IDF: 2010 show reflects muted state of the industry

This year's IDF may have had record attendances, but the event was less about showing off new toys and more about consolidating existing technology.

To be sure, there was some new technology. The new Sandy Bridge processors, Intel's first with integrated graphics built directly on the chip, look very interesting, and corporate buyers will be checking to see whether the promised performance really is good enough.

The chip can handle graphics, and particularly video, reasonably well considering the limitations imposed by not having a discrete graphics card.

But as one AMD manager pointed out, a $65 (£41) card could provide more than double Sandy Bridge's graphics output. The success of the new chip will depend a lot on the price sensitivity of the market.

The show also saw a new Atom processor, the E600, for embedded systems. Overall comment on the chip was favourable, although concerns were raised about the connection support for a variety of embedded systems.

The opening of the AppUp store was good news for developers. Intel has come late to the app store party, but is making up for lost time. Developers will get a good platform for their wares, and the look and feel of the store will attract consumers.

VPro is also seeing some advances, notably the ability to brick a lost laptop via 3G, something that will become increasingly useful as cellular laptop connections become more popular, and there were some useful management tools on offer.

But these were the main technological advances announced at the show. We heard very little on smartphones. Handsets are in testing with a couple of companies, but no deals were announced or handsets displayed beyond what we saw nine months ago at CES.

Similarly, we heard virtually nothing about the merger with McAfee, something very much on people's minds. The deal is not yet finalised, and you'd expect a certain lockdown on information, but few details were trickling out.

It seems likely that Intel will work with McAfee on a security system that uses hardware and software components, and will be optimised to the Intel platform. This will use a form of white-listing technology developed by McAfee, and I'd expect a dedicated hardware chip as well.

But elsewhere in the technical sessions, which are the most valuable part of the show for most attendees, the focus was very much on getting the most out of existing systems.

So, compared to previous shows, the wow factor has been severely limited, but it could be argued that wow is not what the industry wants right now.

Budgets are still tight and IT departments are more focused on stretching their existing kit before investing in new material.