source - Dell | Intel | Best Buy

It looks like Qualcomm wont be the only chipset maker to announce 64-bit mobile processors at the MWC. Intel has unveiled its own LTE-ready, 64-bit Atom processors.

The first new Intel CPU, Atom Z3480 (codenamed Merrifield), comes with two 2.13GHz cores, is based on Intel's 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture, and uses a PowerVR Series 6 Graphics IP core from Imagination Technologies. According to Intel, the Z3480 Merrifield is the first Atom SoC to support the company’s new “Integrated Sensor Solution, which efficiently manages sensor data to keep applications smart and contextually aware even when the device is in a low-power state.” Merrifield-based devices (made by various companies) are expected to be released starting Q2 2014.

The second new Intel Atom processor that's made "for Android mobile devices" is codenamed Moorefield, has four cores clocked at up to 2.3GHz, and will include “an enhanced GPU and support for faster memory.” The Atom Moorefield will be released in the second half of 2014.

In addition to unveiling the two Atom processors, Intel announced that it signed new multi-year agreements with Lenovo, Asus, Dell and Foxconn. Asus and Lenovo will launch both smartphones and tablets based on Atom processors this year. Dell will introduce Android and Windows tablets, while Foxconn is releasing only tablets running Android.

"We have a strong history of working with Intel to bring compelling, computing experiences to market with products like our K900 smartphone, Yoga line of multimode laptops, MIIX 2 and ThinkPad 8 tablets. We look forward to an even stronger future together - delivering exciting mobile experiences from stylish smartphones to high-performance tablets with Intel inside," declared Peter Hortensius, chief technology officer, Lenovo.

We are expecting Samsung to join the 64-bit bandwagon, too, possibly with its Exynos Infinity chip that may be announced later today.


source - Intel

Alongside the release of Windows 8.1 next week, there will also be a new lineup of tablets powered by Intel's latest Atom chip code-named Bay Trail. These tablets which will be priced between $299 and $350, include the Dell Venue 8 Pro, Toshiba Encore, and the Asus Transformer Book T100. More models are expected to ship in the coming months.

These tablets are mainly aimed at consumers looking to browse the web and consume media, much like the iPad, and offer more than eight hours of battery life with screen sizes starting at 8 inches. Manufacturers will include accessories with these tablets allowing them to be transformed into laptops for various productivity tasks. Since they are full Windows tablets, they will be able to run both legacy Windows desktop applications and modern Windows 8 applications.

These tablets are thinner and lighter than last generation Windows 8 tablets, thanks to the advancements on Intel's processor architecture. You could always consider the Microsoft Surface 2, if you are willing to put up with the lack of legacy desktop app support in the ARM based Windows RT. ARM processor is expected to be comparable on battery life and performance to Bay Trail.

The initial batch of Bay Trail tablets will have processors with up to four cores and 32-bit versions of Windows 8.1. Software issues have prevented the immediate release of 64-bit Windows 8.1 Bay Trail tablets, but they should come early next year.
Toshiba hasn't shared the battery life yet, but Intel claims Bay Trail tablets will offer more than eight hours of run time and weeks of standby.

The Encore has an 8-megapixel back camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Other features include Micro USB 2.0, Micro HDMI, and MicroSD slots. The tablet also comes with Office Home and Student 2013.

Encore starts at $329.99 with 32GB of storage, though the Windows OS will take up a large chunk of the storage. It will be available in November through Toshiba’s website and retail stores.

Intel may have fallen behind in the mobile market, which is currently dominated by ARM processors, but they have been slowly pushing their way back into our mobile devices. In response to the new wearable device boom Intel has unveiled its new line of "Quark" processors, which it plans to be used on smart watches and other wearables.

The Quark processors are going to be incredibly small, and powerefficient. According to Intel, they will be one-fifth the size of the smallest Atom processor, and it will use one-tenth of the power. 

Smartphones and tablets are not the end-state. The next wave of computing is still being defined. Wearable computers and sophisticated sensors and robotics are only some of the initial applications.

