About Intel developments in Russia
Remember, the site was the program " 5 weeks with Intel "? Today its logical continuation is in its own way - Kamil Isaev is our guest, who until recently occupied the post of marketing director for the Russian office of Intel. On February 1, Camille became CEO for Intel Research and Development in Russia and the CIS.
Under the cut there is an interview from which you can learn about changes in the company's activities, plans for Russian developments and, most importantly, the answer to the question “ What are they doing there ”, which many people had after the post “ Intel Office ”. Well, the opportunity to ask your question has not gone away;)
SSG - Software & Services Group , Intel software development division. For people who are outside the company, Intel looks like a company that primarily manufactures processors. This is the image that we have, and this is essentially true. However, as part of Intel, there is a rather large unit that develops software. Engaged for obvious reasons - iron without the appropriate software does not work. In order for our processors to be sold, we are preparing software that helps developers — for example, application development tools optimized for our platform and for our processors. These are compilers, packages designed for optimization, for example, the vTune profiler, which allows you to eliminate bottlenecks in programs and improve their performance. The next stage of development of such tools is our relatively new product called Intel Parallel Studio . In addition, these are libraries, for example, libraries of standard mathematical functions, MKL (Math Kernel Library), there are Intel Performance Primitives, and so on - a number of libraries that are intended to help developers.
')
That's right, and it’s not for nothing that the SSG was recently renamed from Software Solutions Group to Software and Services Group - the abbreviation is the same, but the appearance of the word “services” is very symbolic. Work is underway to expand the range of Intel's activities in terms of developing and launching on the market some services that could become paid, that is, would help the company to make money. “Services” is a rather broad concept, so the mentioned AppUp Store can also be considered as a certain service, in any case, the interface itself is developed within the SSG group that deals specifically with services. There are other groups involved, for example, in various security systems, but basically everything related to services is, in a sense, a venture for Intel. It is clear why - the company has never done this before, these are new projects for it, and success, like in any venture enterprise, is not guaranteed. Nevertheless, such a commitment on the part of management exists, and I hope that we will have some success.
I have been at Intel for thirteen years, during which time I managed to work in a variety of different positions. My first work concerned university programs, if more widely, then educational programs; to a certain extent, at the same time, I had experience with government organizations. The second job is the leader of a group called TMG, Technology Manufacturing Group, an Intel technology division. At the time when I was engaged in it, and it was 2002–2005, the Russian part of this division was founded, which I headed. The third stage, which today is nearing completion, is the marketing director in Russia and the CIS countries. The position I come to is the Director General for Research and Development in Russia, that is, the person in charge of the SSG group. I think that from the above it is clear that for thirteen years I have managed to gain a wide experience, while remaining at the same time an employee of the company. This is undoubtedly one of the factors contributing to the appointment, because the experience that I received in the position of educational program manager, in the process of interaction with government organizations, in the process of managing the engineering division is an experience that is very relevant to my new position. My education is not 100% consistent with the tasks of software development - I graduated from the Moscow State University, and I am a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, but my education was directly related to Intel - I was involved in plasma physics, which is also used in the production of microchips.
It seems to me that the company’s management expects a greater return from the Russian division of SSG than it was before. He expects more interesting and more breakthrough projects that will emerge here in Russia. My task is to meet these expectations. Of course, not only personally, but together with the team.
Intel now has about 85 thousand employees. Without Wind River and other recent acquisitions, over three thousand people work in the SSG. In Russia - about 700, so that the employees of the Russian office make up a significant proportion of SSG; other major SSG units are located in the USA and China.
Library development is primarily a Russian product. Compilers - to a significant extent.
It happened historically - knowledge, expertise. Intel has been present in Russia since 1991, SSG - since 1992. It all began with contracts with the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, while VNIIEF; a fairly large number of programmers with relevant knowledge and skills worked in the mathematical department of the Institute of Experimental Physics.
The company takes very seriously what is called diversity, diversity. To a variety of ideas, approaches - this is especially important in R & D. Intel as a global company could not exist without it - it would not be so successful in developing the products that it currently represents on the market. Moreover, in each of these products there are years of labor of thousands of engineers. The Russian scientific school and the education system take their place in this system - for various reasons we are different from the rest of the world, this is normal. Diversity just assumes that a variety of trends and ideas are taken into account, and these ideas must be heard. And in order to realize this diversity, we need managers.
