Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws that nearly affect all computing devices put chip makers especially Intel in the spotlight. These flaws put a deep dent in Intel’s reputations a few days to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). But at the CES Intel’s keynote, Brian Krzanich, Intel’s CEO addressed this issue and gave the world good news. Stating at the event, Krzanich said that 90% of their processors and products from the past five years would receive patches within a week. The remaining percentage will receive updates by the of January. “Want to thank the industry for coming together to address the recent security research findings reported as Meltdown and Spectre,” Krzanich further added, calling the response to the issues a “collaboration among so many companies.”
Like said earlier, the CEO also insisted that performance won’t be impacted by the updates. “We believe the performance impact of these updates is highly workload dependent,” though that “some workloads may experience a larger impact than others, so we’ll continue working with the industry to minimize the impact on those workloads over time,” Krzanich said. As of now, no one has exploited the vulnerabilities. “We have not received any information that these exploits have been used to obtain customer data, Krzanich further added. “We’re working tirelessly on these issues to ensure it stays that way.”
At the Intel keynote, the CEO thanked the industry for coming together to address the flaws. “Security is job number one for Intel and our industry, so the primary focus of our decisions and discussions have been to keep our customer’s data safe,” he further added stating that users should apply the updates as soon as they become available to protect themselves against hackers. Geoff Blaber, an analyst from CSS insight who was present at the keynote also noted that the problem was not for intel only. In terms of response, “At least Intel and others have been able to respond in a reasonably efficient manner,” said Blaber.
After addressing the security issue in their CPUs, Intel revealed its new products at the keynote. Here is a preview of their significant technological breakthroughs.
Among its breakthrough, is a 49-qubit quantum chip that Intel intends to use to advance quantum computing, although Intel didn’t disclose when the chip will be ready, it stated what it could do. For instance, the chip can help in pushing the boundaries of quantum computing and can be used in advanced simulations, modeling chemical interactions as quantum accelerates the process and easily beat supercomputers. Intel is also testing other advanced computing systems such as Loihi; a neuromorphic computing system that uses Artificial Intelligence. The CEO said that Loihi is already performing simple object recognition and in the coming year it will put Loihi out to explore use cases.
The other unveiled technology is Intel True VR solution. Krzanich said that this tech would provide the largest ever VR experience in the coming Olympic games across 30 events; both live and on-demand. To achieve this, the tech will utilize multiple 360-degree cameras placed strategically along the playing field. Users will also be able to choose different viewing angles. True VR solution will further provide an immersive media viewing experience in the NFL; this too is done by placing cameras in player’s helmets; users will get different viewing perspectives. Apart from sports, Intel also unveiled Volex, volumetric pixel, a transition from 2D to 3D. Voxel can be applied in content creation such as in movies where viewers can be actors. A scene can also be viewed via different angles. To seal this deal, Intel announced an exploratory partnership with Paramount Pictures. Jim Gianopulos, the Paramount Picture’s chair also said such tech is the key to our future in creating a new form of entertainment.
Intel continued to unveil other series of their tech advancements that places them on top of the game.
