Silvermont | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 02 Jul 2015 02:17:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Silvermont | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Intel reportedly delays Atom x3 4G ‘SoFIA’ to early 2016 https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-reportedly-delays-atom-x3-4g-sofia-to-early-2016/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-reportedly-delays-atom-x3-4g-sofia-to-early-2016/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2015 02:11:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=257027 Intel Corp. reportedly plans to delay the launch of its advanced mainstream Atom x3 “SoFIA” application processor with integrated 4G/LTE baseband to early 2016. The company needs to polish off its software, which is why it will miss certain business opportunities because of the postponement. The Intel Atom x3-C344C with 4G/LTE baseband is the company’s …

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Intel Corp. reportedly plans to delay the launch of its advanced mainstream Atom x3 “SoFIA” application processor with integrated 4G/LTE baseband to early 2016. The company needs to polish off its software, which is why it will miss certain business opportunities because of the postponement.

The Intel Atom x3-C344C with 4G/LTE baseband is the company’s most advanced low-cost application processor for smartphones and tablets. The system-on-chip features four “Silvermont” 64-bit x86 cores operating at up to 1.40GHz, an ARM Mali-T720 graphics core with high-definition and ultra-high-definition video support, a single-channel LPDDR2/DDR3L memory controller, integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE technologies as well as GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G/4G cat 6 baseband capabilities.

intel_atom_dual_core

Even though the chip is ready for mass production at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. using one of its 28nm process technologies, Intel needs several more months to finalize its software, reports DigiTimes. Consequently, the SoC will not be released until early 2016.

intel_atom_x3_specifications

The delay will affect plans of Intel and its partners. The world’s largest maker of microprocessors will likely miss the business opportunities from the 4G market, which is projected to grow speedily in the second half of this year. Moreover, the delay means that Intel’s current-gen Atom x3 chip will eventually co-exist in the market with the company’s next-gen Atom x3 application processor due in late 2016. Typically, companies try to avoid internal competition between products.

Intel can pair its other Atom x3 “SoFIA” application processors with standalone 4G/LTE XMM baseband chips, but this will make smartphones based on such set of chips more expensive.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: Despite of the fact that Intel has done quite a lot to ensure timely launch of its mobile application processors, it looks like the company’s mobile roadmap still has a number of issues that need to be sorted out.

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Intel to help partners launch Atom x3 ‘SoFIA’-based tablets for $79 https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-help-partners-launch-atom-x3-sofia-based-tablets-for-79/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-help-partners-launch-atom-x3-sofia-based-tablets-for-79/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2015 14:32:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=246723 Intel Corp. will assist its partners in releasing inexpensive tablets based on the company’s recently announced Atom x3 system-on-chips code-named “SoFIA”. The slates based on the SoC will feature different screen sizes and will address various market segments. Intel plans to offer its partners a new set of reference designs for media tablets with 7”, …

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Intel Corp. will assist its partners in releasing inexpensive tablets based on the company’s recently announced Atom x3 system-on-chips code-named “SoFIA”. The slates based on the SoC will feature different screen sizes and will address various market segments.

Intel plans to offer its partners a new set of reference designs for media tablets with 7”, 8” and 10” displays, reports DigiTimes. The slates will be powered by various Intel Atom x3 processors with “Silvermont” micro-architecture  as well as Google Android operating system. Inn addition to hardware components, then new reference designs from Intel include various differentiate apps and software. Depending on screen sizes, the new tablets from Intel’s partners will retail for around $79, $89 and $129.

lenovo_ideapad_k1_tablet_android

In addition, Intel will help China-based whitebox makers of tablets to tap new markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Traditionally, Intel helps its partners with marketing money, business contacts and some other things.

Foxconn Electronics, Compal Electronics, Pegatron, Wistron and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) will handle actual manufacturing.

Intel Atom x3 platform family consists of three models: dual-core Atom x3-C3130 with 3G baseband, quad-core Atom x3-C323XRK with 3G baseband as well as Atom x3-C344C with 4G/LTE baseband. All chips feature ARM Mali graphics, high-definition video support, single-channel LPDDR2/DDR3L memory controller and so an. The Atom x3 devices are designed by either Intel or Rockchip Semiconductor and are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. using one of its 28nm process technologies.

intel_atom_x3_specifications

Intel did not comment on the story regarding reference designs and assistance to partners.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Intel continues to address high-volume media tablet market segments in order to sustain its market share. While the move is generally logical, it should be kept in mind that the chip giant sells its tablet SoC at a massive loss. Hopefully, Rockchip design and TSMC manufacturing will help the company to cut-down its costs and losses.

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Intel will help to build 2-in-1 Chromebooks – report https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-will-help-to-build-2-in-1-chromebooks-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-will-help-to-build-2-in-1-chromebooks-report/#respond Fri, 27 Mar 2015 03:36:06 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=242283 In a bid to increase sales of its mobile system-on-chip devices as well as to continue offering unique solutions to the market, Intel Corp. reportedly plans to team up with Google for hybrid 2-in-1 mobile computers running Chrome OS. Intel already has multiple reference designs of 2-in-1 hybrid PCs with 11” to 13” displays powered …

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In a bid to increase sales of its mobile system-on-chip devices as well as to continue offering unique solutions to the market, Intel Corp. reportedly plans to team up with Google for hybrid 2-in-1 mobile computers running Chrome OS.

Intel already has multiple reference designs of 2-in-1 hybrid PCs with 11” to 13” displays powered by various microprocessors, including high-performance Core M as well as low-cost Atom. However, all of these personal computers are designed to run Microsoft Windows operating system. In a bid to enable more affordable 2-in-1s, Intel wants Google to develop a special version of Chrome OS for hybrid PCs, a media report claims.

The world’s largest maker of microprocessors plans to team up with Asustek Computer, Acer, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, Quanta Computer and Pegatron Technology to launch 2-in-1 Chromebooks already in the second quarter of 2015, reports DigiTimes. It is projected that such PCs will be 10 per cent cheaper than similar systems featuring Microsoft Windows.

