Intel push Core 2011 chips for entertainment; Intel Insider 1080p HD movie store
Intel made its Sandy Bridge based 2011 Core i3, i5 and i7 processors official earlier this week, but it's still making a song & dance about them at CES 2011 today. More than 500 desktop and laptop PCs using the chips are expected to debut in 2011, with features like Intel Quick Sync Video – for speedy transcoding – and WiDi 2.0. Meanwhile there's also Intel Insider, a hardware feature of the chips for purchasing and renting 1080p HD movies on their PC.
Intel Insider will see content from CinemaNow, Sonic Solutions, Dixons Retail, WBShop, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and others, as well as Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Image Entertainment, Yash Raj Films and UTV Motion Pictures. It's not a DRM system, but a copy-protected transfer system, Intel tells us.
The first 2nd-gen Intel Core 2011 quadcore based systems will go on sale from January 9 2011.
Press Release:
Intel Brings 'Eye Candy' to Masses with Newest Laptop, PC ChipsIntel® Core™ Processor Features Create New Visual Experience, Lifestyle
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
• Introduces much anticipated, game-changing 2nd Generation Intel Core processors. Adds a number of visually stunning features built right into the chips through processor graphics.
• Includes surprising and exciting new features such as, Intel® Quick Sync Video, Intel® HD Graphics, Intel® Wireless Display 2.0, and Intel® Insider™ including collaborations with CinemaNow*, Dixons Retail plc*, Hungama* Digital Media Entertainment, Image Entertainment*, Sonic Solutions*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution*.
• These processors offer amazing video technology. Intel® Quick Sync can convert a four- minute HD video file on a laptop to play on an iPod in only 16 secondsii, while Intel® Insider™ enables full HD movie downloading and viewing on a PC screen or beaming it from a notebook to an HDTV using Intel WiDi 2.0.
• 20 new processors, new chipsets and new wireless chips including new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 6 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® WiFi and WiMAX adapters will power more than 500 new PC systems.
INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2011 – With more than 1 million computers selling each day, Intel Corporation introduced its game-changing 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family today at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Intel highlighted several surprising new features, services and partnerships that combine to deliver an entirely new visual experience with processor graphics built in. More than 500 desktop and laptop PCs are expected from all major OEMs worldwide throughout the next year.
New features include Intel® Insider™, Intel® Quick Sync Video, and a new version of the company's award-winning Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi), which now adds 1080p HD and content protection for those wishing to beam premium HD content from their laptop screen to their TV. The company also revealed working with CinemaNow*, Dixons Retail plc*, Hungama* Digital Media Entertainment, Image Entertainment*, Sonic Solutions*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment*, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution*.
"The new 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors represent the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any other previous generation," said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, PC Client Group, Intel. "The built-in visual capabilities enabled by these new processors are stunning. This, combined with improved adaptive performance, will revolutionize the PC experience in a way that is obvious for every user to see and appreciate – visibly smarter performance."
New Visual Experience for Today's Lifestyles
The 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family is the first "visibly smart" microarchitecture to combine visual and 3-D graphics technology with performance-leading microprocessors on a single chip. Incorporating the newly architected Intel® HD Graphics on each 32nm die enables significant graphics performance improvements over previous-generation graphics for both HD media processing and mainstream gaming. The chips improve performance and yet still offer great battery life and the ability to design thinner, lighter and more innovative laptops and all-in-one PCs.
New processor graphics technology will focus on the areas where most people are computing today: high-definition (HD) video, photos, mainstream gaming, multi-tasking and online socializing and multimedia. Enhanced visual technologies such as next-generation Intel® HD graphics are built into every 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor. For consumers, this means a dramatically improved PC experience, with better overall power management, greater efficiency and great battery life.
Additionally, a surprise new feature of the next-generation PC and laptop processors, Intel® Insider™, will give consumers access to movies on their PCs in full high-definition that were not available before. To explain the importance of this feature, Eden invited Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Home Entertainment Group president on stage.
