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Watch Intel’s CES 2019 press conference in 9 minutes

Watch Intel’s CES 2019 press conference in 9 minutes

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Banging that 10nm drum

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Intel faces a fight for its future, as we reported in June. That’s when company CEO Brian Krzanich resigned, and that’s when it became crystal-clear just how much work it would take for the processor giant to claw its way back to everyday relevance — particularly considering that even its core processor business had been struggling to turn out batches of continually smaller, more efficient CPUs, after delaying its 10nm parts several times in a row.

Here at CES is Las Vegas, the company didn’t have an awful lot to announce that’d excite everyday folks, but if you’re watching Intel because you’re interested in the company’s chances of turning it all around, you might want to check out our 9-minute video highlighting the main things Intel announced during its CES 2019 keynote.

Those include:

  • A limited number of new 9th Gen Core processors for desktops and laptops
  • Intel’s first 10nm Ice Lake processor for thin laptops, which Intel showed pulling up pictures of water 1.5 times faster than before (you can’t make this stuff up)
  • Intel’s first 10nm Lakefield processor using 3D stacking technology, for very small computers, tablets — you can see a couple actual Lakefield prototype systems running in the video
  • Intel’s 10nm Cascade Lake Xeon processor for data processing
  • Intel’s 3D Athlete Tracking tech to show you data about how fast and far athletes are traveling, running on that Cascade Lake chip
  • Intel’s 10nm Snow Ridge SOC for 5G base stations (it’s hoping to put these in cell towers)

(We also heard a little about Intel’s Project Athena via press release, though the actual press conference seemed to accidentally skip over that part.)

The message Intel’s trying to drive home here is that it does have 10nm processors now, and it’s actively pursuing different market opportunities for those processors than the standard laptops and desktops it’s relied on for so long to meet many of its financial goals.

But as long as it doesn’t have 10nm parts in devices that people can run out and buy — as long as the Intel processors in your laptop and desktop fail to get notably faster year over year, and you stop upgrading because they’re good enough now — Intel will still have a problem matching its previous levels of relevance.

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