Back in January last year we reported that Tae-jin Kang, Samsung’s VP of Content Planning stated that his company was planning to merge bada OS with Intel’s Tizen. This merger came after Intel’s failed plans to merge their platform with Meego, which Nokia later dropped in favor of Windows Phone.


Now Hong Won-pyo, Samsung’s Media Solutions Center states that bada is not a fit for today’s smartphones and that Tizen will no longer be merging with bada. Samsung plans to released a number of Tizen powered devices this year and these handsets  will take over some of the useful features of bada once they are released.

In the future Tizen phones will be able to run apps designed for bada, but older bada handsets will not be updatable to Tizen. It is still not clear what Samsung plans with the Tizen platform. There have been rumors that Samsung wants to distance itself from Android. Given its recent success with its Galaxy series, we are curious to see how the manufacturer will address a Android free ecosystem.


source – Yonhapo News Agency | The Verge | Engadget

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Intel Corporation today announced a range of new products, ecosystem and enabling efforts that will further accelerate the company’s presence in mobile and help usher in new devices and richer experiences with Intel Inside®.

“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments”

The announcements include a new dual-core Atom™ SoC ("Clover Trail+") platform for smartphones and Android* tablets, and the company’s first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution that will ship in the first half of this year. Other disclosures included “Bay Trail” momentum, mobile device enabling efforts, and continued smartphone momentum in emerging markets with the Intel® Atom™ Z2420 processor-based platform.

“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and co-general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “In less than a year's time we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom™ SoC tablet solution running Windows* 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today. Looking forward, we will build upon this foundation and work closely with our ecosystem partners, across operating systems, to deliver the best mobile products and experiences for consumers with Intel Inside.”

New, Efficient Atom™ SoC Platform

Intel’s new Atom™ processor platform ("Clover Trail+") and smartphone reference design delivers industry-leading performance with low-power and long battery life that rivals today’s most popular Android* phones. The product brings Intel’s classic product strengths, including high performance that lets you enjoy smooth Web browsing, vibrant, glitch-free, full HD movies, and an Android* applications experience that launches fast and runs great.

The platform’s 32nm dual core Intel® Atom™ Processors -- Z2580, Z2560, Z2520 -- are available in speeds up to 2.0 GHz, 1.6 GHz and 1.2GHz, respectively. The processor also features support for Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology, supporting four simultaneous application threads and further enhancing the overall efficiency of the Atom cores.

The integrated platform also includes an Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator engine with a graphics core supporting up to 533MHz with boost mode, and delivering up to three times the graphics performance1 for rich 3-D visuals, lifelike gaming and smooth, full 1080P hardware-accelerated video encode and decode at 30fps.

“Our second-generation product delivers double the compute performance and up to three times the graphics capabilities1, all while maintaining competitive low power,” Eul said. “As we transition to 22nm Atom SoCs later this year, we will take full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by our design, architecture, 22nm tri-gate transistor technology, and leading-edge manufacturing to further accelerate our position.”

The new Atom platform also brings advanced imaging capabilities, including support for two cameras, with a primary camera sensor up to 16 megapixels. The imaging system also enables panorama capture, a 15 frame-per-second burst mode for 8 megapixel photos, real-time facial detection and recognition, and mobile HDR image capture with de-ghosting for clearer pictures in flight.

The platform is also equipped with Intel® Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT), helping to enable strong, two-factor authentication for protecting cloud services such as remote banking, e-commerce, online gaming and social networking from unauthorized access. Since Intel IPT is embedded at chip-level, unlike hardware or phone-based tokens, it can enable more secure, yet user-friendly cloud access protection. Intel is working with partners including Feitian*, Garanti Bank*, MasterCard*, McAfee*, SecureKey* Technologies Inc., Symantec*, Vasco Data Security International* Inc. and Visa* Inc. to incorporate this technology into their services.

With WUXGA display support of 1900x1200, the platform will also enable larger-screen Android* tablet designs. It also includes support for Android* 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Intel Wireless Display Technology, HSPA+ at 42Mbps with the Intel® XMM 6360 slim modem solution, and the new industry-standard UltraVioletTM Common File Format.

Customers announcing support for "Clover Trail+" platform for phones and tablets include ASUS*, Lenovo*, and ZTE*.

