Allan Knies
Associate Director, Intel Research Berkeley
I’ve been at Intel since 1995, and I’ve spent most of that time working in processor architecture. When I was approached about the Associate Director position at the Berkeley lab, I thought it was a great opportunity, not only to potentially contribute to new business directions for Intel but also to learn about a variety of research areas that are outside the domain of processor architecture.
When you work on a product team, as I did for many years, the focus is on incremental research that must pay off in a short time frame. What’s exciting about Intel’s university labs is that we do long-term, exploratory research that’s not necessarily aligned with our product roadmap. That gives us the opportunity to come up with the “next big thing” that could contribute to Intel’s future growth.
One aspect of my role is to help the lab’s researchers to manage their careers within Intel. Another key responsibility is to help them find opportunities for their work to make an impact inside of the company. We’re in Berkeley, far away from corporate Intel. It’s my job to ensure that we stay connected to the rest of the company, so that when we develop technology that could be valuable to Intel, it can be transferred to an internal product group for further development. To ensure that happens, I’m frequently on the phone with my contacts, asking them who might be interested in the various research projects going on in the lab.
The most exciting part of my job is being involved with technologies that could lead to new business opportunities for Intel. It’s the nature of exploratory research that most ideas won’t get translated into products. But if you have one or two big ideas that do, that makes the whole organization worthwhile. It’s exciting to think that the research we’re doing today might translate into an entirely new business for Intel in the future.
