Skip to main content

Microsoft and Intel unite to bring blockchain to businesses

You still may not know what bitcoin is, but soon, you could be working with the technology that powers the cryptocurrency. Intel and Microsoft are working together to bring blockchain into the workplace, and it’s all contingent on a new framework they’re calling Coco. Heralded as a first-of-its-kind innovation, the goal is to jumpstart widespread adoption, particularly among businesses, of blockchain technology. After all, blockchain allows for secure and speedy transactions, which are key to many modern businesses.

As Microsoft noted in a news release, the Coco Framework is meant to reduce the complexity currently associated with blockchain protocol technology. As such, the company notes, the framework could pave the way for “more complex, real-world blockchain scenarios across industries — like financial services, supply chain and logistics, healthcare and retail — further proving blockchain’s potential to digitally transform business.”

Recommended Videos

Once integrated with a blockchain network, the Coco Framework could allow for transaction speeds of more than 1,600 transactions per second as well as seamless and confidential data management.

“Blockchain is a transformational technology with the ability to significantly reduce the friction of doing business,” Mark Russinovich, chief technology officer of Azure at Microsoft, said. “We have listened to the needs of our customers and the blockchain community and are bringing foundational functionality with the Coco Framework.”

While this won’t necessarily mean that every company everywhere will suddenly implement blockchain solutions, it does mean that large corporations that have trouble reaching privacy and security at scale could begin to more easily take advantage of a technology that really does lend itself quite well to business.

“We are thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring blockchain to the enterprise,” Rick Echevarria, vice president, Software and Services Group and General Manager, Platforms Security Division at Intel, said. “Our mutual customers are excited by the potential of blockchain. Intel is committed to accelerating the value of blockchains powered by Azure on Intel hardware, by improving the scalability, privacy and security of the solutions based on our technologies.”

So start reading up on your bitcoin and blockchain news , friends. It could soon affect your daily life sooner than you think.

Lulu Chang
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
AMD and Intel are being locked out of Copilot+ — for now
AMD CEO Lisa Su presenting performance for Ryzen AI CPUs.

AMD and Intel are missing the Copilot+ boat. Despite AMD launching its Ryzen AI 300 CPUs and Intel previewing its Lunar Lake chips at Computex 2024, it seems like these components won't support the AI features available to Copilot+ PCs at launch. Instead, they'll get support in the future through a software update.

Ryzen AI 300 and Lunar Lake both come with a neural processing unit (NPU) that meets Microsoft's requirements for a Copilot+ PC, but Microsoft is initially restricting access to features like Recall and Auto Super Resolution to laptops with Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, reports The Verge.

Read more
Microsoft is warping the PC industry into something unrecognizable
The Surface Laptop shown in front of a Copilot+ sign.

Microsoft has often taken a backseat in driving the direction of the PC industry. But that time is over.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've had a front row seat in seeing just how much power Microsoft has within the PC industry. Of course, developing the primary operating system used across millions (billions?) of devices gives you a lot of say, but the introduction of Copilot+ and the hardware announcements that followed show what can happen when Microsoft flexes its muscle.

Read more
How Intel and Microsoft are teaming up to take on Apple
An Intel Meteor Lake system-on-a-chip.

It seems like Apple might need to watch out, because Intel and Microsoft are coming for it after the latter two companies reportedly forged a close partnership during the development of Intel Lunar Lake chips. Lunar Lake refers to Intel's upcoming generation of mobile processors that are aimed specifically at the thin and light segment. While the specs are said to be fairly modest, some signs hint that Lunar Lake may have enough of an advantage to pose a threat to some of the best processors.

Today's round of Intel Lunar Lake leaks comes from Igor's Lab. The system-on-a-chip (SoC), pictured above, is Intel's low-power solution made for thin laptops that's said to be coming out later this year. Curiously, the chips weren't manufactured on Intel's own process, but on TSMC's N3B node. This is an interesting development because Intel typically sticks to its own fabs, and it even plans to sell its manufacturing services to rivals like AMD. This time, however, Intel opted for the N3B node for its compute tile.

Read more