IntelON Developer Conference Preview: Developers will once again become the core of the value chain

This article is reproduced from Fobes, by Patrick Moorhead

I had the opportunity to talk with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and new CTO Greg Lavender before IntelON Developer Conference. We have seen a lot of information from Gelsinger about design, manufacturing, strategy, and now it is time to show some muscle and unveil new things. I want to better understand Intel's developer value proposition, why developers should choose Intel, and what is different about Intel since Gelsinger became CEO.

It quickly became apparent during the conversation that both Gelsinger and Lavendar emphasized the recognition of the added value of hardware and software developers, which was Gelsinger's original intention of "making Intel geek-friendly again," and which had been lost under the past few CEOs.

First, Gelsinger couldn't believe Intel would stop doing IDF because it was "the soul of the geek world." For what it's worth, it always puzzled me why IDF disappeared when developer conferences were popping up everywhere. I can understand Gelsinger's point of view because I remember that the PCI and USB standards were essentially created by Intel and used with developers. Gelsinger shared some stories about providing IP and licensing to the industry. I'm glad Intel gave these bus technologies for free, otherwise if PCI or USB required royalties, would they be as popular as they are today? To be fair, Intel did benefit greatly from this, so even if it didn't charge a licensing fee, it would be fair. If Intel didn't create these innovations, who would step up to do it? I think this is a question worth thinking about.

Gelsinger and Lavender didn’t want to spend too much time talking about hardware developers, but rather focused more on software development — a good sign and not unexpected. Gelsinger served as VMware’s CEO for eight years, while Lavender served as VMware’s CTO and senior vice president. Software developers are definitely a key focus for Intel going forward, including AI, ML, and edge application developers. Of course this doesn’t mean there won’t be some major hardware update announcements — there will be, but the focus will be on software developers.

Gelsinger is undoubtedly on a mission to catch up with NVIDIA's CUDA. I believe this is the biggest thing Intel can do. While I think Intel can launch GPUs and SoCs that are competitive with NVIDIA, many developers are locked in by CUDA. I believe only Intel has the resources to break this situation, and Intel can use its own multiple accelerators (CPU, ASIC, GPU, FPGA). Gelsinger hopes that other processor companies will adopt OneAPI, because OneAPI is not only what makes Intel successful, but it may make it easier for the industry to handle all computing architectures.

While I don't think the CUDA abstraction layer in OneAPI will outperform native CUDA, I don't think it has to be to succeed. It just has to be "close". NVIDIA has already surpassed OpenCL and a long list of companies associated with CUDA, and I expect NVIDIA to do everything it can to keep CUDA relevant and a clear leader.

I get questions like “Why would a developer focus on Intel?” from many people who are uninformed or lack history. First, Intel has a dominant position in the growing PC market and server processors, with increasing processor business in storage, networking, and edge. I believe Intel is well positioned in the growing networking and edge businesses. Intel just launched its first discrete GPU in decades for the commercial and consumer gaming markets, and has machine learning training accelerators. All of this is new, and as a developer, you have to work with Intel in these areas unless you think Intel will lose. My experience working in processors and surrounding markets for more than 30 years proves that you can never leave Intel.

So what are you looking forward to at the IntelON event? I'm looking forward to a renewed commitment to developers, a new focus from new leaders, new programs tailored for developers, with a differentiated approach that's tailored to each individual.