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Intel?s CES 2010 Keynote Part 1

by on08 January 2010

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CES 2010: Moore’s Law and the emergence of 3D content

We have officially been through the first full day of CES 2010 and the atmosphere had only begun to light up with exciting new technologies from many top name industry-driving corporations. Intel CEO Paul Otellini just finished his keynote a few hours ago, amassing an audience of over 5,000 happy faces excited to see emerging trends from the blue giant and its goals for 2010 in the consumer technology space.

This year, the keynote was primarily focused on the effectiveness of Moore’s Law and its continuation to provide leverage for a new era in computing.  At the same time, Otellini pointed out the emergence of 3D content as the biggest technology push of 2010, and we couldn’t agree more. It seems as if every chipmaker and visual content provider in the IT and entertainment industries is convinced that the technology will be adopted this year.“

HD has been the driver of the industry for the last few years,” said Otellini. From 2007 – 2009, HDTV sales have grown over two times. The next thing poised to explode in the home is 3D HDTV. [In fact], the 2010 World Cup will be recorded and broadcasted in 3D.”

He went on to explain the significance of increasingly more computational power required to make and manage high definition content. In particular, he referred to the computational power required to create the animations in the Shrek film series. For instance, the third installment in the series took 20 million hours to render and four times the computing time as the first one. The fourth installment, releasing this May, required 40 million hours to render and 9 times the computational power as the first film.

The keynote then shifted to the emergence of user-created 3D content made right at home. “In the past, broad audiences only saw pre-rendered distributed content. Now, everyone sees home-created content. The content that is being shared on the internet is becoming increasingly richer. [As a result], we see 3D moving from the studios to the home, and we’re supplying the computing power to make that happen.”

But to have stereoscopic 3D content, two high definition video streams are required for output – one for each eye. The demonstrations were, of course, computed on an Intel Core i7 processor. One thing we must point out is that from our position in the audience about four rows back, the 3D content coming from the Mitsubishi 3D HDTV looked rather fugly and holographic. In no way did the demonstration compare to the stereoscopic 3D experience that Nvidia alternatively provides with active shutter 3D glasses. That isn’t to say that we are a fan of either technology, but we believe that second generation devices should produce much more natural-looking 3D content.

In perspective it’s hard to justify recommending a purchase on 3D displays in 2010, at least in the first half of the year. Intel expects the technology to gradually infiltrate the portable PC market as well and insists that any Core processor manufactured in 2010 and beyond will be adequate enough to run it. All in all, we are looking forward to an interesting battle ahead with Nvidia as both visual processing giants compete for dominance in the new 3D market space.

Coverage continued in Intel’s CES Keynote Part 2

Last modified on 08 January 2010
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