Intel Goes Back to the Future with the ‘E-Shell’

[Steve]

At the Intel Develop Forum in San Francisco back in March, Intel had a lot to say about the digital home. It looks as though they are taking action in accordance with their words, evidenced by this extremely retro creation.


Click to englarge

So, what's with the retro?

Inspired by Eero Aarnio’s iconic bubble and ball chairs of the early 1960s, the ‘E-Shell’ harks back to an age when just two or three simple items of technology shared equal space in the living room with exciting new furniture designs and futuristic materials.

In contrast, a study into the 21st Century living room by Intel reveals that 42 percent of Brits complain technology hardware is now crowding them out of their rooms, with an average of five remote controls to cater for home entertainment needs. One in four living rooms (or 25 percent) are stacking up more than seven separate technology devices.

Think about your living room. What have you got in it? DVD Player? VCR? Hi-Fi? TV? The list could go on...

Judging from the ever increasing popularity of HTPCs & Media Centre PCs, people would rather have fewer devices doing more things, than one device for each task. Furthermore, those items should integrate well with the rest of the furniture in the living room. Now, Intel's Shell certainly wouldn't integrate well in my living room; I'm just not cool enough, I guess. Nevertheless, this is a sign of things to come, no doubt, from both Intel and its competitors.

If you look inside the E-Shell, you will find a 3.4 GHz P4 550, 512MiB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. The 'Entertainment PC' version will set you back just nearly £1,100.

For more details, check out Intel's official press release.