Paul Otellini looks to the day when computing becomes truly invisible How much further can the microprocessor go? When will the laws of physics limit its growth in computing power? No time soon, according to Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and COO, who has been with the company for nearly 30 of its 35 years. InfoWorld Test Center Senior Analyst Wayne Rash spoke with Otellini about the company’s contributions to IT and vision of the future.IW: What would you say is Intel’s single greatest innovation, and why do you think that is?PO: It’s hard to pick one. I think if you had to isolate, it had to be the invention of the microprocessor. These had opened up the whole spectrum of reprogrammable machines and embedded machines into the pervasiveness that today’s world is built upon. Every car, every elevator, every computer, every home, every light switch, every weapon is now based upon the power of the microprocessor. IW: Where would you like to see Intel go? Where would you like to see it move for its markets and its technology?PO: Well, we’ve been on this focus now for the last few years of convergence … integrating the world of computing and the world of communications into devices and into chips over time because I think there’s a market opportunity and a real need to do so to accelerate the process. And so I would like to see that happen even faster, for us to get to the point where we can deliver a radio that can self-configure and self-communicate on every microprocessor we do, and then deploy those processes into other imaginable places from today.IW: What would the world look like? PO: The world will be increasingly interconnected. There will be tens of millions more network intelligent devices out there allowing each of us to have access to information, to be able to communicate, to do more predictive modeling. Depending on your field, more intelligence and more data is really the path of much of where the information society is going, so these are the sensors to gather that data …IW: For people who are going to be alive 10 or 15 years from now and are going to be living with these products, what will it do to affect their lives?PO: If we do our job right, it makes it easier. There are a number of people who have written fairly interesting treatises on the utility of computing going up immeasurably as it becomes invisible, as it just becomes pervasive. And I think that really is a very intriguing model to just distribute that intelligence to the point where it does work for you, versus your having to ask it to do work. And then just making your life and your job and your education or your play all that more enriching. IW: And what about in terms of commerce and the flow of product services and money?PO: All of that is about information and about productivity; that’s exactly what these products do.IW: So it looks like a pretty bright future from your viewpoint? PO: I’m optimistic. Technology Industry