With government organizations, such as universities and the Academy of Sciences, we have been interacting for a long time and very intensively. It is impossible to build any significant business in the field of high technologies without interaction with the environment, including with the state and some of its institutions. With this environment must necessarily pass the exchange of ideas and opinions. Sometimes this exchange is formal - for example, it can be research projects between Intel and universities, and sometimes less formal, because there are conferences in which we participate and which we support, laboratories in universities and so on. Our profile ministries are the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Economic Development. Now is an opportune moment to bring such cooperation to a new level. Apparently, because now the intersection of our and state interests is much more significant than it was a few years ago.
It is obvious that now the topic of diversifying the Russian economy and giving it a more modern look, the transition from a predominantly commodity economy to a more modern, more innovative, more mobile and less resource-intensive model, is extremely popular. Sometimes they say that these are just words. This is partly true, but in public life the word is very important. The thesis “in the beginning was the word” is well applicable to public life, especially if this word comes from the first persons of the state, since in our society it has always been important what the first persons say. Now the topic of building an innovative economy in Russia has become fashionable - in the good sense of the word. Words about this sound from different media for a variety of reasons.
Something is already being done. We all know that there is a company Rosnano; one can argue about its effectiveness, but the very fact of its existence is important, because it is a certain message, a certain message that is transmitted to the society. I think that if the intentions to reorganize the economy are serious, then the right trends should be helped. Intel is one of those organizations that are able to help with expertise, and even by the very fact of their existence, the very fact that you can make money with high technologies, very good and for a very long time. We have been cooperating with Rosnano quite intensively for more than a year already; a protocol of intent has been signed, so our cooperation is formalized. Like any interaction, it starts with small things. We have already participated in two Rosnanoforums that the state corporation holds annually - we participated not just as sponsors, but with some content. For example, together with Rosnano, we are holding a competition for high-performance computing (HPC) , and there are plans to expand cooperation, including at the next Rosnanoforum, because any such event is a kind of milestone, a very good reason to do something by a certain time. Just by this time we are catching up and are planning to participate in the exhibition at the next forum. Of course, we will repeat the next HPC competition, in addition, we are planning, together with Rosnano, to organize a special section within the framework of the Rosnanoforum, devoted mainly to high-performance computing and with a focus on the use of HPC in business. There are other plans for cooperation with Rosnano and the Russian Venture Company. With RVC, we are still at the stage of discussing joint projects, but, of course, our spheres of interests have intersections - this is the already mentioned development of the ecosystem, and venture investment. We are interested in our industry and other related sectors of the economy growing.
Intel does not comment on the actions of other companies. But, indeed, it is difficult to talk about such things in isolation from the context, it is sometimes convenient to refer to the actions of other companies - if we take Apple as a point of reference, then let's discuss Apple, but with the proviso that this is my personal opinion and it is not official opinion of the company in no way. The issue is most likely caused by the recent announcement of the iPad ; It seems to me that the iPad is a representative of a new product category. New in a relative degree, since attempts to bring such products to the market have been made over the past few years. How successful this new category is is a matter of time, it’s worth waiting and seeing. But already in terms of expectations and excitement around the launch of this device, one cannot say that this is a completely unsuccessful thing. Apple manages to create “platform” products inside of itself - it’s not only (and not so much) engineering, “iron” stuffing, it’s really an interface, a set of various things that make this product whole. As a result, the company has an army of loyal, very loyal fans - in the marketing sense of Apple, this is a classic lovemark.
Repeating the success of products like the iPhone is extremely difficult. It is clear that after he appeared, a whole series of followers appeared, this is good; it should be. To make something new from the same series is an extremely difficult and poorly formalized task. It is impossible, carefully looking at Apple, to copy their experience somewhere else. I think that there are things that simply fall in resonance with human nature. The example that comes to my mind is a Barbie doll. What is it special? I think there are some things in it that have passed by the attention of millions of people who made dolls before, and somehow miraculously got into the head of the person who invented such a doll. It is almost like love. Chemistry. How to formalize all this? I think this is pure art. Apple employs absolutely brilliant people who manage to surprise the world over the years. However, there are strengths both with them and with us - the strengths on which we build success. The nature of Intel-made products is specific - they do not fall into the hands of the end user; This applies to both hardware and software that we create.