The 2-in-1 hybrid PCs running Chrome OS will be initially aimed at the U.S. education market, but eventually will also be sold in various emerging markets, such as Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

intel_2-in-1_hybrid_pc

It is unknown how well is Google Chrome OS prepared for hybrid 2-in-1 PCs. While the search giant plans to merge its Android and Chrome OS operating systems in the long term future, the two OSes are still very different: Android is optimized for touchscreen input, whereas Chrome OS works better with keyboard and touchpad/mouse.

Intel, Google and PC makers did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Desktops and notebooks running Google Chrome OS operating systems have failed to capture any substantial part of the market. Will a new form-factor help Chrome OS to gain popularity in the light of upcoming Windows 10? Let’s wait and see!

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Intel to reclassify Atom processors to better reflect their positioning https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-reclassify-atom-processors-to-better-reflect-their-positioning/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-reclassify-atom-processors-to-better-reflect-their-positioning/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2015 23:59:23 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=237846 Intel Corp. not only plans to unveil its new Atom processors code-named “Braswell” later this year, but also to introduce a new classification for its chips aimed at ultra-portable devices. The new naming scheme will help the world’s largest chipmaker to better position its Atom processors and will likely help customers to make wiser purchasing …

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Intel Corp. not only plans to unveil its new Atom processors code-named “Braswell” later this year, but also to introduce a new classification for its chips aimed at ultra-portable devices. The new naming scheme will help the world’s largest chipmaker to better position its Atom processors and will likely help customers to make wiser purchasing decisions.

Starting later this year, Intel will offer three types of Atom processors: Atom x3, Atom x5 and Atom x7. Just like in the case of the company’s Core i-series, the higher number will reflect higher performance and functionality, hence, expect the x7 to feature more cores, better graphics engines and higher clock-rates, whereas the x3 will provide basic functionality. What is important is that, based on an infographic published by Intel, the chipmaker will no longer use Atom chips for devices in clamshell form-factor.

intel_atom_positioning_HQ

While the new positioning will reflect relative performance and feature-set of Atom processors, it will barely reflect their power consumption as well. Therefore, it will still not be easy to distinguish between processors for smartphones, tablets or various other devices.

Intel will continue to position its Core m processors for hybrid 2-in-1 personal computers and high-end tablets, whereas the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 will power notebooks and ultrabooks that require high performances and rich functionality. Celeron and Pentium processors will continue to power similar systems as Intel’s Core chips, therefore, do not expect these two brands to power low-end tablets.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The new classification of Atom processors seems to be absolutely rational and logical since it is similar to classification of Intel’s Core processors. More importantly, Atom will no longer be used for netbooks or nettops. Unfortunately, that does not mean that Intel will not release Celeron processors with low-power/low-cost Atom cores inside…

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ARM Cortex-A57 and Intel Silvermont – most efficient mobile cores, says study https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/study-arm-cortex-a57-and-intel-silvermont-most-efficient-mobile-cores/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/study-arm-cortex-a57-and-intel-silvermont-most-efficient-mobile-cores/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:05:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=236515 At present there are about half of a dozen different general-purpose processing cores for various low-power system-on-chip solutions. There are high-performance, low-power, big and small cores. But when all of these metrics are taken into account, ARM and Intel have the edge over their rivals. Massive popularization of mobile and other highly-integrated devices and necessity …

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At present there are about half of a dozen different general-purpose processing cores for various low-power system-on-chip solutions. There are high-performance, low-power, big and small cores. But when all of these metrics are taken into account, ARM and Intel have the edge over their rivals.

Massive popularization of mobile and other highly-integrated devices and necessity to differentiate created demand not only for custom application processors with exclusive capabilities and unique building blocks, but also for increased performance and special-purpose functionality. As a result, multiple SoC developers in the recent years introduced their own designs of general-purpose cores that should optimize performance and power consumption as well as enable them to compete for the emerging market segments that have new requirements (e.g., servers, cars, etc.).

Linley Group, a high-tech consulting company, recent compared performance, die size and power consumption of various general-purpose processing cores for mobile and highly-integrated devices, including ARM Cortex-A57, ARM Cortex-A53, Apple Cyclone+, Intel Silvermont, Nvidia Denver as well as Qualcomm Krait. Linley Group used die photos from TechInsights and “normalized” die sizes to 20nm process technology.

arm_cortex_a57_armv8_arm_64_bit

The smallest of the high-performance mobile general-purpose processing cores is the ARM Cortex-A57, which also delivers rather high performance and is widely used inside contemporary mobile devices. In 32-bit mode, the Cortex-A57 delivers about 20% more performance than its 32-bit predecessor, the Cortex-A15, which is rather good. Intel Corp.’s “Silvermont” is about the same size as the Cortex-A57 and delivers similar performance. However, at its maximum clock-rate, the x86 design uses slightly more power, putting a bit behind in power efficiency.

Apple’s Cyclone+ and Nvidia’s Denver, which are used inside the Apple A8 and Tegra K1-64 respectively, are much larger than the Cortex-A57, but deliver greater per-core performance than the latter, justifying their larger die area. The Cyclone+ core operates at 1.40 – 1.50GHz to minimize power consumption. By contrast, to deliver high performance, Nvidia’s Denver functions at 2.30GHz and consumes more energy than any of the cores in the comparison. This is not exactly surprising since Nvidia originally planned to make Denver using 16nm FinFET fabrication process, not 28nm process technology. Moreover, Denver’s design goal was to deliver maximum possible performance within certain thermal design envelopes, not the lowest power consumption possible.

nvidia_tegra_chip

According to Linley Group, Qualcomm’s Krait CPU is compact and power efficient, but lacks 64-bit capabilities. Still, keeping in mind that the Krait offers higher performance than the Cortex-A15, it is still not a bad alternative to both the A15 and the A57.

