Motorola's recent partnership with Intel may manifest itself soon if a possibly leaked render is accurate. The shot captured by PocketNow showed a silver, wedge-shaped design with no buttons on the front. Appropriately, it would be using Android 4.0 and appeared to have a handful of tweaks, such as a hybrid battery/time/weather widget and badges for missed messages.
The VP of Intel's architecture group, Dave Whalen, says the company has been "talking to everybody" about using its Medfield chips in mobile devices, according to UK paper The Telegraph. "When we took over [development] in April we took a conscious decision to focus on Android," Whalen elaborates. "Windows, other operating systems -– we recognize that there will be opportunities. It’s not a 'no,' it's just not now. When the time's appropriate we'll look at other OSs."
Intel is currently showing off a Lenovo tablet, the IdeaTab K2110, that appears to be the first Atom-based Android device to run the latest Ice Cream Sandwich build. The tablet utilizes the same Atom Z2460 processor that powers Intel's own Medfield smartphone reference design and Lenovo's K800 Android smartphone that are also on hand this week at CES.
Lenovo brought its new Atom-powered smartphone, the K800, to a special event following Intel's keynote at CES. Electronista had a chance to try out the unique device, which is expected to be the first Android handset to arrive on the market equipped with Intel's mobile processor.
Although Intel is focusing on ultrabooks this week at CES, the company also brought along a prototype Android handset referred to by the CPU code-name Medfield. Electronista had a chance to try out the Atom-based platform, which aims to compete with ARM-based hardware utilized by most Android smartphones.
A rumor spread Friday has asserted that LG will be the first to make phones using Intel's Medfield platform for Atom chips. Citing unnamed executives from both companies, the Korea Times would have LG use the CES expo to show at least one Android smartphone running on an Atom. When it would ship, if at all, wasn't apparent.
The first tablet running Android 3 on Intel's Medfield platform has been spotted out in the wild by AndroidCommunity. While the Medfield tablets and smartphones are expected to be officially unveiled at CES, this latest leak reveals some tech specs. The 10.1-inch tablet will have a version of Android 3 preloaded and likely use a dual-core 1.6GHz processor. The source said the build quality of the tablet is great, with a hefty weight and thin build.
A new discovery Tuesday has shown that Intel's Medfield chip for smartphones and tablets could temporarily claim the performance lead when it ships. Benchmarks at VR-Zone of a 1.6GHz example of the new Atom had it reach a score of 10,500 in Caffeinemark 3, an Android test for Java. The best ARM chip in the test, the 1.2GHz Exynos from the Samsung Galaxy S II, scored 8,500 points and let Intel take a roughly 24 percent lead.
Intel in a rare step gave a hands-on test of its Medfield-based Atom phone and tablet reference designs to MIT. The institute's Technology Review in testing the Android 2.3-based phone called it "powerful and pleasing," noting that it could play "Blu-ray-quality" video with wireless TV streaming and could shoot burst photos at up to 15FPS for 10 shots. It was "on a par" with newer Android and iPhone hardware, according to the close look.
The unofficial first Android 4.0 x86 port won't get help from Intel, the company's Google program lead Alec Gefrides said in an interview Friday. He noted to EE Times that the Android-x86 project, which is focused on bringing Android to traditional PCs, was largely a straight compile of the basic source code with generic PC support that wasn't Intel's focus. Intel was focused only on optimizing Android for Atom-based phones and tablets, and a spokeswoman added that supporting Android-x86 might fragment the platform further.
Intel and Google on Tuesday detailed a collaboration that will make Android compatible with the Atom range of low-power processors. This will help bring out Intel-based smartphones with Android to market quicker. Android developers will also have the option of bringing apps to the x86 platform for the first time.
Intel's Sean Maloney opened Computex in earnest with a keynote hoping to redefine the ultraportable notebook class. Now calling them "ultrabooks," Intel saw them as systems that were under 0.8 inches thick but could still start under $1,000. The category included systems like the ASUS UX21 and, by extension, the MacBook Air.
