Case study: Collaboration changes in agile workspaces

The content of the collaborative workspace is based on sensing technology. It varies from group to group and can be tailored to most effectively make use of the available resources.

These spaces are rich in informational and computational power, with localized awareness to extend context and content. They scale from individual to group collaboration and can support many, many different users. They have built-in mass adoption characteristics, including standards-based interfaces and a distributed software component that enables all sorts of devices and displays and building blocks to be stitched together seamlessly.

These spaces make use of historical memory and may automatically reset themselves to pick up where the last collaboration left off. Documents last used, for example, are loaded automatically and put up for display. Lighting and sound may be adjusted. And so on.

Key technologies
The cornerstone of dynamically composable computing is the composition manager, a software program that must be distributed and embedded on every device and in every agile space. It's through the composition manager that connections are made and communication is established.

Intel and Steelcase have demonstrated a specific prototype solution for a collaborative workspace that proves the feasibility of this concept. Based on Steelcase's media:scape® product, the prototype includes a touchscreen display embedded in the conference room table, driven by an embedded computing device which is used to manage the mobile and embedded resources in the workspace. Each of the large screen displays was also connected to its own, energy-efficient Intel® Atom™ processor-based computing system, chosen for its ability to deliver ample computing performance for the task in a small, space-constrained form factor.

Although demonstrated using layer-3 networking protocols, Intel is working to build dynamically composable computing technology into layer-2 of the protocol stack so that users can discover the resources available on each device before making an IP connection, and without needing to associate with a common access point. Eventually, Intel hopes to integrate dynamically composable computing technology right into the chip - similar to Intel® Active Management Technology¹.

When this happens, wireless Intel architecture-based devices will all "see" and "recognize" and "talk" to each other - seamlessly and automatically. And without effort, the devices will be able to discover the resources that are available for sharing - with permission, of course.

As technology continues to become faster, more intelligent and more robust, it's truly only a matter of time before dynamically composable computing becomes mainstream technology. One day, your environment will be your computer.

Footnote:
1. Intel' Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) requires the computer system to have an Intel® AMT-enabled chipset, network hardware and software, as well as connection with a power source and a corporate network connection. Setup requires configuration by the purchaser and may require scripting with the management console or further integration into existing security frameworks to enable certain functionality. It may also require modifications of implementation of new business processes. With regard to notebooks, Intel AMT may not be available or certain capabilities may be limited over a host OS-based VPN or when connecting wirelessly, on battery power, sleeping, hibernating or powered off. For more information, see www.intel.com/technology/platform-technology/intel-amt/.