The Cortex-A53 is the least power hungry core among the examined. While the A53 is among the highest-performing in-order cores ever designed, its performance is naturally considerably lower compared to that of high-performance cores. Moreover, Linley Group claims that the A53 is also twice the size of the 32-bit Cortex-A7, far larger than expected.

The main takeaway from Linley Group’s findings is that Intel finally managed to almost match ARM’s general-purpose processing cores in power consumption while keeping ability to deliver greater performance. Intel’s next-generation code-named “Cherry Trail” application processors, soon to appear in devices, will be made using 14nm FinFET technology to reduce power, which will allow Intel to offer both higher performance and lower power consumption compared to ARM SoCs.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Generally speaking, the bigger the core, the higher is per-core performance. However, with big cores, it becomes hard to scale the number of cores per chip. As a result, to squeeze in more cores, chip designers need thinner process technologies. On the other hand, developers with small cores also need new manufacturing processes to boost clock-rates of their processors and improve per-core performance. After all, it is all about balancing die sizes, performance and power consumption.

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Intel boosts tablet SoC shipments targets for 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-boosts-tablet-soc-shipments-targets-for-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-boosts-tablet-soc-shipments-targets-for-2015/#respond Sat, 17 Jan 2015 01:58:53 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=231058 Intel shipped 46 million application processors for tablets last year and became one of the largest suppliers of this kind of system-on-chips in the world. Although the company clearly exceeded its original tablet SoC sales goal in 2014, Intel set a rather cautious target for this year. “We set a goal to ship 40 million …

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Intel shipped 46 million application processors for tablets last year and became one of the largest suppliers of this kind of system-on-chips in the world. Although the company clearly exceeded its original tablet SoC sales goal in 2014, Intel set a rather cautious target for this year.

“We set a goal to ship 40 million tablets in 2014, this goal is intended to establish Intel architecture in the marketplace and scale the supply chain and the chart developers,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, during a conference call with investors and financial analysts. “I am pleased to report that we shipped 46 million tablet SoCs, becoming one of the industry’s largest merchant silicon providers in tablets.”

intel_atom_dual_core

For this year, Intel reportedly plans to ship 44 million application processors for tablets in 2015, reports DigiTimes web-site. Intel has never confirmed the goal officially, but it is likely that the company will try to ship more than 46 million units this year.

For Intel, it was very important to establish its presence in the market of tablets and make slate manufacturers use its platform. In a bid to do this, the company had to subsidize manufacturers and sell its Atom SoCs for tablets at a loss. While the company is expected to provide subsidies on a case-by-case basis, it will likely continue to lose money on tablet chips this year.

intel_atom_z2760_dell_tablet

It is obvious that until Intel’s Chinese partners like Rockchip, Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics start to ship their x86 offerings, the company will likely continue losing money on tablet APs. Therefore, it is in Intel’s best interests to help its allies in development of appropriate SoCs.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Basically speaking, Intel bought itself a chunk of the tablet AP market. While this is not something exactly bad, it is clear that the world’s largest maker of processors will keep losing money on mobile SoCs until its Chinese partners introduce their tablet chips. What is unclear is when Intel plans to start making money on tablet products.

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Intel’s partners to offer 12.5” 2-in-1 devices for $349 – $399 https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intels-partners-to-offer-12-5-2-in-1-devices-for-349-399/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intels-partners-to-offer-12-5-2-in-1-devices-for-349-399/#respond Thu, 15 Jan 2015 03:28:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=230632 In a bid to speed up development of new personal computers, promote new technologies and boost sales of its chips, Intel Corp. provides its partners reference designs for systems powered by its microprocessors. Recently the chipmaker introduced a new reference design for low-cost 12.5” hybrid 2-in-1 devices that will be priced starting at $349. The 2-in-1 …

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In a bid to speed up development of new personal computers, promote new technologies and boost sales of its chips, Intel Corp. provides its partners reference designs for systems powered by its microprocessors. Recently the chipmaker introduced a new reference design for low-cost 12.5” hybrid 2-in-1 devices that will be priced starting at $349.

The 2-in-1 hybrid personal computers with detachable keyboards and 12.5” displays will support both Core M “Broadwell” central processing units with minimal power consumption as well as Atom and Celeron “Cherry Trail” and “Bay Trail” system-on-chips, reports DigiTimes web-site. So far Intel has only proposed low-cost 10”-class 2-in-1 reference designs.

The hybrid PCs featuring low-cost Atom and Celeron SoCs will cost $349 – $399, whereas more advanced 2-in-1 systems powered by Core M chips will be priced at $699 or below.

dell_xps_10_1

At present it is unclear which features will the new reference designs support, but it is obvious that the world’s largest chipmaker is doing a lot to boost sales of hybrid devices with larger displays. The move will also clearly make 12.5” devices more popular and Core M “Broadwell”-powered 2-in-1s more affordable than they are today.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Emergence of many hybrid 2-in-1 PCs on the market will inevitably heat up competition between PC manufacturers, something which will further lower prices, but will also shrink profit margins.

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Store sells quad-core Intel Atom-based Windows 8.1 tablet for $59.99 (£37) https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/store-sells-quad-core-intel-atom-based-windows-8-1-tablet-for-59-99-37/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/store-sells-quad-core-intel-atom-based-windows-8-1-tablet-for-59-99-37/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2014 23:09:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224062 Both Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have promised sub-$100 media tablets based on Intel Atom system-on-chips and Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system in a bid to fight slates powered by ARM application processors and Google Android platform. Apparently, the strategy works and even exceeds expectations. At present a store in the U.S. sells a rather …

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Both Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have promised sub-$100 media tablets based on Intel Atom system-on-chips and Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system in a bid to fight slates powered by ARM application processors and Google Android platform. Apparently, the strategy works and even exceeds expectations. At present a store in the U.S. sells a rather powerful “Wintel” tablet for just $59.99 (£37).

