* Home Page - Intel. Leap ahead.(TM) * + Skip to content + o Intel.com o Worldwide Worldwide + o About Intel o Press Room o Contact Us + o Search __________ o Search + Products + Technology and Research + Resource Centers + Support and Downloads + Where to Buy IFRAME: http://www.intel.com/sites/nav/includes/blank.htm [spacer.gif] Technology & Research [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] Architecture Silicon Platform Benefits Software & Applications Research Standards & Initiatives News & Events [fp_arrow.gif] Technology & Research [spacer.gif] [fp_arrow.gif] Research [spacer.gif] [fp_arrow.gif] Research Labs [spacer.gif] [fp_arrow.gif] Intel Research Berkeley Research Labs - Intel Research Berkeley Related Links [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [cball.gif] Intel Research Berkeley [cball.gif] Overview [cball.gif] Intel Research Cambridge [cball.gif] Overview [cball.gif] Intel Research Pittsburgh [cball.gif] Overview [cball.gif] Intel Research Seattle [cball.gif] Overview [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] Intel Research Berkeley Collaborating to Change the World - Perspective David Tennenhouse Eric Brewer Director, Intel Research Berkeley In deciding to become the new Director of Intel Research Berkeley, I was excited about the opportunity to pursue my research into technology for developing regions with the leverage of Intel behind me. I became serious about this area of research several years ago. As the founder of Inktomi, I traveled internationally quite a bit. In my travels, I met top quality people from many developing regions, particularly at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At the 2000 Forum, I heard firsthand about the technology issues in developing regions, and I was surprised by how inappropriate existing technology remains; it does not meet their needs. Technology is designed for industrialized markets, and much design work focuses on lifestyle issues, such as the color of computers, or cell phones that come with different skins. Those issues are completely irrelevant to developing regions. So I wanted to explore what technology would be appropriate for developing regions. I also wondered how much more effective we could be in tackling the huge problems of the developing world if we designed technology to address those problems. One of those problems is the quality of power, which is not sufficient to run computers, even in places with grid electricity. So our research agenda will focus in part on addressing the power problem. We'll explore how to make computers that are more tolerant to bad power, and how to design much smarter control systems for batteries and solar panels. There are some quite good control systems for high-end solar power, but when you get down to 100 watts, which is what a typical developing region solution might be, there are few solutions available. In the longer term, we'll try to design a new battery that is much more appropriate for 100-watt rural solar systems than lead acid batteries, which are inefficient for these systems and which cause a lot of environmental damage. Our goal is to build a battery that has a long lifetime and is rechargeable in a solar environment. As far as I can tell, there's no one in the world working on that problem. I think it's a good example of a problem that many people in the world could solve if they knew that it mattered. Another strong focus of the research agenda is on bringing connectivity to rural areas. There's a myth that cellular telephony has solved the problem, but that's true only in urban areas. Rural areas typically have a low population density, which makes it difficult to support a base station profitably. So we're exploring how to bring wireless connectivity to low-density regions and how to make the network better able to deal with interruptions and delays and various kinds of faults, which are a fact of life in the developing world. I'm excited to be with Intel and have the opportunity to evangelize about the importance of addressing these critical problems. Eric Brewer gave the keynote speech at the International World Wide Web Conference in Chiba, Japan in May 2005, on "The Case for Technology for Developing Regions." Dr. Brewer is the lead author of a related article that was published in the June 2005 issue of Computer Magazine, the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Brewer recently sat down for an interview with Intel in which he spoke in more detail about his commitment to research in the area of technology for developing regions. [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] Back to Top * + Site Map + RSS Feeds + Jobs at Intel + Investor Relations * + *Legal Information + Privacy Policy + ©2006 Intel Corporation