Intel kicked off Virtual Computex 2021 with a keynote address lasting 40 minutes. We heard from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, we saw product demos and we were told about new products that are due to land in the near future. Despite that the response from KitGuru's audience has been brutal, partly because we hated the high levels of Corporate Marketing Speak but mainly because it simply wasn't very good.

The problem with this keynote is that Intel had very little to announce but they clearly had to pad things out to the allotted 40 minutes so we got two new SKUs of U-Series laptop chips and a rebadged 5G modem plus an awful lot of waffle. Buried within that waffle was the admission that Sapphire Rapids has been pushed back to 2022, which makes you wonder about the future of the Aurora Supercomputer. We're going to continue digging away on that particular front!

The inevitable performance graphs also left something to be desired as they showed relative performance without solid data points such as frame rates. The crowning glory was the demo with Adobe Premiere where Intel showed they can simultaneously edit six streams of 4K video on a thin and light laptop. That is an impressive trick however it isn't the sort of task any of us are likely to perform any time soon.

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KitGuru says:  Intel has inadvertently made clear that 2021 is yet another year in a holding pattern while they build up a head of steam and try to make a big push in 2022.

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