The WinBook TW70CA17 tablet is clearly not the best slate money can buy, but it seems to be rather powerful. The media tablet is equipped with a 7” IPS touchscreen display with 1280*800 resolution and is based on a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G “Bay Trail-T” application processor (1.33GHz). The device is equipped with 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of NAND flash storage (microSD card slot is also present), 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 2MP front and rear cameras, gyroscope, speaker, microphone, USB 2.0/microUSB connectors and so on. The 7” tablet is 1.1cm thick and weighs 350 grams.

The low-cost WinBoook TW70CA17 slate can be purchased for $59.99 at Micro Center, a U.S. retailer. While the deal lasts only for three days, it is clear that Micro Center and WinBook do not sell the slate at a loss, which means it is possible that eventually tablets powered by quad-core Intel Atom processors and Windows 8.1 operating systems will drop to around $60 price-points.

winbook_atom_intel_microsoft_windows_tablet_slate

In fact, cheap tablets are nothing new. Overclockers UK sells its own-brand slates for £37.99 – £59.99 including VAT, whereas Micro Center carries Android-based 7″ devices that are priced at $39.99.

The problem is that ultra-cheap tablets with Google Android operating system and ARM-powered SoCs inside usually feature completely outdated processors (e.g., dual-core ARM Cortex A9), poor screens with 1024*600 resolution, 8GB of NAND flash, insufficient amount of RAM and so on. By contrast, thanks to powerful hardware and highly-optimized Windows 8.1 operating system, actual user experience on tablets like WinBook TW70CA17 should be better than that on ARM/Android-based slates.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: In a bid to create a $59.99 tablet with a quad-core Intel Atom SoC and Microsoft Windows 8.1, the chipmaker has to sell its application processors at manufacturing cost without making money, whereas software maker has to give away Windows license for free. Not exactly a good way to fight for market share, but thanks to that customers can enjoy very affordable prices.

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Chief executive of Intel: Rockchip and Spreadtrum will drop ARM, stick to x86 https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/chief-executive-of-intel-rockchip-and-spreadtrum-will-drop-arm-stick-to-x86/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/chief-executive-of-intel-rockchip-and-spreadtrum-will-drop-arm-stick-to-x86/#respond Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:40:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=221512 Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., is completely convinced that the company’s deals with Rockchip Semiconductor and Tsinghua Unigroup (the owner of Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics) will finally help the chipmaker to popularize its x86 technology on the market of mobile devices. Earlier this year Intel signed agreements with Rockchip Semiconductor and …

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Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., is completely convinced that the company’s deals with Rockchip Semiconductor and Tsinghua Unigroup (the owner of Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics) will finally help the chipmaker to popularize its x86 technology on the market of mobile devices.

Earlier this year Intel signed agreements with Rockchip Semiconductor and Spreadtrum Communications, two Chinese designers of mobile application processors. Under the terms of the agreements, the companies got rights to design system-on-chips based on Intel’s low-power x86 cores. While the companies are working on appropriate SoCs, chief executive officer of Intel believes that eventually they will chose the x86 architecture over ARM Holdings’ architecture because of performance, costs and other reasons.

ARMv7 and ARMv8 architectures are used by tens of mobile SoC developers and in many cases chips they design offer similar performance and functionality. Intel believes that its x86 cores will provide Rockchip and Spreadtrum an ability to differentiate their offerings and therefore avoid competition.

“If you are a small guy trying to compete, it's tough to be in that battle,” said Brian Krzanich in an interview with Reuters news-agency.

intel_atom_dual_core

The chip giant needs to popularize its x86 technology on the market of smartphones and tablets in order to convince software developers to optimize their applications for Intel’s architecture, which will help the company to sell tis Atom SoCs.

By acquiring a stake in Tsinghua and signing a deal with Rockchip, Intel ensures that there are affordable x86-based system-on-chips on one of the world’s fastest growing markets. Since both of its partners are relatively small, Intel believes that they will not have resources to support both ARM and x86 product lines and will choose the latter eventually.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it is clear that Intel will help its partners to design x86-based SoC and provide marketing support, it remains to be seen how Intel plans to convince customers of its partners to choose between ARM and x86. While Intel can slash its prices and ink a deal, it cannot make price-cuts for its partners…

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Intel pays $1.5 billion to make SoC developer choose x86 over ARM https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-spends-1-5-billion-to-make-soc-developer-choose-x86-over-arm/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-spends-1-5-billion-to-make-soc-developer-choose-x86-over-arm/#respond Sat, 27 Sep 2014 01:56:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=213881 Intel Corp. and Tsinghua Unigroup, a China state-owned limited liability corporation, confirmed that they have signed an agreement under which Intel will acquire 20 per cent stake in the Chinese holding company, which controls two developers of mobile system-on-chips (SoCs), for $1.5 billion. It is believed that that the SoC designers will now develop mobile …

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Intel Corp. and Tsinghua Unigroup, a China state-owned limited liability corporation, confirmed that they have signed an agreement under which Intel will acquire 20 per cent stake in the Chinese holding company, which controls two developers of mobile system-on-chips (SoCs), for $1.5 billion. It is believed that that the SoC designers will now develop mobile system-on-chips based on the x86 architecture.

Tsinghua Unigroup is on track to own Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics, two leading developers of application processors for mobile devices in China. By owning 20 per cent of Tsinghua Unigroup, Intel ensures that it can influence development of next-generation system-on-chips by Spreadtrum and RDA. The companies expect Intel's investment to close in early 2015.

“It has become a national priority of China to grow its semiconductor industry,” Zhao Weiguo, chairman and president of Tsinghua Unigroup. “The strategic collaboration between Tsinghua Unigroup and Intel ranges from design and development to marketing and equity investments, which demonstrate Intel's confidence in the Chinese market and strong commitment to Chinese semiconductor industry, which will accelerate the technology development and further strengthen the competitiveness and market position of Chinese semiconductor companies.”

intel_atom_dual_core

Under the terms of the agreement, Spreadtrum Communications will, together with Intel, create and sell a family of x86-based system-on-chips. Initial app processors will be available beginning in the second half of 2015 and will be sold by both companies. Today Spreadtrum designs application processors based on cores developed by ARM. RDA’s plans regarding x86-based SoCs are unclear. Both Spreadtrum and RDA have 2G, 3G and 4G baseband capabilities and can develop fully-fledged application processors for smartphones that can compete against those from MediaTek and Qualcomm.

