Otellini calls PCs “the new time machines”

Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini hailed the PC as the new time machine, which allowed users to predict the future and examine the past.

“A microprocessor allows you to accurate in time, doing things faster and faster,” he said.

“It also enables you to go back in time, as it allows you to collect digital data your businesses are built on and go back in time is to study it.”

In his keynote at Oracle OpenWorld Otellini said that speed was key to the successful running of a business and outlined plans for new multicore chips due out over the next year that would be optimised for Oracle.

These included a new Xeon processor that would be going into production in the last quart of this year with 2bn transistors. It would be aimed at the high end PC market and a server version would be out in the first quarter of 2009.

As an example of how speed could reshape a business he cited Yahoo, which had 800 million visitors to its web site and its 1.4Pb Oracle database took 15 hours to load and process. By using a faster processor the company could cut that down to just over three hours.

He also announced a new initiative with Oracle to beef up the security around cloud computing. The new systems being developed would make crossing between private and public clouds impossible without proper authorisation.