Intel Envisions Ubiquitous Wordwide Embedded Internet

It's no longer a powerful enough sentiment to simply buy the world a Coke.

In the immediate future, expanding lines of communication around the world and enabling new opportunities in technology savvy and developing economies will be completed with ever increasing processor and software capabilities.

It's not too difficult to believe in the embedded Internet of more than 15 billion connected computing devices by 2015 that Intel Corp. laid out at its recent Developer Forum (IDF). As ubiquitous as the Internet is today, Intel believes in the next few years the world will experience an extension of the technology into hundreds or thousands of new devices and applications.

"We are in a path which increasing availability of processing power (is) accompanied by its decreasing visibility," said the late Mark Weiser, former chief technology officer at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, more than a decade ago.

During his keynote speech at IDF, Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, noted that "the  most profound new technologies are those that disappear," and envisioned a world "where every human on the planet is connected to the Internet 7-by-24 in every modality of life - how they work, how they play, how they learn, and even when they rest."

Processors like Intel's 5-watt Atom are expected to be used in small form-factor devices that will embed Internet capabilities into myriad medical, entertainment, security and business appliances and applications.

The Internet is already well ingrained in the fabric of everyday for many around the world, and interconnected homes, workplaces and transportation is rapidly developing. In the 21st century, technology providers like Intel are laying the groundwork for a new era where boundaries are increasingly non-existent, and computing and communicatons more transparent.