China UnionPay and Intel join forces for secure mobile payment

At IDF's second-day keynote in Beijing today, Intel announced its collaboration with bank card giant China UnionPay for secure mobile payment, with the latter utilizing Intel's Identity Protection Technology and also its distribution of the Hadoop software framework for datacenters. With UnionPay being China's top bank card organization boasting a total of 3.5 billion cards to date, this is obviously a big deal for Intel both locally and around the world -- at least in the 141 countries and regions where UnionPay is accepted, according to Executive Vice President Chai Hongfeng.

Chai also used his stage time to show off UnionPay Quick Pass, China's very own NFC payment service with over 1.1 million local POS terminals as of December 2012. The exec used none other than Intel's developer device to buy its Corporate Vice President Doug Fisher a can of "Mountain Doug" (we would've preferred "Chai Tea" instead), but of course, HTC beat Intel to it with the joint launch of mobile Quick Pass back in August 2011. Anyhow, there's a press release after the break.

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Intel Developer Forum in Beijing: Day Two

April 11, 2013 - During their keynotes at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing today, Doug Fisher, vice president and general manager, Intel Systems Software Division, and Justin Rattner, chief technology officer, discussed how Intel Corporation is modernizing computing to deliver amazing new experiences to users. Here are brief summaries and the news disclosed during the keynotes.

Doug Fisher, "Intel's Vision for Developers"
Vice President and General Manager, Systems Software Division

Doug Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intel's System Software Division, opened the second day of IDF, addressing several myths surrounding the industry and providing a vision of the vast opportunities that await developers. Specifically, he showcased Intel's transformation of the PC experience and advances in device segments, support of multiple operating environments, and efforts to help developers scale and modernize computing with new hardware features and software advancements for more compelling user experiences. He discussed how developers can incorporate touch and sensor interfaces to modernize applications, and use perceptual compute technologies to enable consumers to interact with PCs via voice control, gesture recognition, and more.

Intel® HTML5 Development Environment: Intel strongly supports and actively invests in HTML5 to ensure this development platform continues to evolve and remain open to innovation, while also helping application developers lower total cost and improve time-to-market for cross-platform application development and deployment. Based on Web standards and supported by W3C, HTML5 enables software developers to create applications once and deploy across multiple platforms with the potential to reach billions of devices, users and customers -- a feat that is difficult to achieve due to the fragmented operating system environment.

Fisher introduced the Intel® HTML5 Development Environment to make HTML5 development accessible to all developers. The solution provides a front-to-back and integrated cross-platform development environment to develop, test and deploy applications for multiple operating systems including iOS*, Android*, Windows* 8 and Windows Phone 8. The Intel HTML5 Development Environment assists developers deploy applications through multiple application stores including Amazon* Appstore, Apple* App Store, Facebook*, Google Chrome Web Store, Google* Play Store and Windows* Phone Store. The Intel HTML5 Development Environment is available to developers from the HTML5 zone on Intel® Developer Zone with no license or usage fees.

UnionPay Announces Cooperation with Intel in Mobile Payments: Using complex technologies including near field communications (NFC), mobile payments and Intel® Identity Protection Technology, Intel has collaborated with a global bankcard network UnionPay, to make mobile payments both easy and secure. Speaking during Fisher's keynote, Hongfeng Chai, executive vice president of UnionPay, introduced the UnionPay Quick Pass service in which consumers can use a NFC smartphone powered by the Intel processor to pay for products everywhere from department stores to vending machines.

Justin Rattner, "Architecting the Future of Computing"
Chief Technology Officer

Intel Chief Technology Officer, Justin Rattner, took the stage to discuss how Intel Labs is drawing up plans for a bright future. He revealed a vision for connected and sustainable cities where information technology helps to address challenges of clean air, clean water, better health and improved safety. He explained how today's mobile, urban lifestyle is demanding faster and cheaper wireless broadband communications. Forecasting a move beyond the information age, Rattner described a new era coined "the data society" and showed how information in the cloud will work on everyone's behalf, collaboratively and safely, by analyzing and relating different data to deliver new value to individuals, enterprises and society as a whole.

Silicon Photonics: Today, Rattner demonstrated for the first time publicly a fully functional silicon photonics module incorporating Intel® Silicon Photonics Technology (SPT) and operating at 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). This is a completely integrated module that includes silicon modulators, detectors, waveguides and circuitry. Intel believes this is the only module in the world that uses a hybrid silicon laser. The demonstration was made via a video during Rattner's keynote.

In addition to the Intel SPT module, Rattner showed the new photonics cable and connector that Intel is developing with Corning. This new connector has fewer moving parts, is less susceptible to dust and costs less than other photonics connectors. Intel and Corning intend to make this new cable and connector an industry standard. Rattner said the connector can carry 1.6 terabits of information per second.

Intel Developer Forum

IDF spans the worlds of mobility, digital enterprise, digital home, and technology and research. Held at the China National Convention Center on April 10-11, the event is geared toward the Chinese market in support of local innovation and Intel's industry leadership in the region. Next up on the IDF schedule is a 3-day event in San Francisco, which will be held Sept. 10-12 at Moscone Center West. Further information is available at www.intel.com/idf.