'Intel Inside' moves outside the PC, and fast

When Intel sold off its networking processor group to Marvell three years ago, some said Intel was letting go of its dream of connecting the planet's media devices. Wrong.

While Intel has been in the process of achieving Master of the Universe status over AMD for PC chips since last summer, it has also been taking steps to conquer the more mundane -- but potentially overwhelmingly profitable -- areas of industrial computing and consumer electronics devices.

Last July, Intel announced the EP80579, a system-on-a-chip intended for small-to-medium business (SMB) and enterprise security and communications appliances (including VPN/firewall and unified threat management), transaction terminals, interactive clients, print and imaging applications, wireless and WiMAX access applications, SMB and home network attached storage, converged IP PBX solutions, converged access platforms, IP media servers, VoIP gateways and industrial automation applications.

In other words, potentially zillions of anonymous little boxes that some vendors might end up selling by the carload.

As an example: Last month, iBase Technology Inc. launched a vehicle computer platform, model ECX SBC, based on the chip. The system is targeted at embedded storage, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and in-vehicle communications and security applications. It is intended for mobile Internet devices that require better and longer Internet connectivity -- making it a GPS navigator, mobile DVR, car black box and automatic vehicle location (AVL) device in one.

Another is Advantech's FWA-2310E, a converged application platform (CAP) that provides telephony, video and data capabilities required by Network Equipment Manufacturers and Integrators to address the growing needs of service providers and enterprise users alike.

But the EP80579 doesn't compare to the success of the Intel CE 3100, which the company announced last August. The CE 3100 was developed for Internet-connected consumer electronics products such as optical media players, connected CE devices, advanced cable set-top boxes, and digital TVs. The chip includes high-definition video support, home-theater quality audio and advanced 3-D graphics. Basically, it allows CE manufacturers to connect directly to the Internet, sometimes avoiding a set-top box setup altogether.

And that thing is everywhere at CES this year. Intel partnered with Yahoo to develop The Widget Channel, a TV applications framework. And while most of the vendors who've announced "widget" support thus far -- including Samsung, LG Electronics, and Sony -- aren't yet using the Intel chips (though Samsung said it would in the future), other vendors such as Toshiba are. Other vendors are expected to leap on the "widget" bandwagon -- which, not incidentally, is helping Yahoo's fortunes as well.

Even content providers such as ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney were plugging the CE 3100.

But what really got people's attention was a deal Intel announced with Adobe to embed Flash video processing in the CE 3100. That means easy encoding of video that's already out there on the Web, delivering Web content and Adobe Flash based applications to an array of Internet-connected CE devices such as cable set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, digital TVs and retail connected AV devices.

The first CE 3100 with embedded Adobe Flash processing is due out in the middle of next year -- and after that, let's see what the applications developers can do with it.