Right. So we have a desire that such products come to the final consumer. Once there is desire, there is hope. There is no specific recipe for obtaining such results, but we understand that we need to move in this direction - especially considering the ongoing diversification of devices, which I mentioned. Devices are becoming more personal, so that the aforementioned love for them plays an increasing role. In this love, software and other elements related to the user interface also play an increasing role. So we have an understanding of the importance of such developments, and plans - but developments in this area are at an early stage.
I believe that the success of computer technology and information technology over the past 20 years convincingly shows that they are resonating with human nature, like the Barbie doll mentioned above - although I’m not talking about a specific product, but about the whole direction that concerns storage , processing and transmission of information.
Why? Let's take a look at progress over the past two hundred years as an example. Let's compare the lifestyle of a city dweller, some official, 200 years ago and now. We will see that they do not differ radically - such a person lives in similar houses, goes to the service, eats similar food. What is different? Different communication, storage and transmission of information. If you add travels here, which, by and large, is also communication, because people also go for information — the world to see and show themselves — then we will see the most incredible changes. Therefore, we can consider the evolution of IT-technologies as a certain criterion of the evolution of mankind in general and in general. This observation allows me to conclude that our industry will never disappear - moreover, it will always flourish. So ahead of us all waiting for a large number of the most interesting work.
Well, perhaps that's all. If you still have or have any questions about the company, feel free to ask!
Successes!
Under the cut there is an interview from which you can learn about changes in the company's activities, plans for Russian developments and, most importantly, the answer to the question “ What are they doing there ”, which many people had after the post “ Intel Office ”. Well, the opportunity to ask your question has not gone away;)
What is SSG?
SSG - Software & Services Group , Intel software development division. For people who are outside the company, Intel looks like a company that primarily manufactures processors. This is the image that we have, and this is essentially true. However, as part of Intel, there is a rather large unit that develops software. Engaged for obvious reasons - iron without the appropriate software does not work. In order for our processors to be sold, we are preparing software that helps developers — for example, application development tools optimized for our platform and for our processors. These are compilers, packages designed for optimization, for example, the vTune profiler, which allows you to eliminate bottlenecks in programs and improve their performance. The next stage of development of such tools is our relatively new product called Intel Parallel Studio . In addition, these are libraries, for example, libraries of standard mathematical functions, MKL (Math Kernel Library), there are Intel Performance Primitives, and so on - a number of libraries that are intended to help developers.
')
But there are such projects as AppUp Store and Moblin ?
That's right, and it’s not for nothing that the SSG was recently renamed from Software Solutions Group to Software and Services Group - the abbreviation is the same, but the appearance of the word “services” is very symbolic. Work is underway to expand the range of Intel's activities in terms of developing and launching on the market some services that could become paid, that is, would help the company to make money. “Services” is a rather broad concept, so the mentioned AppUp Store can also be considered as a certain service, in any case, the interface itself is developed within the SSG group that deals specifically with services. There are other groups involved, for example, in various security systems, but basically everything related to services is, in a sense, a venture for Intel. It is clear why - the company has never done this before, these are new projects for it, and success, like in any venture enterprise, is not guaranteed. Nevertheless, such a commitment on the part of management exists, and I hope that we will have some success.
What personal and professional qualities contributed to your appointment?
I have been at Intel for thirteen years, during which time I managed to work in a variety of different positions. My first work concerned university programs, if more widely, then educational programs; to a certain extent, at the same time, I had experience with government organizations. The second job is the leader of a group called TMG, Technology Manufacturing Group, an Intel technology division. At the time when I was engaged in it, and it was 2002–2005, the Russian part of this division was founded, which I headed. The third stage, which today is nearing completion, is the marketing director in Russia and the CIS countries. The position I come to is the Director General for Research and Development in Russia, that is, the person in charge of the SSG group. I think that from the above it is clear that for thirteen years I have managed to gain a wide experience, while remaining at the same time an employee of the company. This is undoubtedly one of the factors contributing to the appointment, because the experience that I received in the position of educational program manager, in the process of interaction with government organizations, in the process of managing the engineering division is an experience that is very relevant to my new position. My education is not 100% consistent with the tasks of software development - I graduated from the Moscow State University, and I am a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, but my education was directly related to Intel - I was involved in plasma physics, which is also used in the production of microchips.