“The adoption of Intel's architecture technology will enable us to accelerate the development of mobile SoCs that expand the breadth of our portfolio, benefiting handset makers addressing both China and the global market,” said Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum.

Although Intel is the world’s largest maker of microprocessors for PCs and servers, the vast majority of smartphones and tablets are powered by processing engines developed by ARM Holdings. As a result, the vast majority of programs for mobile devices are designed with ARM architecture in mind. In order to ensure that chips based on the x86 architecture get inside smartphones, Intel needs to make sure that they are compatible with popular apps and are competitive in terms of price.

intel_atom_merrifield

It is believed that low-cost SoCs designed by Spreadtrum will help Intel offer low-cost x86-based solutions for smartphones. Once x86-powered chips gain market share, software developers will have to optimize their products for Intel’s architectures. As a result, Intel’s own Atom application processors will get more popular because of optimized software and a number of other factors.

“China is now the largest consumption market for smartphones and has the largest number of Internet users in the world,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel. “This partnership will also enhance our ability to support a wider range of mobile customers in China and the rest of the world by more quickly delivering a broader portfolio of Intel architecture and communications technology solutions.”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While Intel’s plan is more or less evident, it remains to be seen whether it will actually work out. Back in the days second-source of chips in the face of AMD helped Intel to become the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs and, eventually, servers. That strategy is good, but may not be good enough. There are tens of companies, who supply ARM-based mobile SoCs for smartphones and tablets, nowadays. Intel and three of its partners (Spreadtrum, RDA, Rockchip) still have to compete against all of them.

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Intel acquires 20% stake in Chinese mobile SoC developer https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-acquires-20-stake-in-chinese-mobile-soc-developer/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/anton-shilov/intel-acquires-20-stake-in-chinese-mobile-soc-developer/#respond Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:11:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=213457 Intel Corp. has quietly acquired a 20 per cent stake in a Chinese holding company that controls developers of system-on-chips for smartphones and other mobile devices, according to two media reports. It is expected that the chip designers will develop application processors for mobiles powered by Intel’s x86 cores, which will greatly increase market share of …

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Intel Corp. has quietly acquired a 20 per cent stake in a Chinese holding company that controls developers of system-on-chips for smartphones and other mobile devices, according to two media reports. It is expected that the chip designers will develop application processors for mobiles powered by Intel’s x86 cores, which will greatly increase market share of the x86 architecture on the market of smartphones.

A media report on Wednesday indicated that the world’s largest chipmaker has either already acquired or plans to buy a 20 per cent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup, an operating subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings, a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China. Intel reportedly paid $1.5. billion in cash for the stake, according to Motley Fool.

Tsinghua Unigroup acquired Spreadtrum Communication and RDA Microelectronics for $1.7 billion and $907 million, respectively, recently. Tsinghua Unigroup took over the two companies in a bid to create a developer of mobile SoCs that could compete against Qualcomm or MediaTek. While initially Tsinghua planned to merge the two companies, at present Spreadtrum and RDA still work independently.

intel_atom_merrifield

While Motley Fool reports that Intel bought a 20 per cent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup, which controls both Spreadtrum and RDA, Marbridge Daily indicates that the company only acquired a 20 per cent stake in Spreadtrum.

Last week it was reported that Intel was interested to make an investment in Spreadtrum in order to persuade the chip designer to choose its x86 cores over processing engines developed by ARM Holdings. Intel needs to popularize the x86 architecture on the market of smartphones and such investment in a mobile SoC developer could help the company.

Intel, Tsinghua, Spreadtrum and RDA did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The price that Intel reportedly paid or plans to pay for a 20 per cent stake in Tsinghua seems to be too high unless the company pursues certain additional goals with the purchase. One of such goals could be certain agreements with the Chinese government under which the company gets certain preferences on the local market. Another reason why Intel could pay $1.5 billion for Spreadtrum is because the latter is working on a $25 smartphone reference design. Since the latter is based on ARM's processing cores, Intel is clearly interested in substitution of ARM with its own x86 core.

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Specifications of Intel ‘Braswell’ revealed, but chips to be delayed https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/specifications-of-intel-braswell-revealed-but-chips-to-be-delayed/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/specifications-of-intel-braswell-revealed-but-chips-to-be-delayed/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2014 23:05:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=208548 Intel Corp.’s code-named “Braswell” microprocessors promise to offer increased performance and improved feature-set to entry-level desktop PCs next year. Unfortunately, actual configurations or performance estimates for the “Braswell” chips have never been released. A good news is that thanks to an unofficial report we now know what to expect from the “Braswell” family, but a …

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Intel Corp.’s code-named “Braswell” microprocessors promise to offer increased performance and improved feature-set to entry-level desktop PCs next year. Unfortunately, actual configurations or performance estimates for the “Braswell” chips have never been released. A good news is that thanks to an unofficial report we now know what to expect from the “Braswell” family, but a bad news is that the processors will be delayed.

As expected, “Braswell” system-on-chips will integrate two or four x86 cores based on the “Airmont” micro-architecture (Intel’s second-generation low-power architecture with out-of-order execution) as well as an eighth-generation graphics core (similar to that inside the “Haswell” chips) with 16 execution units, reports CPU-World web-site. The “Braswell” SoC will also feature 1MB or 2MB L2 cache, a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, a security engine as well as modern I/O interfaces. Both x86 and graphics core of the “Braswell” processors will support “burst” mode.