Debuting at CES last month, the Lenovo* IdeaPhone K900* is based on the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2580 and delivers rich video, graphics and Web content at fantastic speeds. The IdeaPhone is 6.9mm thin and also features the world’s first 5.5-inch full high-definition 400+ PPI screen for increased clarity of text and images. The K900 will be the first product to market based on the Atom processor Z2580. Lenovo plans to introduce the smartphone in the second quarter of 2013 in China, followed soon by select international markets.

Building on the Atom processor platform ("Clover Trail+"), Intel also highlighted its forthcoming 22nm smartphone Atom™ SoC ("Merrifield"). The product is based on Intel’s leading-edge 22nm process and an entirely new Atom microarchitecture that will help enable increased smartphone performance, power efficiency and battery life.

Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE)

Intel’s strategy is to deliver a leading low-power, global modem solution that works across multiple bands, modes, regions and devices.

The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest2 and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions (LTE / DC-HSPA+ / EDGE), supporting multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and Ultrabooks™. The 7160 global modem supports 15 LTE bands simultaneously, more than any other in-market solution. It also includes a highly configurable RF architecture running real time algorithms for envelope tracking and antenna tuning that enables cost-efficient multiband configurations, extended battery life, and global roaming in a single SKU.

“The 7160 is a well-timed and highly competitive 4G LTE solution that we expect will meet the growing needs of the emerging global 4G market,” Eul said. “Independent analysts have shown our solution to be world class and I’m confident that our offerings will lead Intel into new multi-comm solutions. With LTE connections projected to double over the next 12 months to more than 120 million connections, we believe our solution will give developers and service providers a single competitive offering while delivering to consumers the best global 4G experience. Building on this, Intel will also accelerate the delivery of new advanced features to be timed with future advanced 4G network deployments.”

Intel is currently shipping its single mode 4G LTE data solution and will begin multimode shipments later in the first half of this year. The company is also optimizing its LTE solutions concurrently with its SoC roadmap to ensure the delivery of leading-edge low-power combined solutions to the marketplace.

Intel® Atom™ Platform Z2420

As Intel expands its geographic presence, the company sees tremendous opportunity in delivering rich Intel-based mobile experiences to consumers across emerging markets.

As part of its strategy to take advantage of the fast growing market for value smartphones in emerging markets, which some analysts expect to reach 500 million units by 2015, Intel highlighted continuing momentum with the Intel Atom Processor Z2420 platform (formerly "Lexington"). Since it was first announced at CES, Acer* (Thailand, Malaysia), Lava* (India) and Safaricom* (Kenya) have all announced new handsets.

Etisalat Misr*, a leading telco operator based in Egypt and a subsidiary of Etisalat group UAE, in collaboration with Intel today announced plans for the Etisalat E-20 Smartphone with Intel Inside®. Set to debut in Egypt in April, the Intel-based handset will be the first in the Middle East and North Africa region, and the second introduction in Africa to-date, building on the recent launch of Safaricom* in Kenya.

Demonstrating the flexibility of the Atom SoC platform to accommodate a range of device and market segment needs, ASUS* later today will announce a new Android* tablet based on the Intel® Atom™ Processor Z2420.

Tablets with Intel Inside®

Building on the device momentum and industry-leading power-efficiency of the award-winning Atom processor Z2760, Intel’s first quad-core Atom SoC ("Bay Trail"), will be the most powerful Atom processor to-date -- doubling the computing performance of Intel’s current- generation tablet offering and providing the ecosystem with a strong technology foundation and feature set from which to innovate. The "Bay Trail" platform, scheduled to be available for holiday 2013, is already up and running on Windows* and Android* and will help enable new experiences in designs as thin as 8mm that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby.

Intel is currently working with Compal*, ECS*, Pegatron*, Quanta* and Wistron* to accelerate "Bay Trail" tablets to the market. Intel is also extending its work with leading OEM partners globally, building on the strong foundation of Intel Atom processor Z2760-based tablet designs in market from Acer*, ASUS*, Dell*, Fujitsu*, HP*, Lenovo*, LG Electronics and Samsung*.

