10/28, 11:30am
Apple may see future Atom as too hungry
Apple has flatly rejected Intel's Moorestown Atom platform for being too power-hungry, a rumor claims today. Unnamed industry contacts say Intel reportedly approached Apple on its own to suggest the ultra-mobile platform but that the Mac creator rejected it outright due to power concerns. According to the Fudzilla source, Apple needed idle power consumption about ten times lower than what Moorestown can manage.
more
10/12, 9:20am
Intel's MID platform dwarfed by 2012
Intel's mobile Internet device (MID) platform is unlikely to get any significant traction versus smartphones even years into its life, a study from the Information Network says on Monday. Although Intel has very frequently pushed the category, which usually has a screen between five and eight inches and focuses on basic Internet access, it's only expected to sell a fraction of what smartphones will manage. MID numbers should swell from just over 3.1 million shipped to 37.5 million in 2012 but will be easily eclipsed by their phone rivals, which will jump from 185.3 million units to 365 million over the same period, or nearly ten times more units than MIDs.
more
09/28, 5:55pm
Intel plans more frequent Atom updates
Intel will more aggressively update the Atom processor than it has in the past, executive VP Sean Maloney said in an interview published today. The company waited roughly a year between the original Atom launch and its Z500 upgrade but now plans to put it more closely on the faster "tick tock" pattern it uses for regular processors, where it first shrinks the manufacturing process for an existing design and later ships a new architecture built on that process. Such upgrades will start in earnest with Pine Trail this fall, which technically achieves both by moving to a smaller 45 nanometer design and moving the graphics core to within the processor.
more
07/17, 9:50am
Intel Calpella at IDF Sept
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.
more
07/10, 7:35am
Intel Talks Google on MIDs
Intel today is now claimed to be in formal discussions with Google over backing Android for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Although Intel has its own Moblin Linux platform, those firm making the handhelds in Taiwan say Intel wants to be the choice of hardware for any operating system, including Android. It believes creating a healthy hardware and software environment will help the wider industry, according to DigiTimes.
more
06/23, 11:45am
Intel Nokia Partnership
Intel and Nokia today struck a multi-year deal to develop a new form of mobile device processor architecture. The two have few details but hope to produce pocketable hardware which is nonetheless in a "new class" rather than a smartphone or even a larger system like a netbook or notebook. They intend to work together on multiple mobile Linux projects related to the architecture, including the oFono cellphone OS as well as Nokia's Maemo, Intel's Moblin and components they intend to share, such as Mozilla's browser technology.
more
06/23, 7:45am
Nokia May Use Intel Chips
A last-minute leak this past evening would have Nokia use Intel processors for the first time in some of its devices. One unnamed source for Bloomberg claims that an announcement could come as early as this morning from Intel senior mobility VP Anand Chandrasekher that it has landed a deal to supply chips to Nokia. What this would entail isn't evident, though it would almost certainly involve a variant of the Atom processor and likely wouldn't be a complete replacement of Nokia's line.
more
06/10, 3:55pm
Elektrobit Moorestown MID
Finland-based Elektrobit has recently demonstrated a cellular-voice-enabled mobile Internet device (MID) known as the Reference Device and based on Intel's next-generation Atom processor, codenamed Moorestown. The device will also sport a special build of the Linux-based Moblin v2 operating system optimized for use in MIDs and with cellular phone support. The EB design was co-developed along with Intel and Ericsson, and will be offered to companies in custom specs.
more
06/05, 8:00am
Market for MIDs Crashing
Sales of mobile Internet devices (MIDs) have fallen well short of Intel's expectations for the category it invented, those at companies making the devices claimed on Friday. The American company reportedly estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 of the handheld devices would sell since the Atom Z500 was launched in March but, according to DigiTimes' sources, has only managed 30,000 actual sales. Economic conditions have rendered the devices too expensive for many, while others have been reluctant to use the 3G data features inherent to MIDs.
more
06/04, 10:10am
Intel to Buy Wind River
Intel on Thursday said it would buy embedded software developer Wind River for $884 million in cash. The deal is mutual and is aimed directly at improving Intel's stance in the mobile space. As the purchaser, Intel expects to improve both its hardware and software in the field; it sees this as especially helpful for smartphones and mobile Internet devices but also anticipates Wind River helping anywhere embedded systems are useful, such as in-car media systems and set-top boxes.
more
04/22, 4:25pm
Compal scaling back MIDs
DigiTimes reported on Wednesday that Compal Electronics reduced the budget and other resources for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) as the company believes the future of the market segment is uncertain. The report cites unnamed industry sources for the information, and Compal itself has confirmed that some of its MID focus was shifted into netbook development. It will continue to ship MIDs in smaller volumes.