Why is this post appearing right now?
It seems to me that the company’s management expects a greater return from the Russian division of SSG than it was before. He expects more interesting and more breakthrough projects that will emerge here in Russia. My task is to meet these expectations. Of course, not only personally, but together with the team.
SSG total in Intel?
Intel now has about 85 thousand employees. Without Wind River and other recent acquisitions, over three thousand people work in the SSG. In Russia - about 700, so that the employees of the Russian office make up a significant proportion of SSG; other major SSG units are located in the USA and China.
Does the Russian part of the SSG have its own specifics?
Library development is primarily a Russian product. Compilers - to a significant extent.
Why?
It happened historically - knowledge, expertise. Intel has been present in Russia since 1991, SSG - since 1992. It all began with contracts with the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, while VNIIEF; a fairly large number of programmers with relevant knowledge and skills worked in the mathematical department of the Institute of Experimental Physics.
Is Intel planning to cooperate more closely with Russian science?
The company takes very seriously what is called diversity, diversity. To a variety of ideas, approaches - this is especially important in R & D. Intel as a global company could not exist without it - it would not be so successful in developing the products that it currently represents on the market. Moreover, in each of these products there are years of labor of thousands of engineers. The Russian scientific school and the education system take their place in this system - for various reasons we are different from the rest of the world, this is normal. Diversity just assumes that a variety of trends and ideas are taken into account, and these ideas must be heard. And in order to realize this diversity, we need managers.
Do you plan closer cooperation with government organizations?
With government organizations, such as universities and the Academy of Sciences, we have been interacting for a long time and very intensively. It is impossible to build any significant business in the field of high technologies without interaction with the environment, including with the state and some of its institutions. With this environment must necessarily pass the exchange of ideas and opinions. Sometimes this exchange is formal - for example, it can be research projects between Intel and universities, and sometimes less formal, because there are conferences in which we participate and which we support, laboratories in universities and so on. Our profile ministries are the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Economic Development. Now is an opportune moment to bring such cooperation to a new level. Apparently, because now the intersection of our and state interests is much more significant than it was a few years ago.
Why?
It is obvious that now the topic of diversifying the Russian economy and giving it a more modern look, the transition from a predominantly commodity economy to a more modern, more innovative, more mobile and less resource-intensive model, is extremely popular. Sometimes they say that these are just words. This is partly true, but in public life the word is very important. The thesis “in the beginning was the word” is well applicable to public life, especially if this word comes from the first persons of the state, since in our society it has always been important what the first persons say. Now the topic of building an innovative economy in Russia has become fashionable - in the good sense of the word. Words about this sound from different media for a variety of reasons.
Something is already being done. We all know that there is a company Rosnano; one can argue about its effectiveness, but the very fact of its existence is important, because it is a certain message, a certain message that is transmitted to the society. I think that if the intentions to reorganize the economy are serious, then the right trends should be helped. Intel is one of those organizations that are able to help with expertise, and even by the very fact of their existence, the very fact that you can make money with high technologies, very good and for a very long time. We have been cooperating with Rosnano quite intensively for more than a year already; a protocol of intent has been signed, so our cooperation is formalized. Like any interaction, it starts with small things. We have already participated in two Rosnanoforums that the state corporation holds annually - we participated not just as sponsors, but with some content. For example, together with Rosnano, we are holding a competition for high-performance computing (HPC) , and there are plans to expand cooperation, including at the next Rosnanoforum, because any such event is a kind of milestone, a very good reason to do something by a certain time. Just by this time we are catching up and are planning to participate in the exhibition at the next forum. Of course, we will repeat the next HPC competition, in addition, we are planning, together with Rosnano, to organize a special section within the framework of the Rosnanoforum, devoted mainly to high-performance computing and with a focus on the use of HPC in business. There are other plans for cooperation with Rosnano and the Russian Venture Company. With RVC, we are still at the stage of discussing joint projects, but, of course, our spheres of interests have intersections - this is the already mentioned development of the ecosystem, and venture investment. We are interested in our industry and other related sectors of the economy growing.