Enabling Mobile Devices with Intel Inside®

Intel today announced an expansion of its ecosystem enabling efforts to deliver new device and market innovations across a range of Windows*- and Android*-based mobile devices.

Intel platform and enabling programs have been the foundation of OEM and ODM innovation for decades. The new program will focus on accelerating time to market for leading-edge mobile devices based on Intel® architecture with top OEMs and ODMs. The program will focus first on tablets, followed by phones, providing pre-qualified solutions with simplified building blocks to scale designs quickly for mature and emerging markets. The Atom Processor Z2760 and the company’s forthcoming 22nm Atom SoC, codenamed "Bay Trail," will be the starting foundation for the effort.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

Intel, Atom, Core and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

1 Compared to the Intel Atom Processor Z2460 platform; Graphics clock will vary based on SKU: Z2580, Z2560, Z2520. 2 Compared with competitive solutions shipping in market today.

Contacts

Intel Corporation
Claudine Mangano, 408-887-2706
claudine.a.mangano@intel.com
Agnes Kwan, 408-398-2573
agnes.ck.kwan@intel.com

Intel will start by shipping single-mode chips and have the multimode model available  by the first half of the year. The company hopes that eventually its processors will be ready to go along with the XMM7160 to provide an integrated offering for manufacturers combining the processor and radio.


source – Intel | Android Central

Intel has announced a new Atom processor codenamed ‘Bay Trail’ which are aimed at tablets. These quad-core processors are built using the 22nm manufacturing process which offers high efficiency and low power consumption. In terms of performance, the chip offers nearly two-times what is offered on current generation Atom ‘Clover Trail’ processors.

Unfortunately there isn't much more, known about the Atom Bay Trail processors other than the leaked information from back in November. If that information is correct, the processors with have a clock speed of around 2.1GHz and support maximum display resolutions of 2560 x 1600 pixels. They will also have new security features although Intel has now elaborated on them.




The first tablets which will feature the new Intel Atom Bay Trail processors are not expected to be launched until later this year, in time for the holidays. So we have a long wait ahead of us. Hopefully we will learn more about the capabilities of these new chips by then.



source - Intel | Engadget

Samsung has confirmed that they will release smartphones based on the new Tizen operating system in 2013. Google’s purchase of Motorola, has been seen as a potential threat for manufacturers like Samsung, which depends heavily on Android for the success of its brand. Samsung has since looks at its alternatives and merged its homebrewn BADA OS with Intel’s offering to make Tizen a reality.

As Tizen is an open source platform like Android it now has backing from Intel, Samsung, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and the Vodafone Group which will give the devices running this platform an opportunity for success.

“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” a Samsung representative confirmed in writing today.

Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun has also confirmed that Samsung will be offering Tizen powered devices on NTT Docomo in 2013.


Samsung plans to initially offer Tizen on lower-end handsets as a successor to its BADA platform. If the platform is able to gain a strong user-base in Asia, there is a good chance it could position itself as a strong contender for third place alongside Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10.


source – Bloomberg

With ARM dominating the mobile landscape with its Cortex processors, other CPU manufacturers like Intel are looking into grabbing their own share in the lucrative market. Intel has already managed to include their Atom chipsets in devices like the Motorola RAZR i, but they are now setting their sights wider and considering a push into the tablet market.

This information comes from a leaked Intel roadmap, which tells of the features and performance Intel has in mind for its future Atom processors. The company is planning to release its new ‘Bay Trail’ series of chipsets in 2014 and is currently in negotiations with OEMs who may be interested in using the Intel based SoC.

These processors are expected to be made using the 22 nanometer manufacturing process, which would promise improved power efficiency. Intel promises that their new Atom chops will offer 50% to 60% more power compared to the current Clover Tail offering which is based on the 32 nanometer architecture.

The chips’ specifications reveal that they will have four cores and will run at up to 2.1 GHz. These chips will be capable of delivering excellent battery life and an impressive performance without dissipating too much of heat. The chips will include Intel Gen 7 graphics and support for Direct X 11. They will be capable of supporting 2560 x 1600 pixel resolutions and 1080p HD playback at 30 frames per second.