Tsujihara explained, "Warner Bros. sees the PC as one of the most broadly available and versatile platforms for delivering premium digital entertainment, and now that Intel has made it more secure, we're able to provide new releases and popular catalog titles in full HD to the PC through our WBShop* storefront and from partners like CinemaNow* on the same day as DVD and Blu-ray* releases."
Eden used a clip from the feature film "Inception"* from Warner Bros.* and demonstrated how easy it would be to get the movie from CinemaNow* and watch it in full HD on a laptop.
In collaboration with Hollywood and Bollywood studios along with leading content distributors such as CinemaNow*, Dixons Retail plc*, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment*, Image Entertainment*, Sonic Solutions*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment*, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution* and others, Intel creates a protected environment for the distribution, storage and playback of premium content. This enables content owners and video services to release more movies in high definition. Commercial distribution of HD premium content using the Intel® Insider™ technology is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2011.
Building upon this Intel® Insider™ innovation, Eden then showed how consumers can now also use Intel® WiDi 2.0 to beam content such as the "Inception" film to their big- screen HDTVs. Additional Intel® WiDi 2.0 improvements include support for 1080pHD as well as protected content either streaming from the Internet or played locally from a Blu-ray or DVD playeriii.
Another unique element of the visual experience built into the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family is Intel® Quick Sync Video. This built-in hardware acceleration takes the wait out of editing and sharing videos with astonishing performance that completes in minutes what used to take hours. Now faster than ever, consumers can edit, convert and share videos with friends and family. Intel estimated that a 4-minute HD video that used to take 4 minutes to convert to play on an iPod* would now take just 16 secondsii.
The power of the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors for immersive mainstream gaming was demonstrated with a teaser from Valve's* Portal 2*, one of the most anticipated game releases of 2011. Eden did the demonstration with precision Hydra motion controllers from Razer* using Sixense* MotionTouch* technology.
Smart Performance, Energy Efficiency and Intelligence Merge
The Intel® Core™ i3, i5 and i7 processors also include the enhanced Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. This feature automatically reallocates processor core and processor graphics resources to accelerate performance, giving users an immediate performance boost when and where it's needed.
Other new chip features include Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), Intel® InTru™ 3-D, and Intel® Clear Video Technology HD. Intel InTru 3-D enables immersive stereoscopic 3-D to 3-D-capable HDTVs or monitors via HDMI 1.4, making movie excitement almost come out of the screen.
Intel® AVX increases performance for such demanding visual applications as audio processing and professional video image editing such as stitching together multiple photographs. Intel® Clear Video improves the visual quality and color fidelity during video playback for a spectacular screen experience.
To make it easy for users to find a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™-based system that is just right for their particular needs, Intel is also announcing a wide array of SKUs including Intel vPro™-enabled processors.
The chips are made on Intel's 32nm manufacturing process on the company's second-generation high-k metal gate transistors. These unique advantages further boost performance; reduce power consumption for better battery life and smaller designs, and lower overall manufacturing costs.
Intel announced more than 20 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 6 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® WiFi and WiMAX adapters. More than 500 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from all major computer makers worldwide based on these products.
The quad-core-based systems (four processors inside one chip) will be available on Jan. 9 with additional dual-core versions in February. Video, benchmarks, photos and more details are available at www.intel.com/newsroom/CES.
Press Release:
Intel® Insider™:Opening Up a Whole New World of Premium Content
Intel® Insider™ is a new hardware feature of the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors that will allow consumers to purchase and rent the latest high-definition (HD) movies in 1080p on their PC. Until now, online movie services could only offer a subset of movies in HD for the PC due to security concerns. With Intel Insider's hardware-based protection, consumers will have access to a larger and growing library of movie titles in 1080p HD. Additionally, Intel Insider technology offers a "proactive queue" capability that enables consumers to pre-download films in advance of the release date and the ability to purchase those films, securely, even if they are not connected to the Internet. This would allow consumers to start watching their movies immediately on the release date without waiting for the mail or needing to download during peak traffic times. Entertainment companies in the United States, Western Europe and India are expected to announce movie services for PCs with Intel® Insider™ throughout the year.