more
04/08, 12:10am
Intel Moorestown Demo
Intel at its Developer Forum in Beijing today demonstrated the first public example of Moorestown, its next major update to the Atom processor. The first practical version is described as about 10 times more power-efficient than today's Atom chips courtesy of a smaller 45nm manufacturing process, power management and other optimizations. At the same time, the design is also smaller thanks to building in both the graphics and memory controllers into the main core while leaving just input and output to a second chip.
more
02/16, 5:25pm
LG and Intel develop MID
LG and Intel on Monday announced they will be the first to launch a Mobile Internet Device (MID) based on Intel's next-generation hardware platform dubbed Moorestown and the Linux-based Moblin v2.0 software platform. The Moorestown platform is made up of a System on Chip, named Lincroft, that includes a 45nm Intel Atom CPU along with a graphics, video and memory controller. The platform also has an I/O hub codenamed Langwell that supports wireless connection devices and hosts a range of I/O blocks.
more
11/04, 9:40am
Intel Menlow Refresh
Intel is developing an update to its Atom variants for handhelds that should arrive in just a few months, says an apparent tip from companies building mobile Internet devices, or MIDs. Known as the Menlow refresh for the processor platform's codename, the update would boost most of the line a speed grade upwards; the Z550 would clock higher than 1.83GHz, while the Z534 would escape the 1.6GHz speeds used by nearly all Atom computers. A Z515 would also bring clock speeds faster than 800MHz to the very smallest handhelds.
more
10/20, 7:50am
Intel Demos Moorestown
Intel today at the start of its fall Developer Forum showed off a working example of a Moorestown-based device, putting the chipset on track for its 2009-2010 launch window. The chipmaker has yet to describe the device but reiterates that the technology should be much more effective for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and ultra-mobile PCs. Through a 45 nanometer process as well as a redesign of the processor itself, the idle power alone will represent just a tenth that of an Atom system today, Intel claims.
more
07/24, 12:35pm
Intel System-on-Chip
Intel today introduced what it says is a new class of processor for itself and the wider industry. The EP80579 Integrated Processor is a system-on-a-chip that builds in a main Pentium M processor as well as the necessary interface and memory controllers, communications, graphics, and security all into one part. The technology is efficient that it can shrink the total size of the board and its components by as much as 45 percent compared to what they would require separately, Intel says. It also reduces power by about 34 percent.
more
05/14, 5:00pm
Intel GER on Apple Tablet
Intel Germany chief Hannes Schwaderer today claimed at a Munich company event that Apple is developing a touchscreen device based on his firm's new Atom processor for ultra-mobile devices. As interpreted by AppleInsider, the executive provides few details but indicates that it will be slightly larger than the iPhone due to a larger display.
more
04/03, 4:40pm
Intel Moorestown IDF 2K8
Intel at its Developer Forum in Shanghai has provided early details of the Moorestown architecture that will likely find its way into smartphones and handhelds. A successor to today's Atom, Moorestown will include both a separate processor, codenamed Lincroft, as well as a new version of the System Controller Hub known for now as Langwell. Unlike the current Atom design, which splits graphics off to the Hub, the Lincroft chip will build its own video hardware directly into the main processor. The design should both improve visual performance but also reduce the size of Langwell to less than the size of a US quarter, according to Intel.
more
03/12, 1:20pm
iPhone moving to x86 chips
The Apple iPhone will be migrating from its current processor to something based on Intel's x86 architecture, information suggests. Multiple unnamed sources, including some who were correct about the switch of Macs to Intel technology, say that the iPhone will join Apple's computers within a year or two. More substantial evidence is said to have come out of last week's CeBIT expo in Hannover, Germany, in which an Intel slide presentation depicted the iPhone as a next-generation mobile Internet device (MID).
more
12/21, 10:40am
Apple and Intel UMPC
Apple will use the chipsets that form the basis of Intel's ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) and mobile Internet device (MID) reference platforms, according to a claim by AppleInsider. Expanding on previous statements from Taiwan suppliers, the rumor site points to Apple using the 45-nanometer Silverthorne mobile chip for "multiple products" during 2008. The small manufacturing process lets it run as quickly as the better Pentium M chips that preceded the Core Duo but consume less than 2 watts of power -- less than a tenth of a typical notebook processor, based on Intel's own figures. Modern Core 2 Duo notebook processors consume an average 25 watts or more at their thermal design limits.
more
