What's that about Apple hardware? Pfft, says Intel as it intros magical self-healing PC
- Reference: 1605011129
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/10/intel/
- Source link:
Citing research findings that 74 per cent of companies will be shunting some employees to permanent remote work, Chipzilla made the unsurprising claim that the "most important ally in navigating this new normal" was the good old PC.
Those will be Intel-based machnes, we presume, despite the popularity of [2]AMD's chippery and [3]Apple's move away from Intel silicon in its upcoming range of Macs.
Intel's approach to fighting off these threats appears to be two-pronged: innovation and unleashing IT buzzwords that include "AI" and "Machine Learning."
These innovations include "all-day battery life, always-on capabilities, enhanced connectivity, and our vision of the self-healing PC." While it would be a stretch to regard much of the former as an "innovation" nowadays, the concept of the self-healing PC does merit a closer look.
While "self-healing" might make one think of [4]Spectre-shaped holes blown through Intel silicon being repaired in the background, it is actually all about the slurping of telemetry to spot issues before a user decides to raise a ticket. Examples given include performance problems and failing hardware.
Microsoft will also cheerfully fling self-healing systems at users; it claimed Microsoft 365 Defender, for example, "stops attacks across Microsoft 365 services and auto-heals affected assets."
For its part, Intel would very much like enterprises to sign up to its vPro platform to manage an increasingly remote fleet of PCs. It recently [5]buddied up with Ivanti with a view to shoring up its on-premises and cloud-based endpoint services.
But as for the self-healing PC, with an awful lot of existing solutions out there that will happily keep all manner of hardware and software ticking over, one can but hope that Intel will first deal with its own woes, both [6]financial - profit was down 30 per cent last quarter due to enterprise and govt data-center sales dips - and [7]physical , before spreading its tentacles into a suddenly remote workforce. ®
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[1] https://itpeernetwork.intel.com/what-the-self-healing-pc-can-mean-for-it/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/27/amd_xilinx_results/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/23/apple_armed_for_x86_rebellion/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
[5] https://www.ivanti.co.uk/blog/intel-ivanti-strategic-partnership
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/23/intel_third_quarter/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/27/intel_engineering_boss_out
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sounds pointless.
Buzzwords
"Intel's approach to fighting off these threats appears to be two-pronged: innovation and unleashing IT buzzwords that include "AI" and "Machine Learning.""
What, no block chain?
Battery
All day battery life seems pointless if you never have to go anywhere
"Self-healing" = data slurping?
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Now, if it automatically "rebooted" services that were having problems, detected and replaced glitchy drivers, that sort of thing, then ok, maybe "self-healing" would be a reasonable description. But definitely not "constantly call home with the current status of the computer", which is neither "self-" nor "healing".
Bandwagon
> it is actually all about the slurping of telemetry
Why am I not surprised?
Am I the one one to be deafened by the increasing and ever louder "Gimme! Gimme!" cries of utter greed, coming from everywhere?
it is actually all about the slurping of telemetry to spot issues before a user decides to raise a ticket
So rather than do something useful like "self-heal" Spectre / Meltdown, IME and CSME flaws, and chipset key leaks, they are creating a new surveillance and (likely) attack vector.
Never change, Intel.
Article didn't make clear this was a press release aimed squarely at IT departments. Them slurping data from their own users' laptops isn't the same as Intel slurping from private owners.
Still, 'self healing' is definitely not what this is. Making it easier to arrange with Bob the most convenient time to swap out an SSD isn't the same as a bullet-tolerant cyborg with redundant systems and interconnects that will intelligently reroute power to core systems before continuing on its rampage.
Self-healing
Anyone remember Novell Zenworks cira 1998? It had no telemetry outside of the organisation, and was absolutely awesome! I stumbled upon the beta and managed to convince management to go with it, resulted in a >75% reduction in support calls for our 500+ PC estate. Undoubtedly the move to NT4 WS on the desktop helped. Happy days!