Intel's USB Rock Star Was an Actor
Conan O'Brein discovers that Ajay Bhatt wasn't in the Intel commercial, so he makes his own.
The wild and wooly Conan O'Brien of the Tonight Show recently conducted an interview with Intel's Ajay Bhatt. Conan said the interview sparked after discovering that Bhatt doesn't portray himself in the Intel "rock star" ad: the one where he struts his stuff through the office, bathing in a wash of approbation from his fellow co-workers. He's the man, he's a walking legend, but that's not really Bhatt walking the catwalk.
After a brief introduction, Conan starts his interview with the USB co-inventor; Bhatt isn't wearing a toupee, nor is he sporting a hefty mustache. They go over a brief history roughly based on Bhatt's Wikipedia page: how Bhatt approached Intel with the idea, PCI Express, Platform Power Management architecture, and more. "It also says you play Woody on Cheers," Conan added matter of factly.
"That is not true," Bhatt said with a smirk.
Conan then breaks into the FireWire versus USB "cat fight," asking Bhatt if--walking down the street wearing his in solid gold shoes--he would be kind if the FireWire inventor was kneeling naked on the street, begging for bread. The interview moves into how USB was created, and then what was has changed society more: the invention of the USB, or Conan's interview with Rebecca Romijn in 1998.
All in all, Conan never did find out why Bhatt didn't play himself in the Intel commercial, but that's ok: Conan printed an "I co-invented the USB port," and created his own commercial starring the real Ajay Bhatt that definitely outdoes the original. Head to NBC and check out the full interview here.

I mean, the point of the Intel commercial: "Our heroes aren't like yours."
Soo... The point of using an actor was? You probably had to pay the actor more than you would have had to pay the real guy!
Kinda lame, that.
Gotta love those Tom's editors...
The real guy didnt need to be paid, he could probably Conan just to be on the show. He probably is even wealthier than Conan. THe point was, this guy changed history by creating something millions of ppl and businesses use in order to make money, create jobs, and thus stability and overall utility in the economy. Tell me how the USB doesnt change things?
He sure is more of a hero than the guy who saved grandmas cat or even back from an accident. He touched and changed more lives than a regular hero.
Q. Why didn’t you play yourself in the commercial?
This is one of the most asked questions. It keeps coming up again and again and again. Acting is just not my thing. Doing certain things would just not be natural for me. I think going with the actor is just fine.
I love the guy. Royalties for the FireWire are ridiculous.
Once the USB 3.0 is publically available on all modern chipsets, then I'll be a very happy man.
I'd think that a external ATI 4650 would even run decent on a single USB 3.0 port. An external 4650 would be awesome for laptop gaming. Using a single PCIe 2.0 lane can run a 5870 at an average of ~75% it's full 16x performance, so this is feasible.
THIS HAS JUST SHATTERED MY WORLD!
Of course THAT is false. I see the computer buildings in the South Bay all over. Of course they make the computers ...All built by Santa's Elves on a work exchange program.
I just do not understand why people do not agree that Intel commercial is verywell done. It is a super hit commercial today. The credit sure goes to the Director, producer and the cast. I am also trying to make a point further, that Sunil Narkar’s presence really made the difference.
I mean look at this Chinese version of the Intel commercial done by the same crew but with a different actor. Do you think real Ajay Bhatt accting in a commercial would have been successful?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2cO0IEiiI4&feature=related
As an actor any publicity is a good publicity. The personality really gave an edge to this ad and made it successful. In the begining of the show, Conan made no secret of the financial incentive he had to do the interview but it was still pretty fun.
The interview was pretty one-sided with Conan doing almost all the talking. He did his best though but still had to reference a note-card for his one technical question. It wasn’t without it’s humor trying to hype the fight between firewire and USB.
I think people should be able to give more points to his acting, rockstar attitude, the bearing he carried and his looks. In short Sunil Narkar Rock!