Intel Corporation and MTN Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will see the companies collaborate to accelerate the deployment and penetration of broadband access in Africa and the Middle East
The collaboration covers a wide spectrum of initiatives, including areas such as broadband access through WiMax deployment, affordable PC bundles for the ordinary African consumer and entrepreneurs as well as cost-effective internet browsing devices.
Other areas of collaboration include joint efforts by the MTN Foundation and Intel Education’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to equip students and teachers with technology skills. These initiatives will contribute to the development of young people in Africa by equipping them with up to date maths and science skills as well as life skills such as critical thinking in the current knowledge economy.
“Strategies developed by MTN and Intel to connect the next generation of broadband users in Africa and the Middle East were a perfect fit, which is why we went into discussions to collaborate,” says Jacques van Schalkwyk Territory Manager for South and Sub-Saharan Africa at Intel Corporation. “Both companies have expertise in different aspects of ICT deployment and together we can accelerate bridging the digital divide on the continent.”
Says Christian De Faria, MTN Group’s Senior Vice President, Commercial and Innovation: “MTN recognises the strategic value of partnering with an industry player of Intel’s calibre and stature. We believe this MOU will facilitate the establishment of joint initiatives to support our broadband strategy as well as CSR projects.”
The memorandum underpins the importance of industry leaders such as Intel and MTN to collaborate in order to bring sustainable ICT development to the region. “In this way we can accelerate Africa’s entry into the 21st century knowledge and digital economy which will give its citizens economic opportunities similar to those in developed countries,” concludes van Schalkwyk.
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live.
Through its World Ahead Program, Intel strives to improve education, health care, entrepreneurship and government services in developing countries worldwide by accelerating access to computers, connectivity and localized Internet content.
Meanwhile, Intel Corporation, last week revealed several significant design features for its 2011 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family at the Intel Developer Forum.
The new and enhanced features will further extend Intel’s chip performance and battery life leadership, and add a number of visually related features built right into the chips.
Codenamed “Sandy Bridge,” the chips will be based on Intel’s first new “visibly smart” microarchitecture produced on the company’s cutting-edge manufacturing factories, or “fabs,” at 32-nanometer (nm is a billionth of a meter) process technology with second- generation high-k metal gate transistors.
“The way people and businesses are using computers is evolving at an explosive rate, fueling demand for an even more powerful and visually appealing experience,” said Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group. “Our upcoming 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family represents the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any previous generation. In addition to offering these features inside Intel-based laptops, we plan to scale these advances across our server data center and embedded computing product portfolio.”
The processor family will include a new “ring” architecture that allows the built-in processor graphics engine to share resources such as cache, or a memory reservoir, with the processor’s core to increase a device’s computing and graphics performance while maintaining energy efficiency.
The 2nd Generation Intel Core processor also includes an enhanced version of Intel® Turbo Boost Technology. This feature automatically shifts or reallocates processor cores and processor
graphics resources to accelerate performance, tailoring a workload to give users an immediate performance boost when needed.
Laptops and PCs powered by the 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family are expected to be available early next year.
The new Intel processor graphics delivers enhanced visual features focused on the areas where most users are computing today: HD video, 3-D, mainstream gaming, multi-tasking and online socializing and multimedia.
To obtain and view video faster, Perlmutter demonstrated hardware accelerated video editing using the architecture’s dedicated silicon for media processing, which allows users to quickly convert video to other formats.
The 2011 chips also come with Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX). AVX delivers improved performance, rich functionality and the ability to better manage, rearrange and sort data. A new 256-bit instruction set accelerates floating point intensive applications such as digital photo editing and content creation.
Intel also demonstrated a dual processor, next-generation Intel Xeon processor server running Vidyo video conferencing software that utilizes the 32 threads available on the system, and takes advantage of the AES New Instructions set (AESNI). Next-generation Xeon processors for 2 socket servers and workstations run 8 cores and 16 threads per processor and are on schedule for production in the second half of 2011.
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live.