Intel Cancels IDF 2017 After 20 Years Of Developer Engagement And Product Showcases

Brian and Euclid
If you look forward to visiting San Francisco for the yearly Intel Developer Forum (IDF), or instead anticipate the coverage from your favorite hardware websites (like HotHardware), we have some sad news for you today. Intel announce that it is ending the upcoming and all future IDF gatherings. This move comes after Intel announced earlier this year that it would cancel its IDF China expo.

Intel broke the news on its official website for IDF 2017, writing:

Intel has evolved its event portfolio and decided to retire the IDF program moving forward. Thank you for nearly 20 great years with the Intel Developer Forum! Intel has a number of resources available on intel.com, including a Resource and Design Center with documentation, software, and tools for designers, engineers, and developers. As always, our customers, partners, and developers should reach out to their Intel representative with questions.

The first IDF took place way back in 1997, with major events primarily held in San Francisco, along with locations around the globe over the years including Tokyo, Japan and Munich, Germany. Over the past decade, Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan have been lynchpins for Intel’s global IDF outreach.

This is definitely sobering news, as we always enjoy visiting the Moscone Center in San Francisco to see all of Intel’s latest wares. Last year at IDF, Intel gave us a demo of [the then upcoming] Kaby Lake architecture; something that is rather “old hat” these days after countless product announcements. The company also trotted out its fully-contained Euclid RealSense PC for robots, and even debuted its 100Gbps Silicon Photonics transceiver module among other announcements from its various hardware partners.

Intel manufacturing D1X 1

Of course, we as tech enthusiasts also enjoy the not-for-public-viewing, closed door sessions where we get one-on-one time with Intel engineers and unreleased products in the pipeline (along with AMD’s off-site antics that usually take place during IDF).

There’s no doubt that one of the most anticipated products that many expected to see on full display at IDF 2017 was Intel’s upcoming Cannon Lake architecture. Earlier this year at CES, confirmed that the 10 nanometer processors would begin shipping later this year.

Cannon Lake represents Intel’s first major die shrink for its mainstream processors since Broadwell came onto the scene in 2014. In February, Intel claimed that its 8th generation Cannon Lake architecture will offer roughly a 15 percent performance boost in SysMark over a comparable Kaby Lake SKU. More recently, however, the company stated that we can expect up to a 25 percent boost in performance over Kaby Lake with a 45 percent reduction in power consumption.

Intel also claims that its 10nm technology is a full generation ahead of its competitors, while offering manufacturing costs the are 30 percent lower.