Intimately brushing the presence of Intel can use the drone to recover lost ground?

The American old boy Intel has been giving people a kind of anxiety about "sickness and urgency" after the perfect miss of the mobile phone era. The Americans are madly looking for the next growth engine and they are crazy. Early layout wearable, wearable can not see hope, then crazy layout smart home, until later these seemingly sexy technology names: artificial intelligence, VR, autonomous, drone...

Intel tried it again. It wants to find the next PC and regain its glory. In the field of drones, it has been trying to approach by side knocking, or to catch up with Dajiang, the biggest opponent in this field. In the past three years of drones, the small company from Shenzhen has not been shaken, even if it is a technology giant. Up to now, DJI still firmly controls the market share of this consumer-grade drone of more than 70%, which is simply a high place.

But this industry does not need to break the monopoly situation. Intel seems to have been waiting for the cheetahs ambushing on the grasslands to invest in drone start-ups, research and development of drone chips, high-profile show-realistic technology, and initiative to "provoke" Dajiang (it is said that the two have been in private communication and cooperation, But the proud Dajiang has been reluctant to compromise.)

Now, Intel seems to have found confidence and presence in the sky of drones. It has been publicly on several occasions – whether it is CES or the IDF summit – to publicly show the drone formation. Create a visual impact with a number of advantages that the public loves. No, Intel just made a deformation show in California with 300 drones in California, sometimes a Christmas tree, and sometimes a pigeon (why not an eagle).

Can it win this drone war?

Disneyland, Santa Clara County, California, United States local time, November 16, 2016. 300 drones marked "Intel" were ready to be unloaded in the open air.

The entire lineup is like this: five or six drones share a launch pad, about one inch apart. They quietly squatted there and charged, looking calm. A few hours later, the sun retired and the 300 drones left the ground under the command of the same computer. The scene was reminiscent of the American monarch butterfly who migrated collectively under the command of the leader...

Subsequently, these drones began the long-awaited air ballet. A huge 3D pattern appeared in the night sky, leaving a large group of reporters in the tech media to look at the ground and look at them. Their expressions seem to tell you that it is a sin to not come.

This time, Disney is an absolute supporting role. All the reports are almost repeating the same content: Intel's ShooTIngStars (yes, this is the uniform name of those drones). The unprecedented lineup staged a light show over Disney. The whole show is called Perfect, highlighting Intel's strength and ambition in the field of drones... Disney? Uh... it might be a venue provider.

Ok, the layman looks at the excitement and the insider looks at the doorway. If you see an unparalleled light and shadow show, then I will tell you: What kind of technical cost is shown by Intel and Intel engineers behind this 20-minute performance? What the show means for Intel's rivals and the entire drone field.

Recover more lost ground in the field of drones

In the course of nearly half a century of development, Intel and Microsoft, like the old giants, have been hiding in the high walls of self-building and have not seized the opportunity before the real arrival of the mobile era.

When the wall was finally dismantled, there was only one tail left in the mobile era.

Later, Intel made a different choice from Microsoft. Where did Microsoft fall and climb up and dance at the tip of the tail? Intel simply abandoned the mobile chip business and turned to other areas that are still blue oceans. For example, unmanned driving (recently announced cooperation with BMW), the integration of reality (the new Alloy headset is said to have exploded the existing AR/VR), and drones.

According to reports, Intel's research on drones began in 2014. In September of that year, Intel announced that it will cooperate with the US drone startup 3DRoboTIcs (3DR) to jointly develop the Edison chip.

The chip is only a stamp size, but it's all-inclusive - it includes an Intel Atom processor, a QuarkMCU, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of flash memory, as well as low-power Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communication modules. Intel's unique real-world capabilities make it a "brain" for drones.

In November of the same year, Intel invested $10 million in investment startup PrecisionHawk. It is reported that the company can provide services such as data collection and security monitoring for commercial drones. That is to say, since then, Intel has begun to prepare for the field of commercial drones.

At the beginning of 2015, Intel signed a cooperation agreement with AscTec, one of the world's four major drone manufacturers, at CES to announce the joint development of intelligent obstacle avoidance technology for drones.

In May of the same year, Intel invested in startup Airware, which began to provide a development platform for commercial drones.

Three months later, Intel spent more than 60 million US dollars to invest in Chinese drone maker Yuneec.

Three months later, Intel once again spared no expense to acquire Altera for $16.7 billion, completing its largest acquisition ever.