Let's take a look at one of the ideas promoted by Intel - the idea of ​​a MID, a mobile Internet device. MID is not only a technical product, but also a software design product to a large extent. The latest developments around MID show a curious moment - the design of the user interface and what is called user experience is a big task, primarily related to software development. What are Intel (and SSG in particular) plans in this area?
Intel does not comment on the actions of other companies. But, indeed, it is difficult to talk about such things in isolation from the context, it is sometimes convenient to refer to the actions of other companies - if we take Apple as a point of reference, then let's discuss Apple, but with the proviso that this is my personal opinion and it is not official opinion of the company in no way. The issue is most likely caused by the recent announcement of the iPad ; It seems to me that the iPad is a representative of a new product category. New in a relative degree, since attempts to bring such products to the market have been made over the past few years. How successful this new category is is a matter of time, it’s worth waiting and seeing. But already in terms of expectations and excitement around the launch of this device, one cannot say that this is a completely unsuccessful thing. Apple manages to create “platform” products inside of itself - it’s not only (and not so much) engineering, “iron” stuffing, it’s really an interface, a set of various things that make this product whole. As a result, the company has an army of loyal, very loyal fans - in the marketing sense of Apple, this is a classic lovemark.
Here we again come to the idea that, by and large, the success of this kind of products is provided not so much by the hardware of the device as by its software part and the presence of the platform. A good example is the iPhone, whose operating system has undergone fundamental changes over the past few years, but the hardware stuffing of the device cannot be called advanced.
Repeating the success of products like the iPhone is extremely difficult. It is clear that after he appeared, a whole series of followers appeared, this is good; it should be. To make something new from the same series is an extremely difficult and poorly formalized task. It is impossible, carefully looking at Apple, to copy their experience somewhere else. I think that there are things that simply fall in resonance with human nature. The example that comes to my mind is a Barbie doll. What is it special? I think there are some things in it that have passed by the attention of millions of people who made dolls before, and somehow miraculously got into the head of the person who invented such a doll. It is almost like love. Chemistry. How to formalize all this? I think this is pure art. Apple employs absolutely brilliant people who manage to surprise the world over the years. However, there are strengths both with them and with us - the strengths on which we build success. The nature of Intel-made products is specific - they do not fall into the hands of the end user; This applies to both hardware and software that we create.
Do not fall yet. Because now AppUp Store appears.
Right. So we have a desire that such products come to the final consumer. Once there is desire, there is hope. There is no specific recipe for obtaining such results, but we understand that we need to move in this direction - especially considering the ongoing diversification of devices, which I mentioned. Devices are becoming more personal, so that the aforementioned love for them plays an increasing role. In this love, software and other elements related to the user interface also play an increasing role. So we have an understanding of the importance of such developments, and plans - but developments in this area are at an early stage.
I believe that the success of computer technology and information technology over the past 20 years convincingly shows that they are resonating with human nature, like the Barbie doll mentioned above - although I’m not talking about a specific product, but about the whole direction that concerns storage , processing and transmission of information.
Why? Let's take a look at progress over the past two hundred years as an example. Let's compare the lifestyle of a city dweller, some official, 200 years ago and now. We will see that they do not differ radically - such a person lives in similar houses, goes to the service, eats similar food. What is different? Different communication, storage and transmission of information. If you add travels here, which, by and large, is also communication, because people also go for information — the world to see and show themselves — then we will see the most incredible changes. Therefore, we can consider the evolution of IT-technologies as a certain criterion of the evolution of mankind in general and in general. This observation allows me to conclude that our industry will never disappear - moreover, it will always flourish. So ahead of us all waiting for a large number of the most interesting work.
Well, perhaps that's all. If you still have or have any questions about the company, feel free to ask!
Successes!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/83028/
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