Intel Enters Phone Market
Having attempted over the past few years to work their way into the world of smartphones, it looks like Intel may finally be making some progress with their new processor, Medfield. As it stands, the majority of phones and tablets use processors from ARM, but Intel are trying to gain back some ground with this 32-nanometer chip having shown off prototypes using the processor to Technology Review. Intel has built its reputation on chips that emphasis performance over power efficiency, which has excluded them from the mobile phone market thus far as their processors would completely drain a phone’s battery in no time. Medfield, however, is supposed to be the exception.
Intel’s Atom chips have suffered before because they generally aren’t single system-on-a-chip solutions, and therefore not as compact or efficient as designs from ARM. Medfield, however, is, and is designed specifically to meet the low-power requirements of portable devices like phones and tablets. Their prototype Android phone, which runs on Medfield, is about the size of an iPhone 4S but lighter, with super-fast Web browsing and an 8 megapixel camera that can capture 15 stills per second. This places it amongst some of the best smartphones currently on the market, if their presentation on the Medfield is to be believed.
Intel’s presentation on the power and performance of Midfield boasted that any smartphone running on it would have the best-in-class Web browsing and graphics, yet theirs was only a prototype device and the chip has yet to be implemented in a retail setting. A lot depends on how Intel chooses to utilise Medfield in smartphone, and they really have a lot to live up to if they want to present a genuine threat to ARM’s dominance. If the Atom chip can do everything that Intel claim, ARM may have a tough battle on their hands. For more infomation on this story please visit phones4u at http://www.phones4u.co.uk/