Architecturally, the “Braswell” system-on-chips resemble existing Atom “Bay Trail-D” products, so expect tangible, but not dramatic, performance improvements thanks to better micro-architecture, higher clock-rates as well as “burst” mode that dynamically increases frequencies when performance is needed. Besides, 14nm process technology will also lower power consumption of the “Braswell” chips.

intel_braswell_slide

Originally Intel implied that the “Braswell” chips would hit the market in the first quarter of 2015, but then reports about slight delays emerged. CPU-World now reports that current RTS [ready to ship] dates of Braswell microprocessors are June – August, 2015. It is explained that the setback is caused by slower than expected sample validation.

Intel did not comment on the story.

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KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that Intel has had a fair amount of problems with general-purpose 14nm process technology, it will not be a surprise that the company is also fixing its 14nm SoC fabrication process to improve yields. At least, if you delay shipments from January to August, it just does not look like this is only because of “slower than expected sample validation.”

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Unity adds native support for Intel’s x86 chips to its engine for Android https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/unity-adds-native-support-for-intels-x86-processors-to-its-game-engine-for-android/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/unity-adds-native-support-for-intels-x86-processors-to-its-game-engine-for-android/#respond Fri, 22 Aug 2014 22:59:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=208549 Unity Technologies this week said it will add native support for Intel Corp.’s x86 microprocessors and system on chips to its Unity game engine for the Android operating system, which is used by loads of video games. The move will improve performance of games on devices based on Intel’s x86 chips since previously the games had …

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Unity Technologies this week said it will add native support for Intel Corp.’s x86 microprocessors and system on chips to its Unity game engine for the Android operating system, which is used by loads of video games. The move will improve performance of games on devices based on Intel’s x86 chips since previously the games had to use an emulation layer.

While Unity game engine supports multiple hardware and software platforms, when it comes to Unity game engine for Android, it has been developed with only ARM-based hardware in mind. As a result, in order to enable support for Intel’s x86 microprocessors Unity had to add a special translation layer. Even though the latter seems to be quite efficient, it still decreases performance, which negatively affects user experience. From now on, new or updated games based on the new versions of Unity engine will natively support Intel’s x86 chips and will not require any emulation software

Unity plans to add support for Android across all of Intel's current and future chips, including both the Intel Core and Intel Atom processor families based on various micro-architectures. Unity promises to ensure that Intel product enhancements, including both graphics and processor performance improvements and features (e.g., new instructions or special-purpose hardware), will be integrated into future releases of the Unity 4 and Unity 5 product lines. In particular, Unity paths that currently use ARM’s NEON optimized functions will be optimized for Intel's SSE instructions to achieve equivalent or superior performance. Unity's new Android build will also contain support for Intel's implementation of OpenGL ES so that to allow developers to access unique capabilities of Intel’s graphics cores.

csr_racing_unity

A Unity-based video-game.

In short, developers using Unity can now add support for Intel’s x86 in their applications or produce native applications for Intel’s architecture only with minimal extra effort.

“We have set a goal to ship 40 million Intel-based tablets this year and expect more than 100 Android tablet designs on Intel in the market by the end of this year,” said Doug Fisher, corporate vice president and general manager of the software and services group at Intel. “Our collaboration with Unity will give its nearly 3 million developers the necessary software tools and support to build amazing Android experiences on Intel architecture.”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While native support for Intel’s chips by Unity for Android will clearly improve future applications, it will not have an immediate effect on existing apps and existing hardware. Nonetheless, the importance of such support is hard to overestimate.

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Intel sells quad-core Atom for tablets for $5 per chip – report https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-sells-quad-core-atom-for-tablets-for-5-per-chip-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-sells-quad-core-atom-for-tablets-for-5-per-chip-report/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:30:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=205448 It looks like the price war on the market of mobile system-on-chips is in full swing. Just a day after Allwinner announced a quad-core application processor that will be sold for $4, it transpired that Intel Corp. already sells its quad-core Atom products for $5. Without making any announcements, Intel has launched a price war against …

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It looks like the price war on the market of mobile system-on-chips is in full swing. Just a day after Allwinner announced a quad-core application processor that will be sold for $4, it transpired that Intel Corp. already sells its quad-core Atom products for $5.

Without making any announcements, Intel has launched a price war against Chinese and Taiwanese developers of mobile application processors, such as Allwinner and Rockchip. The company sells its quad-core processors for “under $5”, which is significantly lower compared to prices of quad-core SoCs from Nvidia or Qualcomm, reports Want China Times.

This is not the first time when the information about “mainstream” quad-core app processors from Intel sold at around $5 transpires. Back in April a Taiwanese web-site already reported about extremely low prices of Intel application processors for tablets. Officially, quad-core Intel Atom processors for tablets cost starting from $17 per unit.

intel_atom_dual_core

In addition to selling its chips at low price points, Intel offers assistance to various manufacturers in a bid to help them integrate the Atom application processors into their designs. Thanks to affordable prices, technical and marketing help, it is likely that Intel will gain share on the market of inexpensive tablets.

Intel has a goal to ship 40 million mobile system-on-chips for tablets in 2014. So far the company has sold 15 million SoCs.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: On the one hand, the competition is always good, but on the other hand price-wars may force SoC developers to focus solely on pricing and cease to concentrate on things like performance and functionality. Stagnation of the market is never good for the industry.

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Intel wants its ‘SoFIA’ chips to power $50 smartphones https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-wants-its-sofia-chips-to-power-50-smartphones/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-wants-its-sofia-chips-to-power-50-smartphones/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2014 22:52:58 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=205164 It is not a secret that Intel Corp. pins a lot of hopes on its code-named SoFIA system-on-chips for affordable smartphones and tablets. The company needs to drive its x86 architecture to these markets so to ensure that it can sell chips for mobile devices going forward. While SoFIA promises to offer the right technology …

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It is not a secret that Intel Corp. pins a lot of hopes on its code-named SoFIA system-on-chips for affordable smartphones and tablets. The company needs to drive its x86 architecture to these markets so to ensure that it can sell chips for mobile devices going forward. While SoFIA promises to offer the right technology for entry-level gadgets, one thing that Intel has not talked about is the price of the SoFIA and products on its base.

