It isn’t quite earth-shattering, but Intel is introducing a technology that could make computers more useful. The company has developed ways to power up PCs remotely, allowing people to, say, retrieve files, according to the Wall Street Journal. Intel calls this Remote Wake, and it will work on forthcoming desktops with a new chipset that will have the new software embedded in the memory. Apparently, this will be much easier to use than the current options.
Intel is working with Jajah, CyberLink, Orb Networks and Pando Networks. Because of Remote Wake, a PC will also be able to make and receive calls over the JAJAH network and wake up from sleep mode to receive a call. This is improvement over the current scenario, where you can’t quite use your PC as your phone, because when it’s in sleep mode, you miss the calls. Pando’s service could deliver video at a dedicated time to a PC after waking it up remotely, an option that could make Pando quite viable as a desktop-oriented content delivery network.
If you are an expert on remote access and have some opinions about Remote Wake, please share your opinions with us.
Interesting approach to remote access. I like the Jajah integration. If you really take a step back and look strategically at this, you can see where telcos and cable operators can be put om the defensive with this.
I think the big question is how/why this would be easier to use than Wake-on-LAN. I’m suspicious this is just marketing move, like Centrino, and the underlying technology will be Wake-on-LAN. Still, even if that is all it is; it will be a good thing. Awareness of the potential of WoL is very low and a surprising number of people leave home/SMB servers running 24/7 despite only having them active for short bursts throughout the day.
@Jesse Kopelman
I am not sure how they are doing this. will try and get some more information from their PR department. Stay tuned.
I believe I recall reading that Remote Wake requires an Intel chipset with an additional chip (besides standard Intel chipset components, so I would be surprised if this was simple WoL.
Not absolutely sure about this though.
Nice feature but would this not also be ripe for hackers to abuse when they have been able to infect a computer?
It is definitely interesting, especially since it serves to show how important reducing the power for desktops/laptops is. However it is relatively scant on the details. Also, as pointed out this solution does require an entirely new motherboard/chipset and also changes to the software (e.g. on Jajas servers etc).
Just a shameless plug for some of the work myself and my colleagues have been doing for the past year on a project with similar goals. Our solution called “Somniloquy” is incrementally deployable in *current machines* and is a lot more configurable… Interested readers can look at the public Technical Report at:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?type=Technical%20Report&id=1458
@Jim
Sure, just like Centrino requires a bunch of Intel chips. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get the very same functionality without the Intel chips — just that you can’t call it Centrino! I’m not claiming that Remote Wake is just marketing speak for Wake on LAN, just suggesting that it might be and there is reason to be suspicious. And if it’s not WoL, what exactly is wrong with WoL, in Intel’s view?