ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
From virtual reality to artificial intelligence to 5G and beyond – this week’s Intel Developer Forum showcases technology innovation with the power to transform lives like never before. We are seeing greater opportunities for – and the results of – developers engaged in exciting new levels of industry cross-collaboration.
Today, Intel executives Murthy Renduchintala and Diane Bryant share more developments in technologies and trends that will shape our smarter, more connected future.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Artificial Intelligence Gets a Boost: We are clearly in the age of data. When, by 2020, we begin connecting the more than 50 billion machines and devices out there we will see the amount of data generated increase by orders of magnitude beyond what we experience today. In fact, connected cars will generate 4 terabytes per day and a connected factory can create more than 1 petabyte per day. For perspective, an MP3 player with one pet byte of songs would play continuously for 2,000 years1.
However, data by itself has limited value. When we apply advanced analytics to empower machines with human-like intelligence, we can effect real change. This is where artificial intelligence becomes really exciting. Whether it’s a highly personalized treatment plan for a cancer patient or improved crop yields for feeding the world, gaining deeper insights from this complex data is the key to unlocking more value for businesses and societies.
To help make this a reality, Intel disclosed the next generation of the Intel Xeon Phi processor family (code named Knights Mill), which is focused on high-performance machine learning and artificial intelligence. Knights Mill, expected to be available in 2017, is optimized for scale-out analytics implementations, and will include key enhancements for deep learning training. For today’s machine learning applications, the large memory size of the Intel Xeon Phi processor family helps customers like Baidu make it easier to train their models efficiently.
Of course moving all of this data in and among data centers will be critical. Intel announced that its first Intel® Silicon Photonics 100G optical transceivers are now commercially available. This critical advancement allows enterprises and cloud service providers to use the power of light to move large amounts of information at 100 gigabit-per-second over distances of up to several kilometers over fiber-optic links.
Silicon Photonics is a combination of two of the most important inventions of the 20th century: the silicon integrated circuit and the semiconductor laser. With this combination, light has been integrated onto Intel’s silicon platform. It takes advantage of the bandwidth and reach of optical connectivity on the scale and technology capability of silicon. Check out the Intel Lights up Silicon blog for more details.
5G Will Be Foundational: Three factors will characterize the evolution of technology required for a truly smart and connected world.
First, computing will be everywhere and in everything. More than 50 billion things and devices are expected to be connected by 2020, in addition to more than 200 billion connected sensors – all generating massive volumes of data.
The second factor shaping the future of technology – compute, analytics and storage capabilities distributed into the fabric of the network – turns connected things and data into meaningful insight for making faster, better informed decisions much closer to the edge device. For instance, in just milliseconds two autonomous vehicles will be able to sense a collision and communicate directly with each other to prevent an accident. First responders will use data and insight from the sensors embedded in their uniforms and in the environment around them to fight fires more efficiently and help save more lives.
Pervasive connectivity between the things, through the network and to the cloud is the third factor shaping the future of technology. Intel is laying the groundwork for a smarter and more connected world with 5G technologies. 5G is the next generation wireless network built to unleash the potential of the billions of things and devices and the data they will generate for amazing new experiences. 5G connectivity will be foundational to linking everything that is around us and continually feed the virtuous cycle of growth for the industry.
To build this foundation we need faster, more efficient and intelligent networks. Intel is uniquely positioned to power 5G end-to-end with solutions from the device to the network and cloud, as well as to enable meaningful collaboration with cross-industry leaders – from device manufacturers to equipment makers to network operators.
AT&T Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan took the IDF stage to discuss the transformation of the network and services delivery and the importance of long-term planning, early technology enabling, deep architectural collaboration, validation and optimizations. To get there, AT&T is already using server, cloud and virtualization technologies to more quickly and cost-efficiently deliver more value to its customers. Through an expanded collaboration with Intel, AT&T will continue to accelerate its development, deployment and monetization of new services in the cloud and throughout its infrastructure, laying the foundation for delivering cutting-edge capabilities. This is a great example of the type of collaborative approach Intel and the industry will need to help create a 5G-enabled world.
The interconnectedness of the three factors will be the game changer in the next era of computing. It is not only already reshaping how we, as an industry, design, develop and build – but also how we partner and with whom. It is a true illustration of the idea that the future is what we make together.