Studio Support for Intel Insider
Intel has been working with movie studios in Hollywood and Bollywood including Warner Bros. Digital Distribution*, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment*, Image Entertainment*, Yash Raj Films* and UTV Motion Pictures* to offer an expanded library of movies and entertainment. Here's what some of those companies say in support of Intel Insider:
"Warner Bros. sees the PC as a broadly available and versatile platform for delivering premium digital entertainment, and now that Intel has made it more secure, we're able to provide new releases and popular catalog titles in full HD to the PC through our WBShop* storefront and from partners like CinemaNow* the same day that the DVD is available." — Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Home Entertainment group president.
"Our partnership with Intel creates a game changing opportunity to provide consumers around the globe our highest value content in a secure environment. The innovations that Intel has developed will give consumers maximum flexibility to enjoy a premium viewing experience." — Mike Dunn, president worldwide, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
"With the introduction of Intel® Insider™, DreamWorks Animation sees a bright future for premium, online entertainment that families can enjoy at home or wherever their imaginations take them." – Ed Leonard, chief technology officer, DreamWorks Animation.
"Intel Insider allows us the ability to reach the vast user base that is willing to pay for quality Indian content legitimately, whom we aren't currently able to reach through the traditional modes of distribution." – Avtar Panesar, head of operations, Yash Raj Films.
"The new-age film consumer wants the flexibility to be able to access high-quality content and pay a premium to access content as early as possible, on his or her preferred mode of viewing at that time. Intel Insider gives us the ability to reach out online to the audience of Indian films spread worldwide. This is in line with our objective to provide ease of access to our content on multiple platforms." – Amrita Pandey, senior vice president, UTV Motion Pictures.
Premium Content Distributor Support for Intel Insider
Intel is also working with CinemaNow*, Sonic Solutions*, Dixons Retail*, WBShop*, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment* and other video distribution partners by enabling their existing video services so customers can access the latest movies in true HD from PCs with Intel Insider.
"The online video market is the fastest-growing segment for premium digital media. At CinemaNow*, we see the PC playing a key role in driving this growth, bolstered by our collaboration with Intel to make the PC more secure for premium content delivery. We look forward to enhancing our customer experience by offering select new releases and popular catalog movies in 1080p HD on PCs with Intel Insider." – Matt Norman, senior manager, CinemaNow
"The large and growing PC-installed base is an opportunity for us to look at new models for delivering premium entertainment to our customers and help us fulfill our promise to bring life to technology. We plan to offer our customers a broad selection of exclusive and early-release HD movies that they can download to watch at home or take with them on the go." – Jeremy Fennell, category director, Dixons Retail.
"Bollywood, the world's largest film industry by number, as well as the world of digital media would be well served by the flexible business models, HD and secure online film distribution options under Intel Insider. Hungama aims to have new releases and also convert existing catalogs over time, to be available on this technology platform." – Neeraj Roy, M.D. and CEO, Hungama Digital.
Computer Manufacturer Support for Intel Insider
Intel Insider is available on PCs with 2nd Generation Intel Core processors with built-in visuals. Computer manufacturers are supporting this new technology with more than 500 design wins in place already.
"With the introduction of our new 2nd Generation Intel Core processor-powered systems and Dell video stage service, we see the PC becoming a mainstream platform for premium entertainment. Intel Insider will play a key role in ensuring that customers have access to the latest new releases and popular catalog movies in full HD on Dell PCs and Dell video stage." – Michael Tatelman, vice president, Global Consumer Channel (Sales & Marketing), Dell Inc.
"Toshiba* is increasingly committed to providing access to premium HD content for our customers. Intel Insider will help us enable the best customer experience for browsing, renting or purchasing true HD content from your laptop or watching movies on a laptop or HDTV." – Ron Smith, vice president of marketing, Toshiba* America, Inc.
To learn which movies are now available in full HD for PCs with 2nd Generation Intel Core processors, please contact an Intel Insider-enabled online video service.