Intel talks up wake-up calls

Remote wake-up could cut energy costs, says chipmaker

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com 15 Aug 2008

As Intel gets ready to bring its newest chip designs to life at its developer forum next week, the company is touting its ability to put its processors to sleep.

The ability to remotely wake up a processor is a feature that the company is building into its motherboards and plans to release next week.

The idea of the feature is to enable home PCs to be put into sleep mode and awoken only when the processor is needed, allowing users to put their computers into sleep mode rather than leave them for fear of losing VoIP or media-sharing services.

On Thursday, the company highlighted four new programs which will take advantage of the new feature. VoIP firm Jajah, streaming service CyberLink and P2P company Pando will be among the companies fine-tuning their products to take advantage of the new feature.

Jajah will be allowing customers with the new Intel boards to make and receive VoIP calls even while the computer is in sleep mode. The machine will wake up only when the user needs to make or receive a call.

"When the computer was first built, its inventors did not have telephony in mind, nor was it even on the horizon," remarked Jajah chief executive Trevor Healy.

"Jajah, combined with Intel's Remote Wake capability, brings the industry closer to a global IP-based telephony system with simple to use functionality and advanced environmental friendliness."

For Cyberlink, the new feature will allow users to set their PCs to sleep mode and then later access them remotely to retrieve media files or connect to streaming services.

"This technological collaboration enables users to reduce wasted energy, while still being able to conveniently access all their files even when on-the-go," said Cyberlink chief executive Alice Chang.

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