Project Athena: Accelerating the Pace of Innovation
Intel also shared more details on its innovation program code-named “ Project Athena,” including the 1.0 target specification9 that will usher in the first wave of laptops in the second half of this year. The company also previewed some of the first designs to come from partners spanning consumer and commercial including Acer*, Dell*, HP* and Lenovo*.
Based on years of research to understand people’s needs, challenges and expectations of the laptop, the program prioritizes enabling experiences that are reflective of real-world conditions as measured by “key experience indicators” (KEI).
Intel developed the new KEI engineering metrics, used during the program’s verification process, to test and drive consistent experiences on the laptop. Metrics are based on day-in-the-life research of laptop users at home or at work under real-world conditions. Intel’s goal for the new metrics is to work with the ecosystem to drive innovation that noticeably impacts people’s experiences on the laptop and evolve those capabilities year over year. The first wave of KEI targets includes:
- Consistent responsiveness on battery10
- 16 or more hours of battery life in local video playback mode11 and 9 or more hours of battery life under real-world performance conditions12
- System wake from sleep in less than 1 second13
The specification that will enable these experiences includes platform-level requirements – such as Thunderbolt 3, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), OpenVINO AI on PC compatibility and modern connected standby – across six areas: instant action, performance and responsiveness, intelligence, battery life, connectivity and form factor. For highlights of the 1.0 target specification, see the Project Athena fact sheet.
As part of Project Athena, Intel is providing co-engineering support across the ecosystem – with more than 100 companies signed on – and new tools and Open Labs facilities to support verification and testing of laptops.
Project Athena is a multi-year journey, with today’s announcement on the 1.0 target specifications and design previews representing just the beginning.
Performance Leadership for Gamers, Enthusiasts, Content Creators and Professionals
Intel made several more disclosures, including the announcement of the special edition 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900KS processor, which has been fine-tuned to deliver 5 GHz all-core turbo, making the world’s best gaming desktop processor14 even better. It is expected to be available by holiday 2019.
For the first time, the company also showed the new Intel® Performance Maximizer (IPM), an automated overclocking15 tool that brings overclocking to the masses by making it easy to dynamically and reliably custom-tune unlocked 9th Gen Intel Core desktop processors based upon their individual performance DNA. IPM will be free and is part of the Intel® Adaptix™ Technologies toolkit, a collection of advanced software technology tools that helps OEMs and consumers maximize platform-level performance and experience. The toolkit also includes Intel® Dynamic Tuning Technology, Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility and Intel® Graphics Command Center.
Finally, the company shared updates on three more product lines:
- Intel launched 14 new 9th Gen Intel Core vPro processors for high-performance mobile (H-series) and desktop (S-series) PCs, the highest performing business processors. Intel® Core™ i9 vPro™ processors – with up to 8 cores and 16 threads reaching up to 5 GHz on desktop and up to 4.8 GHz on mobile – join the best-for-business Intel® vPro™ platform for the first time, delivering superior performance on demanding workloads for an exceptional business user experience, built-in security features, remote manageability and stability.
- Intel launched 14 new Intel® Xeon® E processors for mobile and desktop workstations that are purpose-built with professional-grade performance, real-time data analytics capabilities, built-in platform security features, and remote manageability features as part of the Intel vPro platform. For the first time, Intel Xeon E processors include: up to 8 cores, 16 threads, 5 GHz turbo frequency, Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), Intel® Optane™ Memory H10 and 128 GB DDR4-2666 ECC memory support.
- Plus, Intel announced that the new Intel® Core™ X-series family of processors for premium creators will come this fall. These processors will bring frequency improvements, increased memory speed and updated Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
