Athena, the goddess of wisdom in ancient Greek mythology and one of the twelve main gods of Olympus, symbolizes wisdom, war and guardianship. Intel's use of it to name its next-generation laptop innovation program seems quite profound.
What is the Athena program? In short, it's laptop version 3.0. Intel is trying to use this to show the way for innovation standards in the PC ecosystem. For users, the personal PCs they buy in the future will likely be tied to this program.
PCs need a new revolution to be fit for the future. In the data of IDC, Gartner and other market research organizations, the PC market is still declining in the Q1 2019 quarter. As one of the core vendors in the PC space, Intel hopes that the Athena program will bring change.
Previously, Intel analyzed 1,000 consumers in a "Next 50" study, said that 80% of people still believe that the PC will be one of the most important technologies in the next 50 years.PC is not dead! It just needs to change. Looking back at history, you'll see that Intel has been driving the evolution of PCs, especially laptops.
Centrino: A Standard for Implementation out of the Barbaric Era
There was a very long period of development before laptops evolved into the style they are today. After transistors replaced tubes, the advent of the small form factor became the precursor to the emergence of the personal computer. And with the maturity of integrated circuits, as well as to Intel and other companies represented in 1971 launched microprocessors, making microcomputers also became possible. Since then the development of home computers, portable computers for mobile business office also gradually on the agenda, and slowly determined the flip cover, with battery form, and eventually formed a laptop.
Before the launch of the Centrino platform, laptop computers used dedicated laptop CPUs such as Pentium 3 and Pentium 4, which were modified from desktop CPUs. But in September 2002, Intel's fall information technology summit, Intel brought the Banias platform, said to be designed specifically for notebook computers, its goal is to make notebook computers with higher performance and lower power consumption. The Banias platform, in a sense, can be seen as the predecessor of the Centrino platform.
Before we get to the Centrino platform, we probably need to mention a little more background. In 2003, Intel officially announced the launch of Intel Centrino Mobile Technology, a brand of wireless mobile computing technology. From 2003 to 2009, Intel launched various generations of platforms under the Centrino brand, including Carmel, Sonoma, Napa, Santa Rosa, Montevina, and Calpella.
Centrino Mobile Technology represents a complete solution, including a mobile version of the processor, a mobile chipset, and a wireless network card. With the Centrino Mobile Computing Technology brand, Intel brings integrated wireless LAN to laptops, better mobile computing performance, longer battery life, and makes it possible to support a wide range of laptop styles through Low Voltage (LV) and Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) technologies. This can be viewed as laptop version 1.0.
As platforms become more iterative, the differences between the old and new Centrino platforms are difficult to define through the Centrino brand, creating confusion in the marketplace. As a result, Intel planned to dilute its branding, and then changed it to a processor branded "Core" as a selling point. But that doesn't stop the fact that the Centrino brand was in fact an important reference point for people buying laptops from the time it was born until it was finally abandoned.
Ultrabooks: Pushing the boundaries of what a laptop can be
With the introduction of the Centrino platform, Intel popularized Wi-Fi on laptops. People then began to pursue thinner, lighter, more portable, longer-lasting, and higher-performance devices, but technological development didn't keep up with demand: laptops couldn't adequately meet these requirements, or were too bulky or underperforming. In addition, the rise and popularity of tablet computers has given a sense of crisis to the existence of heavy laptops.
In 2011 Computex Taipei, Intel's global executive vice president and chairman of Intel China, Mr. Ma Hongsheng (Sean Maloney), for the first time put forward the Ultrabook Ultrabook this new concept, that is, a new series of ultra-thin mobile computers. Trying to use this to promote the heavy laptop to a thinner, more powerful performance, faster, with a longer battery life of the Ultrabook.
At the time, Intel planned to implement its program in three phases from 2011 to 2013***, accompanied by updates to different processors Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell processors. In the first phase 2011 is expected to bring thinner, lighter and longer lasting devices with SSDs; in the second phase is support for USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, etc.; and in the third phase is to bring a new power saving system and multi-core process.
You can simply think of it as laptop version 2.0. The specific requirements are that the Ultrabook weighs no more than 3.1 pounds, is no thicker than 0.71 inches, and has a battery life of at least 5 hours. Intel hopes that manufacturers involved in the ultrabook market will be able to meet these conditions.
