One of the fixtures of Embedded World for the past 20 years has been Intel’s event for its partners the day before the show opens. Historically it’s been highly focused on embedded computing and the Internet of things (IoT), but now the scope has broadened out to include networking, edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI).
Intel’s technology approach was front and centre at the event, with a presentation from Christine Boles, vice president in Intel’s Network and Edge Group and general manager of the Federal and Industrial Solutions division. She talked about software-defined manufacturing and how different types of AI on edge computing are now becoming essential components in industrial systems.
At this year’s event, Intel took the opportunity to update partners on its progress with introducing new process nodes in its semiconductor fabs, and announced a range of new chipsets. The new chips feature developments that enhance the ability to handle AI across a continuum of computing environments at the edge. They were:
- Two Intel Core processors for the edge, incorporating a GPU and, in the Core Ultra range, a neural processing unit
- Two Intel Atom processors for the edge, aimed at telecom and industrial applications
- An Intel Arc discrete GPU for the edge
- Agilex 5 system-on-chip field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)
The company also pushed its new Edge Platform, launched at MWC 2024, which offers a virtual hardware and software environment in the cloud for developers to run their software on different types of processor and test it before deploying it on live systems.
Arguably the most important announcement for the partner audience was the launch of Intel’s Industry Solution Builders programme in a presentation by Dan Rodriguez, corporate vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge division. This is a new “ecosystem initiative” in the Intel Partner Alliance, which aims to bring suppliers and customers together worldwide to collaborate on technology for scaling up digital transformation opportunities.
In the past Intel’s partner groups were organized broadly around the company’s product types: data centre, client computing, FPGA, IoT and so on. Starting in late 2020, it brought all of these together under a single umbrella — the Intel Partner Alliance — to harmonize approaches and benefits across the groups. This made sense as many of the partners are large companies, active in multiple fields, that were enrolled in several of Intel’s partner programmes.
One long-standing variation of this is the Network Builders initiative. This is a community of partners and customers involved in developing large networking systems, such as the FlexRAN Reference Architecture used in 5G networks. Network Builders includes telecom operators, which have a hybrid role — they are customers here but are often also technology and channel partners for other sectors.
The launch of Industry Solution Builders is essentially an extension of that approach. It sets up communities for specific industries, involving partners and customers from the whole of Intel’s partner programme. The launch includes companies from the manufacturing, telecom, government, smart city and energy sectors, with others to follow.
The focus of these communities will be on solutions specific to a sector. Participants will also work with standards bodies, form coalitions to provide open software frameworks, and offer training and support. Intel plans to provide relevant content to the communities, tailored to the needs of each sector, through a dedicated site.
Again, this is a logical development. It extends the approach that has been taken in areas such as process control and telecommunications, where Intel has worked with a range of organizations to develop open frameworks into standardized systems as those sectors modernize their computing infrastructure. The new vertical approach also fits the structure of Intel’s sales organization, making it easier for the firm to handle leads and sales coming from the solutions developed.
The new vertical approach will need careful management of the catalogue of partner solutions. Intel has its Market Ready Solutions programme as part of Intel Partner Alliance; for these the company works with partners to offer fully architected, finished and tested solutions for a matrix of applications in different sectors. The initiative has been successful, with over 550 solutions available in the catalogue today.
The mix of solutions has been managed using a “chessboard” (see Intel’s Chess Move for Scaling IoT), which is a visual tool for mapping which partners are active in each area; what systems are available; where gaps exist and how solutions can be adapted to serve other sectors.
With the Industry Solution Builders initiative, the different communities will operate to some degree independently of each other. Intel will need a group behind the scenes keeping a careful eye on the mix of solutions in development and in the market. It will be important to watch out for architecturally different systems doing the same job, duplication, wasted development effort and overlapping marketing and sales activities.
In spite of the need for these coordination issues, the Industry Solution Builders programme should be a good opportunity to increase the focus on vertical markets, to align with Intel’s sales teams, to develop solutions that are specific to the relevant sectors, to take existing systems and reuse them more easily, and to continue to round out the catalogue of partner systems.
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