It’s a little disappointing that we will have to wait so long before we see these processors in action. Hopefully we will learn more about these chips at the upcoming CES 2013.


source – Mobile Geeks | Slashgear

It was last week that Motorola and Intel teased an upcoming event to promote something new. Following the Motorola On Display event, it was clear that a variant of the Motorola RARZ M would be introduced with an Intel based processor under its hood.

You can watch the unveiling of the new device in the following live stream of the Intel and Motorola Live video stream
[UPDATE] As expected Motorola and Intel revealed the Motorola RAZR i which is powered by an Intel Medfield ATOM processor.

Motorola and Intel have something planned for us on September 18 and they describe what's coming with “Edge-to-Edge” and “Speed”.

What we expect is Motorola’s first Intel Atom-based Android device. Do you agree ?




The device is expected to feature a 4.3-inch display and have a design similar to the recently announced Motorola Droid RAZR M.

Intel is hard at work on its fourth generation of Core series processors and they aim to focus on performance while improving power consumption. The new series code-named 'Haswell' will require only 10 watts of power compared to the 17 watts required my the existing lineup.

Currently ARM processors monopolize the mobile market and Intel is intent on making its mark on the post PC era. While Intel provides over 80% of the processors for the world's computers, they have their eyes set on dominating the mobile market someday.

While Intel's Atom processors power several mobile devices like netbooks, small laptops and even some of the upcoming Windows 8 tablets, they will have to work hard on optimizing their mobile processors to be more power efficient, while giving the user the performance they need. The Haswell project seams to be a step in the right direction.

Intel hopes to demonstrate the performance of their Haswell designs on September 11, during their annual developer conference in San Francisco. The Intel inspired Ultrabooks will be the  focus of the presentation and the company hopes that these thin and ultra portable laptops will gain immense popularity alongside the Windows 8 launch.

The new Core series of processors are expected to be available on consumer devices early next year, and Intel will continue optimizing their performance and power consumption, eyeing mobile market dominance in their horizon.


source - Wall Street Journal

The Grand X IN is a smartphone designed and manufactured by ZTE which runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device features a 4.3 inch touch display, 16Gb of internal storage which can be expanded through microSD, an 8 megapixel camera capable of 1080p HD video and powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor with 1GB of RAM.

The full ZTE Grand X IN specifications follow:

Its not easy grabbing a place in a race dominated by Android and iOS. Now with Windows Phone trying to creep in between then, other mobile operating systems are being pushed back. Samsung has decided to merge it's bada OS with Intel's Tizan OS in hopes and improving it's position in the mobile market.

Tae-jin Kang - Samsung's Senior VP of Contents Planning who revealed this information, also said that the apps developed for bada will work on Tizen and will be backward compatible with previously published apps. He also said that the two will eventually share the same developer interfaces and roots. By sharing the same SDKs and APIs the hope is that developers who create applications for BADA can also create the applications for Tizen. Samsung hopes to have more than one device running the combined platform available by the end of this year.

Tizen is the successor to Meego which combined Maemo from Nokia with Intel's own Moblin. When Nokia chose to abandon their plans for Meego in favour of Windows Phone, Intel was left to evolve their OS once again but without a mobile partner to take their vision forward.

Currently Tizen is aimed at powering high end smartphones, while BADA is used in Samsung's lower end models. It will be interesting to see how the combination affects Samsung's use of Intel's mobile operating system in their devices in future.

Ultrabooks like the UX21 will finally bring a MacBook Air competitive design to the Windows platform. The Asus Facebook page points towards an event in New York on October 11 and an Asus website which says "Good Things come to those who wait" with a picture and reference to an Ultrabook, along with a counter counting down towards the said date.






source - Asus

The Mobile market is booming and the processors for mobile devices are primarily dominated by ARM. So much so that Microsoft which has only supported the x86 architecture has added ARM support to Windows 8.

Intel has now planned to offer support for Android 2.3 Gingerbread on it's ATOM (E6XX) Series of chips in an attempt to win over manufacturers to it's own mobile CPU offering by January 2012.

With Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich being released by the end of this year, one may wonder if it is a little too late as newer devices in 2012 will come with ICS. Intel is trying hard to play a huge catch up game with hopes of dominating the entire processor market once again.