In addition, Intel changed the previous R&D steps in the development of ultrabooks, and took the lead in exploring the needs of end-users, as well as the corresponding software to meet the needs and design the CPU based on the final product. this is very different from the previous development of the CPU, and then the development of the operating system, adapted to the way the application is very different.
The promotion of the Ultrabook concept has led to the evolution of laptop product forms, including Transformer, UltraSlim, and 2-in-1 computers, which have emerged as a single device that simultaneously realizes the full-featured applications of a traditional PC, as well as the entertainment experience of a tablet PC. Manufacturers followed suit and soon there were more Ultrabooks on the market. In the later stages of development, even gaming books began to control the thickness of 20mm or less, and the concept of Ultrabook has been successfully retired and is no longer emphasized by Intel.
Project Athena: The Future of PC Evolution
There is no end to development. It is not enough to rely on notebook manufacturers to take a step beyond the Ultrabook and get a more high-performance, long-lasting, always-on, thinner and more stylish laptop. In the general pursuit of thin and light products, the lack of other changes, the lack of users to replace the new situation, the Athena program came into being.
As early as CES 2019, Intel announced the new "Project Athena" (Project Athena). Intel plans to use this to bring laptops that combine best-in-class performance, long battery life, ready connectivity, and sleek design, and seeks to leverage next-generation technologies, including 5G and AI, to bring an enhanced experience to the device and give the PC more value. As planned at the time, the first Athena Project devices with Windows and Chrome operating systems will come out in the second half of 2019.
On May 8, Intel launched plans to establish Project Athena Open Labs. Preparing to support component manufacturers with evaluation, tuning and compliance testing through open labs in Taipei, Shanghai and California as a way to help improve power consumption and performance of various laptop components and peripherals, such as audio, display, embedded controllers, touch functionality, solid state disks, and wireless functionality.
Later at Computex Taipei, Intel unveiled version 1.0 of the Athena program. The first Key Experience Indicators (KEIs) to measure new experiences that reflect real-world conditions include:
The specifications to enable these experiences also include platform-level requirements such as Thunderbolt 3, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), OpenVINO AI compatibility on PCs, and next-generation connected standby. compatibility on PCs, and next-generation connected standby, which covers six areas: instant operation, performance and responsiveness, artificial intelligence, battery life, connectivity, and form factor.
From power consumption to responsiveness, from battery life to compute performance, from ambient awareness to deep learning, every metric of a laptop has an impact on the user experience. Intel-led evaluation, tuning, and compliance testing of components really helps to ensure the next-generation PC experience. Intel's expanded PC ecosystem integration can help OEMs improve component selection efficiency and support continuous tuning and testing based on real-world workloads and usage patterns, which in turn significantly accelerates the development process for advanced laptop devices and features.
Of course, in leading this program, Intel will also establish de facto standards and higher barriers to entry across the entire PC supply chain system, thus getting rid of competition from single hardware products and playing its own role as a complete solution through a series of acquisitions, which will also be of great help to Intel in maintaining its market position. One of the most typical examples, the introduction of AI into the PC is really helpful for the future user experience, but the reason why Intel spared no effort to promote this integration, but also with its own acquisition of Movidius has a certain relationship.
Zero Mirror Opinion
From the first Intel Centrino platform laptop with integrated Wi-Fi, to the promotion of ultra-thin and light designs for laptops, the popularization of touchscreens and 2-in-1 form factor Ultrabooks, and now Project Athena, Intel's ambition to be the leader in the PC experience has always been the same. Intel has long ceased to be a simple chip provider, but rather a creator of personal computing terminal product forms. In fact, Intel has a large number of software engineers who have been y involved in the development of personal computing solutions, and Intel engineers and anthropological scientists have conducted extensive research to gain a deeper understanding of how people use their devices and the challenges they face, and have used this to develop a series of predefined key experience requirements that apply next-generation technologies, such as 5G and artificial intelligence, to the entire PC platform. across the entire PC platform.
Along the way, we've been able to see that the PC isn't dying as quickly as expected, but is still exuding vitality. With the development of technologies such as 5G and AI, as well as the gradual clarification of the cloud + edge computing trend, what shape will the future PC evolve to? To answer this question, the Athena program is just the beginning, and the future needs to be explored by many vendors together.