Intel's optimism catches on - at last

A year ago at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) we were told the technology slowdown was over and things were picking up. It was the same story six months later and again last week.

But this is the first event where I actually got the impression that people believed it. There was a sense of optimism in San Francisco that has been missing for too long.

Part of it could be the location. The move to San Francisco, the fun and funky heart of California, away from San Jose, which is more like Slough with sunshine, no doubt helped - although it can't account for all the good cheer.

But it also seemed to me that this time exhibitors were not only bullish, but had contracts under their belts to back up the attitude.

Of course, Intel doesn't have it all its own way: chief rival AMD has been a lot more aggressive in its traditional IDF guerrilla marketing campaign.

Usually AMD hires a suite near the convention centre to brief the international press flown in at huge cost by Intel.

This year, AMD took it a stage further and set up stalls in the streets around the conference offering coffee, T-shirts and fortune cookies to delegates.

IDF keynote speeches are Intel's chance to cover the roadmap for the next six months and beyond, and demonstrations are a large part of this. But there is always the odd low-tech wrinkle.

This year one senior executive was spotted using the decidedly primitive option of writing his notes on his hand, to the delight of delegates.

Still, the enthusiasm of some of the attendees surprised even me, such as the sight of a genuinely excited queue of people trying to get into a 50-minute presentation on 'Voltage regulator testing using chroma development voltage transient test tools'.

For these tech-fans the conference is over too soon. For the rest of us it's time to go back to the real world. But I'm sure most of us will be back for another dose in six months' time.