Intel 5th Generation vPro Processors Released
With its newest vPro offering, based on the company's 5th generation Core chips and announced on Thursday, Intel is touting features aimed at eliminating time wasted at the start of conference-room meetings, wifi connectivity to overhead projectors and other large screens without having to fiddle with cables.
vPro chips are used for laptops, desktops and convertible devices.
The new chips use the similar technology to eliminate the need for docking stations used at office workstations to connect laptops to monitors and keyboards. Connecting a laptop wirelessly to a peripheral is as easy as bringing it within communication range. A laptop within range will automatically recognize a monitor that's attached to the dock and start beaming images wirelessly. Wireless charging is expected to come in the second half of this year with the chip maker's new Skylake processors, which will succeed Broadwell.
The wireless dock is based on WiGig (60GHz) technology, which provides high-speed data transfers of up to 7Gbps over short distances.
Besides the wireless dock, laptops and tablets linked through a dock could immediately share or transfer data with the flick of a finger on a screen. The dock can support up to two high-definition displays, tablets, cameras, storage drives and other peripherals.
HP is already offering an optional wireless dock with its recently announced Elite X2 1011 hybrid. HP developed the dock with Intel. Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus and others are also expected to ship laptops with the Core vPro chips.
The new Broadwell processors will also support vPro technology, a set of remote management and security features offered by Intel. In case a laptop is stolen, vPro allows data to be wiped remotely. Hardware issues can also be resolved remotely with the help of vPro features on hardware.
vPro is an out-of-band management technology -- Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). While many professionals experience IT management such as software updates and group policy enforcement, these are all at the OS level. Intel AMT provides IT tools at the hardware level, which means remote PCs can be accessed even when the OS is down or the power is off.
AMT is also using an integrated VNC server, allowing remote monitoring of the Intel integrated graphics feed and even keyboard/mouse control. Going even further, Intel AMT can even redirect the boot process of a PC to an IT provided remote image.
New features in Intel Setup and Configuration Software and AMT 10.0 include management of Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series, a location based services editor, Windows InstantGo support, blanking the screen during remote control sessions, and some other low level changes such as patching the OpenSSL heartbeat bug.
vPro also includes Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which works with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to secure a device against low level attacks and provide unique secure device identifiers to management systems.
Intel Pro Wireless Display (Pro WiDi) is a variation of the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology. Wi-Fi direct connections made by WiDi Pro can now use enterprise security, a display confirmation handshake appears on both screens to prevent accidental sharing to the wrong display, managed display hand off to multiple devices in the same meeting room via GUI operations, and remote IT management of security certificates on Pro WiDi devices.
Finally, Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) now supports multi-factor authentication. This provides IT with more options to specify which authentication factors can be used for enterprise applications, such as a paired Bluetooth device.
The new chips use the similar technology to eliminate the need for docking stations used at office workstations to connect laptops to monitors and keyboards. Connecting a laptop wirelessly to a peripheral is as easy as bringing it within communication range. A laptop within range will automatically recognize a monitor that's attached to the dock and start beaming images wirelessly. Wireless charging is expected to come in the second half of this year with the chip maker's new Skylake processors, which will succeed Broadwell.
The wireless dock is based on WiGig (60GHz) technology, which provides high-speed data transfers of up to 7Gbps over short distances.
Besides the wireless dock, laptops and tablets linked through a dock could immediately share or transfer data with the flick of a finger on a screen. The dock can support up to two high-definition displays, tablets, cameras, storage drives and other peripherals.
HP is already offering an optional wireless dock with its recently announced Elite X2 1011 hybrid. HP developed the dock with Intel. Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus and others are also expected to ship laptops with the Core vPro chips.
The new Broadwell processors will also support vPro technology, a set of remote management and security features offered by Intel. In case a laptop is stolen, vPro allows data to be wiped remotely. Hardware issues can also be resolved remotely with the help of vPro features on hardware.
vPro is an out-of-band management technology -- Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). While many professionals experience IT management such as software updates and group policy enforcement, these are all at the OS level. Intel AMT provides IT tools at the hardware level, which means remote PCs can be accessed even when the OS is down or the power is off.
AMT is also using an integrated VNC server, allowing remote monitoring of the Intel integrated graphics feed and even keyboard/mouse control. Going even further, Intel AMT can even redirect the boot process of a PC to an IT provided remote image.
New features in Intel Setup and Configuration Software and AMT 10.0 include management of Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series, a location based services editor, Windows InstantGo support, blanking the screen during remote control sessions, and some other low level changes such as patching the OpenSSL heartbeat bug.
vPro also includes Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which works with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to secure a device against low level attacks and provide unique secure device identifiers to management systems.
Intel Pro Wireless Display (Pro WiDi) is a variation of the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology. Wi-Fi direct connections made by WiDi Pro can now use enterprise security, a display confirmation handshake appears on both screens to prevent accidental sharing to the wrong display, managed display hand off to multiple devices in the same meeting room via GUI operations, and remote IT management of security certificates on Pro WiDi devices.
Finally, Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) now supports multi-factor authentication. This provides IT with more options to specify which authentication factors can be used for enterprise applications, such as a paired Bluetooth device.
