Intel CES 2020 Keynote Live Blog: Ice, Comets, and Tigers To Come

06:51PM EST - We're here at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for Intel's CES 2020 keynote

06:51PM EST - Intel always makes their CES presentations exciting affairs, and we're expecting much the same this year.

06:51PM EST - However there is no escaping the big question that Intel must face: how do you keep products fresh and competitive when the company's 10nm fab plans have gone well off course?


06:58PM EST - As we wait for the keynote to start, it's interesting to note how much CES keynotes have changed in the last few years

06:59PM EST - The "prime" keynote, which Intel has delivered before, is gone

06:59PM EST - In its place are a number of official, corporate keynotes

07:00PM EST - These don't carry quite the same prestige as the "prime" keynote. But they're also mercifully shorter: most of them are just 45 minutes

07:01PM EST - As for Intel, they have already shown at least part of their hand for 2020, with last night's embargoed news: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15313/intel-at-ces-2020-45w-10th-gen-mobile-cpus-soon-tiger-lake-with-xe-graphics-later

07:01PM EST - 45W Comet Lake-H CPUs to bring more power to larger, desktop replacement laptops

07:02PM EST - And Tiger Lake farther down the line

07:02PM EST - Alright, here we go!

07:03PM EST - As is usually the case, Intel is starting things off by rolling a video

07:03PM EST - Focusing on "digital intelligence"

07:04PM EST - Now on stage: CEO Bob Swan

07:05PM EST - "Innovation through intelligence" and how Intel and its ecosystem partners can make this happen

07:06PM EST - "In 2019 there were 38B devices connected to the network"

07:07PM EST - This is expected to reach 56B in 2025

07:08PM EST - And with the growth of devices is growth in the amount of data produced. An exponential growth

07:10PM EST - And pretty much all of this data needs to be processed in some way to be useful

07:10PM EST - So systems are needed to process data, store that data, and move it around to other places

07:11PM EST - To get there, we'll need 5G networks, AI, and intelligent edge devices

07:12PM EST - These are not independent developments; each drives the other two

07:12PM EST - "How do we embed intellience into everything we make?"

07:13PM EST - Intel is investing in all 3 of these pillars to get there

07:14PM EST - Now on to transportation, and how computing can improve it

07:14PM EST - Recapping Intel's MobilEye acquisition

07:16PM EST - Playing a video showing a MobilEye car in action in Jerusalem (a very tricky place to drive)

07:17PM EST - Next example: applying intelligence in disaster relief

07:19PM EST - Rolling a video about working with the Red Cross to help digitize maps, based off satellite images

07:20PM EST - AI can do it in the fraction of a time as a human identifying and marking roads and bridges

07:21PM EST - Now on stage: Navin Shenoy, EVP and GM of the Data Platforms Group

07:22PM EST - Discussing the "data economy" and how it's transforming businesses

07:23PM EST - One only has to look as far as streaming, and what it did to both video rentals and internet traffic as a whole

07:24PM EST - Navin thinks video will be the killer app for years to come

07:24PM EST - Joining Navin on stage: Anne Aaron, Netflix's Director of Encoding Technologies

07:24PM EST - Both Netflix and Intel have been big supporters of the work-in-progress AV1 codec

07:26PM EST - Better codecs lead to better image quality at lower bitrates, improving the user experience

07:28PM EST - Intel and Netflix have SVT-AV1 ready for commercial deployment. Meaning AV1 streaming to customers is going to happen this year

07:28PM EST - Moving on to Intel's neural network processing hardware

07:29PM EST - The Nervana NNP-I inference accelerator is launching this year

07:30PM EST - Meanwhile Intel has also acquired Habana, and will be usiong their tech in new ways as well

07:30PM EST - "More AI technology runs on Xeon than any other platform"

07:30PM EST - Recapping Intel Deep Learning Boost

07:31PM EST - The 2nd gen Xeon scalable is the fastest ramping Xeon in Intel's history

07:31PM EST - And the 3rd gen Xeon, due this year, will provide even more performance

