Inside Intel's Commitment To Advancing The PC With Project Athena

Computex is a massive Information and Communication Technology event with over 1,600 exhibitors and 5,500 individual booths, at which companies from around the globe showcase their latest wares and outline their visions for the future. In addition to Internet of Things (IoT) and consumer electronics manufacturers, virtually everyone involved in the PC ecosystem has a presence as well, from big name chipmakers like Intel to small, specialized peripheral OEMs.

This year, Computex is slated to begin on May 28. The show kicks off with a large, international press conference and keynote speeches from industry stalwarts including Intel and AMD. With Computex rapidly approaching, I had the chance to sit down and chat with one of the keynote speakers, Gregory M. Bryant, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation, to discuss some of the company’s plans for the show.

Intel has plans to reveal a myriad of hardware and software technologies at Computex and will divulge additional details regarding a few programs that are already underway. For actual product specifics, we’ll all have to wait to hear what Gregory -- who also goes by G.B. -- has to say during his keynote address. The theme of his keynote is “Powering Every Person’s Greatest Contribution, Together,” and G.B.’s aim is to explain how Intel and its industry partners will transform computing moving forward.

“One of the things we’ve learned over the years is that a great PC experience means different things to different people, from gamers to content creators to office workers. Understanding what real world experience will be most meaningful to these very diverse audiences – and then bringing that precise experience to life – requires a much deeper level of innovation. One that goes beyond the CPU and extends across the entire platform. This is where you see us focusing. We want to give our partners everything they need to create incredible and differentiated PCs, purpose-built to what real people want”, said Bryant.

Much of our conversation revolved around Project Athena. Intel revealed Project Athena at CES earlier this year and just a few weeks ago announced the Project Athena Open Labs, which are located in Taipei, Shanghai, and Folsom, California, and are slated to begin operation next month. For those unfamiliar with it, Project Athena is an innovation program Intel has put forward, in collaboration with a number of key partners, that’s designed to usher in a new breed of advanced mobile devices. The overarching goal of Project Athena is to enhance the performance, battery life, connectivity, form factors and ultimately the PC user experience, with next-generation notebooks/laptops and Chromebooks.

Upcoming devices that are part of the Project Athena program will leverage forward-looking technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), and Intel’s forthcoming family of low-power mobile processors. Project Athena defines a set of specifications and platform requirements, which will likely be updated annually. And as part of the program, Intel will collaborate closely with key ecosystem partners to accelerate component development and ensure availability. Project Athena also features a verification process, complete with newly-defined, real-world benchmarking targets, to certify devices as compliant with the project’s goals.

Project Athena has a number of key pillars that are “rooted in human understanding”, according to Intel. Project Athena devices must be ready to use at a moment’s notice – fast boot and wake-from-sleep times, and connected standby, are of paramount importance, so users aren’t waiting to access the system and get connected. Systems must consistently offer high performance and responsiveness, whether plugged in or operating on battery power. They must also offer a “worry-free” day of battery life. And they’ll leverage artificial intelligence to proactively assist users in various ways and optimize the systems. The overall designs and form factor must not impede or deter the users’ focus either, so expect sleek machines, with minimal screen bezels, quality displays and input devices, and premium materials throughout.

The first Project Athena devices are slated to arrive later in the second half of this year, with systems for both Microsoft Windows and Google’s Chrome operating systems. About the first wave of systems, G.B. noted, “It’s going to be a multi-year journey, but you will start to see the first devices later this year. These will be a great first step, but what will be really incredible is what our partners will be able to do in one year or even two. We’re just now scratching the surface of what’s possible in terms of new form factors and experiences.”

Initiatives like Intel’s Project Athena don’t typically generate much enthusiasm with mainstream consumers – initially, at least. When the Ultrabook specification was first revealed, for many it simply seemed like a straightforward move by Intel to offer specific guidance to its notebooks partners, to aid in the design of new machines. Of course that is partially what the specification did, but it also allowed Intel to infuse partners working on new technologies in the space with additional capital and engineering resources, and ultimately it pushed the entire PC notebook market forward. If you were to compare a sample of the most popular notebooks from before the Ultrabook era to today, in terms of quality, usability, battery life, form factor, and performance, there is simply no comparison. Today’s machines are better or more attractive in virtually every way, from the quality of their materials, to their screens, and input devices. Today’s machines offer significantly better performance and battery life as well and their industrial designs are much more appealing. The differences between notebooks from before the Ultrabook era and today is stark. Intel hopes Project Athena will have a similar impact.

Next-generation technologies like 5G connectivity and AI will be harnessed by Project Athena devices. Once proper 5G networks have been rolled out, a low-latency, high-bandwidth wireless pipe to the internet will allow people to remain untethered with minimal connectivity compromises. A number of AI’s uses are still being invented, and some will be revealed at Computex. “People often think about AI in terms of applications, but that’s only part of it. The magic is also in how we can build AI into the hardware and software to improve the entire PC experience. Imagine intelligent videoconferencing capabilities that make it super-easy to connect. Or, meaningful improvements in battery life because the system dynamically adjusts to give you as many hours as possible. The possibilities are endless, which is why we are so excited to bring AI to the PC ecosystem at scale”, said Bryant.

A large, multi-year collaborative focus on the PC’s future may seem out of place in light of some of Intel’s recent messaging. Intel’s previous CEO, Bryan Krzanich, had stated that he no longer considered Intel a CPU company, but rather a data company. Intel is also a leader in a number of other categories – like memory and storage to name just two – but processors are the company’s core competency. Despite the recent ups and downs in the PC space, the fact remains that hundreds of millions of systems are still being sold and the form factors and types of systems that will fall under the Project Athena umbrella are still growth segments. Intel’s new CEO, Bob Swan, had this to say on the subject, “As we transform to a data-centric company, we’re redefining again what Intel inside a PC means - beyond the CPU - with capabilities like Optane memory, connectivity, graphics and software. Project Athena shows just how much differentiated value we can deliver for customers and will accelerate the pace of PC innovation at scale.”

The next couple of years are going to be pivotal for Intel. The company has already revealed its latest generation of big-iron server and workstation Xeon processors and Optane memory devices, next-generation 10nm mobile and desktop processors are on the way soon, and we can’t forget the company’s impending discrete GPU plans, which should make some waves in 2020. With deep collaboration across the entire PC ecosystem and a top to bottom line-up of new processors, GPUs, memory, storage, and wireless technologies, the PCs of tomorrow may look very different than what we’re used to today.