As it appears, the world’s largest chipmaker wants to enable incredibly affordable smartphones with its SoFIA [Smart or Feature phone with Intel Architecture] offerings. The first version of SoFIA – with two 64-bit Silvermont cores, a simple graphics processing engine and 3G baseband capabilities – will power handsets that could cost only $50 (€37, £30), according to the chipmaker. This will put Intel into direct competition against various makers of low-end application processors, but Intel does not seem to worry.

“SoFIA could pave the way for smartphones costing as little as $50 in emerging markets,” a spokesperson for Intel told Cnet News.

intel_atom_roadmap_update_rdmp_4

While the first version of SoFIA will clearly be aimed at the value segment of the smartphone/tablet market, the future versions of the chips will be more advanced and could power more capable devices. The forthcoming flavors of SoFIA include quad-core system-on-chips with 3G and 4G baseband capabilities. The 3G version will be designed by Rockchip Semiconductor and marketed by both Intel and Rockchip.

“[At the MWC 2014] we demonstrated SoFIA, our first integrated application processor [with] baseband, after adding it to the roadmap late last year,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, back in April. “We are on track to ship the 3G solution to OEMs in Q4 2014, with the LTE version following in the first half of 2015.”

Unfortunately, Intel’s SoFIA is not ideal. It does not integrate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies, which means that smartphone makers will have to spend additional money on chips supporting these crucial capabilities. In a bid to persuade handset manufacturers to use SoFIA instead of competing solutions, Intel will probably have to cut-down its prices. Still, if Intel wants to stay relevant as a company, it just needs to enter the market of smartphones.

intel_xolo_smartphone

“It is not even about giving Intel an edge; it's about just keeping them in the ballgame in the first place,” said Bryan Ma, an analyst with IDC. “In my opinion SoFIA is a necessary move for Intel, and in fact is encouraging evidence of the ‘new' Intel way of thinking: being much more flexible (and in turn, faster) rather than insisting on having everything done completely on Intel technology.”

In the Q1 of 2014 only around one per cent of smartphones were based on Intel’s chips, according to IDC.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it remains unclear whether Intel’s SoFIA will be a successful offering from Intel, it is pretty evident that Intel simply needs to release this product…

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Samsung delays launch of Tizen smartphone due to lack of programs https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/smartphone/anton-shilov/samsung-delays-launch-of-tizen-based-smartphone-due-to-lack-of-programs/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/smartphone/anton-shilov/samsung-delays-launch-of-tizen-based-smartphone-due-to-lack-of-programs/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:56:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=205063 Samsung Electronics has once again decided to delay commercial launch of its Galaxy Z smartphone based on the Tizen operating system. The new postponement was conditioned by the lack of programs for the smartphone. “To further enhance the Tizen ecosystem, Samsung plans to postpone the launch of Samsung Z in Russia,” a statement by Samsung …

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Samsung Electronics has once again decided to delay commercial launch of its Galaxy Z smartphone based on the Tizen operating system. The new postponement was conditioned by the lack of programs for the smartphone.

“To further enhance the Tizen ecosystem, Samsung plans to postpone the launch of Samsung Z in Russia,” a statement by Samsung published by Cnet News reads. “Samsung will continue to actively work with Tizen Association members pursuing to further develop both Tizen OS and the Tizen ecosystem.”

The Samsung Galaxy Z smartphone was meant to be exclusively available in Russia and only then be released in other countries. The delay of the launch in Russia should probably mean that the unveiling of the handset in other regions will also be postponed.

samsung_tizen_smartphone_samzung_z

Samsung pins a lot of hopes on the Tizen operating system, which it co-develops with Intel and a number of other partners. So far Samsung and its partners have developed several flavours of Tizen aimed at mobile devices, wearable computing devices and in-vehicle entertainment. Going forward the developers plan to add Tizen profiles for TVs, cameras and even smart home appliances.

But while HTML5-based Tizen platform can support various devices, software makers are not too interested in developing programs for Tizen, which is not available commercially. The problem for Samsung is that it cannot release a smartphone without software ecosystem and the latter will not emerge unless there are phones owned by end-users.

The Samsung Z smartphone is based on a quad-core Intel Atom system-on-chip and comes with a 4.8” Super AMOLED display with 1280*720 resolution. The handset features 2GB of RAM, 16GB of NAND flash storage, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, USB 2.0, NFC, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, a barometer, an ambient light sensor, a fingerprint scanner, a heart-rate sensor, a 2600mAh battery and so on.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that the Tizen smartphone software ecosystem will hardly become competitive to Apple iOS or Google Android any time soon, it is unclear whether it makes sense for Samsung to invest in it. Perhaps, Samsung needs to focus on smart wearable devices, TVs, cameras and other products based on the Tizen OS and only then try to release Tizen-based smartphones?

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Intel sold highest amount of processors ever this past quarter https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-sold-highest-volume-of-processors-ever-this-past-quarter-company/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-sold-highest-volume-of-processors-ever-this-past-quarter-company/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:56:54 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=203336 Thanks to strong sales of central processing units for personal computers, servers, tablets and other types of devices, Intel Corp. sold the record number of microprocessors in one quarter ever in the second quarter of its fiscal 2014. The company said that multiple factors affected demand for chips during the period. “The improving economic environment, …

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Thanks to strong sales of central processing units for personal computers, servers, tablets and other types of devices, Intel Corp. sold the record number of microprocessors in one quarter ever in the second quarter of its fiscal 2014. The company said that multiple factors affected demand for chips during the period.

“The improving economic environment, PC refresh, form factor innovation and the end-of-life of Windows XP combined to drive better than expected demand [for our products], said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts and investors. “In fact microprocessor volume in the second quarter was an all-time record.”

