled back at Intel because of the world economy. The world's largest chipmaker will cancel its developer conference in Taiwan this year and scale back the one in Beijing.

The Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan typically takes place in October, while China IDF is in April. The IDF in the United States in September will not be affected, Intel said Monday. The Beijing IDF will be shortened to a one-day event. It is typically two days.

Intel uses the IDF to launch many of its products and technologies.

"It's the economy," said David Dickstein, an Intel spokesman. "The reaction we've gotten from exhibitors and sponsors when we told them about the scale-back in Beijing and cancellation of Taiwan, actually was overwhelmingly positive. They're saying it helps with their bottom line."

Attendance will fall dramatically in Beijing. "Before we would bring more than 100 international press to the event. But now the event is really geared toward the local community. We're looking at under 1,000 attendees instead of 5,000 plus," he said. Dickstein said he is working on ways to bring Beijing IDF to the world. "We're looking at a virtual conference," he said.

Both forums are slated to resume again in 2010, he said. So, this is a one-time action.

This was reported earlier at DigiTimes.