Intel: The Future is in the Cloud, and Moore's Law is Alive

Intel's next horizon is cloud computing, CEO Brian Krzanich announced today in a blog post that outlines where the company will focus its future research and development efforts. He described a "virtuous cycle" of future product offerings that will continue to be bound by Moore's Law, the idea that the number of transistors in a circuit will double approximately every two years.

Intel's products of the future, according to Krzanich, will revolve around data centers and the cloud. PCs and the other devices that make up the Internet of things will all beam their data to and from to the cloud. So will memory modules and field-programmable gate arrays, the chips that are used in medical imaging, computer vision, and speech recognition devices.

All those devices will connect to the cloud using 5G networks, for which Intel is already at work creating a new generation of mobile chips, base stations, and other infrastructure.

"Threading all of this virtuous cycle together is connectivity – the fact that providing computing power to a device and connecting it to the cloud makes it more valuable," Krzanich wrote.

And how will all these connected devices affect Moore's law? Krzanich described it as "fundamentally a law of economics, and Intel will confidently continue to harness its value." In other words, he doesn't believe the cloud will break it.

His thoughts echo Intel's announcement last month that it would slow the pace of new chip releases as it moves from today's 14-nanometer chips to the 10-nanometer chips of the future. While the company has long believed that it can continue to make chips smaller and more powerful, a slower release pace will keep its research and development initiatives from sabotaging efforts to sell more of its current chips.

"In my 34 years in the semiconductor industry, I have witnessed the advertised death of Moore's Law no less than four times," Krzanich wrote. "As we progress from 14 nanometer technology to 10 nanometer and plan for 7 nanometer and 5 nanometer and even beyond, our plans are proof that Moore's Law is alive and well."

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While there's not a lot new in Krzanich's manifesto—the cloud has been around for years and Intel has already discussed its IoT and 5G plans at length—it's an important rallying cry for the company, which has seen its leadership position in the semiconductor industry challenged by Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia, and other rivals. 

Krzanich's devotion to the cloud and connected devices makes one thing clear: the era of Intel's coffers reliably filling up as a reult of people upgrading their desktops and laptops at regular intervals is over.