在2012年英特尔美国信息技术峰会（IDF）(2012年9月11-13日在美国旧金山上)第二天的主题演讲中，英特尔高级副总裁、软件和服务集团总经理詹瑞妮(Renee James)作了“透明计算时代的安全和服务（Security and Services in an Age of Transparent Computing）”的主题报告。在此报告中，詹瑞妮高度评价了由我系张尧学院士提出的“透明计算”。詹瑞妮指出，“透明计算是由张尧学教授所倡导的，使应用程序跨越操作系统和体系结构无缝运行，是把用户放在计算体验的中心的一种新计算模式”。詹瑞妮还认为“透明计算将是下一个计算时代，其三个关键点是跨平台语言、云计算和安全”（The next era of computing is transparent computing, in which we need three key elements: a cross platform language, flexible cloud, and robust security）。英特尔公司将推广透明计算，并为软件开发人员提供跨平台软件工具、安全解决方案和分销渠道。英特尔亚太研发有限公司平台软件架构部总监卢炬先生指出，这是一个很高的荣誉，英特尔在过去将近10年的IDF上还从未如此高调地推崇过一项非英特尔原创的技术。
我系张尧学院士于2004年左右在122cc太阳集成游戏提出了“透明计算”概念，其核心是从网络计算的角度出发，把存储、运算、管理进行逻辑或物理分离，在执行上进行有缓存的流式运算，把计算还原成“不知不觉、用户可控”的跨设备、跨平台的个性化服务。
据悉，作为全球最大的信息技术企业之一，美国英特尔公司高度重视透明计算研发和推广工作，预计今年9月27日和10月18日，英特尔将分别与上海交通大学和中南大学建立透明计算联合实验室。
附件一：有关英特尔信息技术峰会（IDF）
英特尔信息技术峰会（Intel Developer Forum，简称IDF），直译为英特尔开发者论坛，是英特尔最高级别的技术会议，几乎所有的英特尔最新技术突破都是在IDF上正式公布的，是整个PC产业界最重要的技术会议。近年参会的人数大约在4000-6000人，美国站一直是PC行业的晴雨表，在售门票（几百美元）的情况下一直保持4000-5000人的参加规模。IDF每年至少在美国旧金山Moscone会议中心（秋季）和中国（基本上是北京的春季）各举办一次，会期2-3天，形式主要是上午主题演讲主要由英特尔高官主讲，涉及技术趋势、突破性技术；下午是技术课程和技术展示。英特尔合作伙伴也被邀请参加并分享技术理论和实践。
附件二：有关詹瑞妮的讲话视频
附件三：詹瑞妮的部分讲话内容
An hour before Apple launched its iPhone 5 just down the street, James, senior VP and GM of Intel’s Software and Services Group and chairman of McAfee, presented a vision and a fleet of Intel solutions to help software developers overcome the difficulties of building, supporting, and marketing applications that run across different operating systems, devices, and storefronts.
“This should be the most fantastic time to be a software developer in our industry,” James said, with billions of connected computing devices in use around the world.
But developers face tough choices between different operating systems and development environments, and making their apps stand out among hundreds of millions of others, James explained. Recent data show that nearly two thirds of all software applications earn less than $5,000 per month, and nearly half the average app’s production costs are devoted to marketing.
“These are not encouraging results if you want to make a living developing software,” James said.
HTML5, cloud services to deliver ‘transparent computing’
The answer to this problem, James asserted, is a concept called “transparent computing,” where apps “seamlessly cross operating system and architecture boundaries…and put the user at the center of the computing experience.”
This concept has been championed by Prof. Zhang Yaoxue of Tsinghua University and other academics, with support from Intel, since the late 1990s, James said.
Transparent computing can be achieved if developers use HTML5 for client applications, pair with flexible cloud services, and are underpinned by “robust security from client to datacenter,” James explained.
HTML5 “has been overhyped and it’s had some struggles,” she acknowledged, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent derision of HTML5. We have work to do to improve performance, James said, but “we believe it’s a real solution for where users want to go, and where we believe users are going to demand that we go as an industry.”
James then shared several live demonstrations showing the capabilities of HTML5 and what transparent computing can look like, such as:
An all-HTML5interactive multimedia textbookto teach users how to read, write, and speak Chinese that showed how rich an HTML5-based app can be;
Anonline gamebased on River Trail, a set of Intel and Mozilla-developed Java Script parallel extensions—first shown at last year’s IDF—that greatly boost performance, are now available to developers, and mark one example of how Intel will work to optimize HTML5 for our architecture;
An impressiveapp-building programfrom a company called MobBase that allows musical artists like Throw Me The Statue to completely design and deploy their own HTML5-based mobile apps through a web portal, and;
A“digital mementos”service built by Intel running across an Ultrabook, iPad, and Android phone that allows users to plan a walking tour, attach photos to destinations on a map, and send location-based messages to other users.
The mementos demo served not only as a cross-platform HTML5 proof-point, but also offered a peek into a set of Intel-hosted cloud services that will be made available soon to developers, James revealed. These services could include location, identity, sensor APIs, business analytics and intelligence, and a storefront via Intel AppUp.
“These are core elements that are required to realize our vision of transparent computing,” James said, and will “roll out over the course of the year.”
Intel Developer Zone centralizes software communities, tools
To help users achieve transparent computing, James announced the Intel Developer Zone, which brings the formerly disparate Intel online developer communities and websites under a single umbrella.
The new site brings together tools and software development kits, marketing programs, forums, and access to Intel experts, James explained.
James also promised developers access to more betas and early access programs and “a lot more rapid development around services.” In Q4, we’ll launch a specific developer program for HTML5, James noted, with training, tools, and code.
“Transparent computing seems pretty far away from where we stand today,” James concluded, “just as far as a billion computers sounded a decade ago. But we have always believed that the future of computing is what we make it.”