ARM could be in half of all mobile computers within four years, company president Tudor Brown said in a speech at the Computex show in Taiwan. He gave the chips about 10 percent of the mobile PC market owing to the iPad and other tablets or smartbooks, but he expected that to jump to over 50 percent by 2015. The architecture's stake should to 15 percent just by the end of the year.
Intel netbook and tablet group lead Doug Davis during a speech on Tuesday at the company's Beijing Developer Forum mentioned a follow-up processor to the Atom Z670. Called Cloverview, it would be built on the same 32 nanometer process as the Cedar Trail design for netbooks and the phone-oriented Medfield but target the in-between tablet category. Davis didn't give more details, but the shrink from 45nm in the Z670 to 32nm would reduce the size and power consumption.
Intel is looking to push its way into the smartphone market through a deal with ZTE, a pair of sources claimed Monday. The phone was designed by Intel and would have an Atom chip but would be made by the Chinese firm for sale within its home country. Bloomberg didn't mention hardware or OS details, but it would likely use the Medfield platform.
Intel in a surprise update said Monday that its Ultra Mobility Group lead Anand Chandrasekher was leaving the company. It would say only that he was leaving to "pursue other interests" after a 24-year career at the chip designer. Two vice presidents from the Intel Architecture Group, Mike Bell and Dave Whalen, would jointly take Chandrasekher's place effective immediately.
Intel has accelerated the development of its Medfield third generation mobile internet device platform according to a report by Digitimes. Citing industry sources, Intel has now shipped prototypes of the Atom-based chips to its Taiwan-based hardware partners for testing. The latest design, fabricated on a 32nm process, is much improved over its predecessors and should be competitive with ARM-based mobile chip designs that currently dominate the mobile device market.
A behind the scenes sighting on Sunday of last-minute Mobile World Congress prep at the Fira de Barcelona confirmed that Intel plans to show a Atom-based MeeGo smartphone at the event on Monday. The unnamed device was seen in a building-sized promo image side-by-side with an unnamed tablet running a larger version of MeeGo. Neither was given a name by Meet MeeGo, but the phone may be Aava Core hinted at earlier.
Aava Mobile is issuing invites to check out its 8.9mm thin Core smartphone at the Mobile World Congress show in mid-February. The device will be powered by the Intel Medfield CPU, just like the phone briefly shown last week. The second-generation Core platform will run on both Android and MeeGo and be aimed at developers rather than end users.
Intel may have given shown the first known instance of a true smartphone using its Medfield-based Atom chips in a new sighting late Sunday. A shot has shown the Ultra Mobility Group's general manager Anand Chandrasekher holding up an unnamed phone at a sales event. From a distance, the hardware seen by a Meego.org forum goer looked to be running on Android but was clearly unrelated to the Aava phone prototype shown last year.
Intel chief Paul Otellini on Wednesday revealed that smartphones running its processors won't arrive until the second half of 2011. After his company promised phones might ship as soon as early 2011 with the Atom Z600, the CEO told those at a Barclays conference that the true smartphone-class chips, codenamed Medfield, is still having its bugs worked out and won't be ready for most of next year.
Intel's Developer Forum in late September should mark the formal debut for its Calpella notebook platform and should serve as an opportunity to showcase its upcoming ultra-mobile technology as well, a leak indicated today. As part of an updated product roadmap, the semiconductor firm should provide detailed specs of Calpella and, presumably, the mobile Core i5 and i7 processors it will use. The overall platform is believed to ship in the fall.
Intel today said it has completed its development work on 32 nanometer manufacturing for its processors. The method introduces a second-generation high-k metal gate as well as new approaches to making patterning layers and transistors, all of which result in a more energy-efficient and thus cooler technology than for Intel's current 45nm chips. Shrinking the process keeps the company on schedule for introducing a new, smaller manufacturing technique each year.
Intel's Atom processor lineup may receive a significant graphics boost in the near future and a more efficient process in less than two years, according to a roadmap leaked by the Register. Intel's next-generation Poulsbo architecture for handhelds, headlined by the Lincroft version of the Atom processor, will reportedly drop Intel's in-house graphics hardware in favor of a PowerVR core integrated with the Atom processor itself. The claimed move would reduce power consumption without sacrificing too much performance and would specifically compete against ARM-based smartphones.
