Intel's Leap Ahead

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini is currently trying to transform the technology giant as we know it

Instead of remaining focused on PCs, he's pushing Intel to play a key technological role in a half-dozen fields, including consumer electronics, wireless communications, and health care. And rather than just microprocessors, he wants Intel to create all kinds of chips, as well as software, and then meld them together into what he calls "platforms." The idea is to power innovation from the living room to the emergency room. The Intel Inside logo will disappear, replaced by an updated Intel logo with a swirl around it to signify movement. For the first time since the early 1990s, the company will add a tag line: "Leap ahead."

Intel's transformation and new strategy is going to announced in next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas and the glitz for the event will be provided by the hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas with their hit song 'Let's Get It Started'.

It is an interesting choice of band for Intel as Black Eyed Peas themselves represent the transformation within hip-hop.

Positive messages and breakdancing are integral parts of hip-hop culture, but by 1990 those elements had been temporarily eclipsed by the tough gangsta image and bleak but compelling lyrics of West Coast groups like N.W.A. However, despite sharing a zip code, Black Eyed Peas' vision goes beyond the cracked-sidewalk vignettes and sampled gunfire of Los Angeles' gangsta style.

Co-incidentally cooking black eyed peas is perhaps the best known American tradition for the New Year's holiday.

Consuming black-eyed peas is the best known U.S. tradition during the New Year's holiday. The tradition, which began in the South, is said to bring good fortune and prosperity.

The stars seem to have been aligned for Intel in this coming year !