Barrett opens IDF with attack on US education

Kicking off his last Intel Developer Forum as chief executive, Craig Barrett launched a stinging attack against the US government.

In the opening keynote of the conference he described the education system in the US as so poor that other countries were beating it in the race to develop technological innovations.

"The biggest ticking time bomb in the US is the sorry state of our education system," he said.

"It's the educational quality of the workforce that will determine [economic] performance. The flat level of funding for R&D in our universities for the past 200 years is also a problem."

Barrett also levelled his ire at governments for holding up WiMax deployment. Intel and others are currently negotiating for spectrum rights around the world to run WiMax, which allows wide area wireless broadband internet access.

"I believe in the Hippocratic Oath for government: first do no harm. That means sorting out spectrum allocation, fostering R&D and creating an environment to let business function," he said.

"[WiMax] is the solution to the 'last mile' broadband issue. It will get us out of the half-assed broadband situation we're in today. 1Mbps to 2Mbps is not broadband; 50Mbps is."

Barrett will being retiring from his current role shortly but described the move as "being kicked upstairs". In the future he will be helping to run Intel's $100m a year educational programmes aimed at interesting young children in maths and science.

Elsewhere in his keynote Barrett expressed his belief that processors will continue to evolve at current levels. Forthcoming transistor technology, multiple core processors and quantum technology would all play a part in this development, he said.