07:32PM EST - Shifting gears to athlete tracking: 3DAT

07:33PM EST - Intel is preparing the tech for the 2020 Summer Olympics

07:33PM EST - Now on stage: Ashton Eaton, 2x Olympic Decathlon gold medalist

07:35PM EST - He's an Intel employee too

07:35PM EST - The US Olympic Team is using 3DAT to analyze their performance

07:38PM EST - Now on stage: James Carwana, VP and GM, Intel Sports

07:39PM EST - Discussing how technology has changed how content and information are delivered to viewers

07:39PM EST - Starting, of course, with Intel's volumetric video technology

07:40PM EST - Intel has continued to iterate on the technology, improving speed and quality

07:41PM EST - The goal is to do it all in real time, and to do it with a high degree of quality

07:41PM EST - Right now Intel is half-way there: 30fps with a medium degree of quality

07:42PM EST - The raw cameras produce 67GB/sec of data

07:44PM EST - Demoing recent work in volumetric video in football

07:45PM EST - It's quite competent, but there are still artifacts

07:45PM EST - Intel needs 6x more computing power, along with better camera resolutions, to reach its goals

07:45PM EST - Now on stage: Gregory Bryamt, EVP and GM of the client computing group

07:47PM EST - Rolling a quick promo video

07:47PM EST - "Advancing PC experiences from the inside out"

07:47PM EST - Recapping Intel's Project Athena

07:48PM EST - Intel has now verified 25 Project Athena devices

07:48PM EST - Both consumer and commercial devices

07:50PM EST - Quickly showing off a couple of examples, such as the Acer Swift 3 and HP Elite Dragonfly

07:50PM EST - ~50 new Athena devices planned for 2020

07:51PM EST - Intel is partnering with Google for Athena Chromebooks as well

07:51PM EST - The first one is the ASUS FlipBook, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook

07:51PM EST - These are very high end Chromebooks, to say the least

07:52PM EST - "Where do we go from here?"

07:52PM EST - Highlighting connectivty and form factor

07:52PM EST - Intel is going to extend 5G support into PCs, as part of their new MediaTek partnership

07:52PM EST - Samples to customers in Q3 of this year

07:53PM EST - Intel has released a new Athena specification for dual screen devices

07:53PM EST - Now on stage: Christian Teismann, President of Commercial PC and Smart Device Business for Lenovo

07:54PM EST - Announcing the first foldable PC

07:54PM EST - A "full performance" device based on Intel Core hybrid technology

07:55PM EST - Able to use it as a single large tablet or a smaller dual screen tablet

07:55PM EST - ThinkPad X1 Fold

07:56PM EST - Now showing off a Dell prototype

07:57PM EST - Folds like a clamshell laptop

07:57PM EST - Concept platform name: "Horseshoe Bend"

07:58PM EST - Showing off an even larger (17-inch) foldable

07:58PM EST - Showing off dual screen and full screen modes

07:59PM EST - One of these would make a really good monitor for portable system testing...

07:59PM EST - Shifting gears to Ice Lake and AI

08:00PM EST - Now on stage: Jason Levine, Principal Worldwide Evangelist for Adobe

08:02PM EST - Demoing, among other things, using AI techniques to quickly remove image backgrounds in Photoshop

08:04PM EST - And demoing Premiere auto reframe, very intensely

08:04PM EST - Now on to chips

08:05PM EST - Intel's next Core based-processors: Tiger Lake

08:05PM EST - Rolling a promo video

08:05PM EST - Intel Xe graphics, Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6

08:06PM EST - Gregory has a Tiger Lake chip and a sample board in his hand

08:06PM EST - Tiger Lake was also in the Horseshoe Bend prototype

08:06PM EST - "Tiger Lake: Mobility Redefined"

08:07PM EST - Now on stage; Lisa Pearce, VP of Intel Architecture, Graphics

08:07PM EST - Tiger Lake is "One of the first products with our Xe graphics architecture"

08:08PM EST - Demoing a thin and light Quanta system running Tiger Lake for gaming

08:09PM EST - Also demoing AI acceleration for image processing

08:09PM EST - Double digit performance gen-on-gen

08:09PM EST - 10nm+ CPU core architecture, coming this year

08:10PM EST - Lisa is also announcing that Intel's DG1 discrete GPU is up and running

08:10PM EST - First Discrete GPU for the client

08:10PM EST - Quickly showing it up and running a game as a demo

08:11PM EST - And that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us