Intel announced it’s pulling the plug on its 20-year-old Intel Developer Forum (IDF). The annual conference seemed to have lost its original identity as a place to discuss Intel’s latest microprocessor technology.
A message on the IDF page said, “Intel has evolved its event portfolio and decided to retire the IDF program moving forward.”
This is the second bit of news today from Intel, which is apparently working in re-invent mode. Earlier, the company said it had pulled funding for the OpenStack Innovation Center (OSIC), which it co-founded with Rackspace in 2015.
The year 2015 was a time when IDF began to noticeably morph from focusing on computing and chips to other technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI).
By the 2016 IDF conference, IoT took center stage. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s opening keynote at the event announced the launch of a Knowledge Builder toolkit to give IoT developers an easier time with all the processing that’s required for machine learning.
Earlier in 2016, Intel had announced layoffs of about 11 percent of its workforce as its PC sales continued to decline.
According to Anandtech, which was the first media outlet to notice the IDF update today, the main reason Intel is cancelling IDF is because it is changing from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company, involved in more areas such as IoT, AI, Optane storage, and automotive, to name a few.
“Rather than have one big melee on everything, Intel is set to split its message across several different areas in the hope that it accurately digs deep enough into every area,” according to Anandtech.
Comments