Intel did not reveal the actual amount of microprocessors it sold during the quarter, but said it managed to ship ten million of chips for media tablets, which was in line with expectations. The company also sold more processors for desktops, notebooks and servers than it expected.

intel_microprocessors

Intel’s PC client group, which sells microprocessors, chipsets and other logic for desktops and laptops, had revenue of $8.7 billion, up 6 per cent year over year. The world’s largest chipmaker said that client platform volumes were up 9 per cent and platform average selling prices were down 4 per cent from a year ago.

According to Intel, desktop platform volumes were up 8 per cent and desktop platform average selling prices were up 2 per cent on a year-on-year basis in Q2 FY2014. Notebook platform volumes were up 9 per cent and notebook platform average selling prices were down 7 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2013. Relative to the first quarter, PC client group’s revenue was up 9 per cent with platform volumes up 12 per cent and platform average selling prices down 3 per cent.

The company’s data center group had revenue of $3.5 billion, up 19 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Platform volumes were up 9 per cent and platform average selling prices were up 11 per cent over the same period a year ago. DCG’s revenue was up 14 per cent from the first quarter with platform volumes up 12 per cent and platform average selling prices up 3 per cent.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It looks like sales of PCs and microprocessors are indeed improving. While it is doubtful that Intel makes any significant amount of money selling processors for tablets, it looks like the company does not have to lower prices of PC and server CPUs in order to sell record volumes. Good news for Intel and the industry (i.e., AMD).

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Intel: replacement of Windows XP-based PCs will help us in 2014 https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/intel-replacement-of-windows-xp-based-pcs-will-help-us-2014/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/intel-replacement-of-windows-xp-based-pcs-will-help-us-2014/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:42:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=203303 Chief executive officer of Intel Corp. said that replacement of Windows XP-based personal computers by businesses and enterprises will help the company to sell more microprocessors this fiscal year. While the company does not want to make predictions regarding next year, it does not exclude the possibility that the replacements will continue in 2015. “We …

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Chief executive officer of Intel Corp. said that replacement of Windows XP-based personal computers by businesses and enterprises will help the company to sell more microprocessors this fiscal year. While the company does not want to make predictions regarding next year, it does not exclude the possibility that the replacements will continue in 2015.

“We believe the [Windows] XP end-of-life kind of replacement will at least play through the end of the year and that’s as far as we have looked at it,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts and investors. “It can go beyond that. […] We just have not really started to put our predictions and our estimates for 2015 together yet.”

Intel estimates that at present there are over 600 million of personal computers that are four years old and even older. A significant part of them are based on the Windows XP operating system and they are going to be replaced rather sooner than later, which represents additional opportunities going forward for Intel as well as its arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices.

What remains to be seen is when Windows 7-based systems made in 2010 – 2011 are set to be replaced. Such personal computers are powered by rather advanced microprocessors, offer decent performance and will be supported with security updates until 2020.

lenovo_think_idea_ultrabook_intel

After Microsoft ceased to provide security updates for its Windows XP operating system this April, businesses and enterprises started to replace their old personal computers with new ones powered by Windows 7 OS.

According to Intel, thanks to the end-of-life of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system it managed to sell more processors for both desktops and notebooks.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2014 the world’s largest chipmaker reported revenue of $13.8 billion, up from $13.0 billion expected previously. The firm attributed additional revenue to increased sales of microprocessors for business PCs, such as the Core i-series chips with the vPro technology. Intel’s PC client group’s revenue during the Q2 FY2014 was $8.7 billion, up 9 per cent sequentially and up 6 per cent year-over-year.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: over 600 million old PCs that need replacement is clearly a huge opportunity for Intel and other chipmakers. However, when it comes to enthusiast-class PCs, many of three-year old Sandy Bridge-based machines will not be replaced this year or next simply because modern quad-core processors hardly provide substantial performance advantage compared to those old machines…

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Intel details Xeon Phi ‘Knights Landing’ co-processor for HPC https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-details-xeon-phi-knights-landing-co-processor-for-hpc-applications/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-details-xeon-phi-knights-landing-co-processor-for-hpc-applications/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2014 22:50:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=200291 At the International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany, Intel Corp. unveiled additional details regarding its next-generation Xeon Phi co-processor code-named “Knights Landing.” As it appears, the KNL chip will not only offer breakthrough performance, but it will also provide breakthrough programmability thanks to the fact that it will feature modern cores with the Silvermont micro-architecture. …

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At the International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany, Intel Corp. unveiled additional details regarding its next-generation Xeon Phi co-processor code-named “Knights Landing.” As it appears, the KNL chip will not only offer breakthrough performance, but it will also provide breakthrough programmability thanks to the fact that it will feature modern cores with the Silvermont micro-architecture.

Intel Xeon Phi “Knights Landing” co-processors will be based on the Atom cores powered by the Silvermont micro-architecture enhanced with four-thread per core multi-threading technology as well as AVX512 instructions. Previously Intel used rather outdated Pentium-like (P54C-like) cores in its Xeon Phi co-processors. The new processing engines will help the company to increase single-thread performance of the new accelerators by up to three times compared to predecessors, which will allow to run more sophisticated applications and eventually solve more complex tasks. The new “Knights Landing” co-processors will feature up to 60 cores and will provide up to 3TFLOPS of SP/DP performance. The chips are to be made using 14nm process technology.

intel_xeon_phi_knights_landing

The new KNL co-processors will sport high-speed Omni Scale fabric that will be integrated on-package. This integration along with the fabric's HPC-optimized architecture is designed to address the performance, scalability, reliability, power and density requirements of future HPC deployments. The same fabric will be integrated into the next-generation Intel Xeon central processing units (CPUs) that will be made using 14nm fabrication process.

As reported, the Xeon Phi “Knights Landing” will come with up to 16GB of high-bandwidth on-package memory, which will boost performance of memory bandwidth-dependent applications. This on-package memory will transform KNL chips into independent compute building blocks with massive resources. It is likely that the new Xeon Phi will rely on Micron Technology’s hybrid memory cube (HMC) stacked DRAMs.

intel_xeon_phi_knights_landing_1

Intel Xeon Phi “Knights Landing” co-processors will be available in both PCI Express card and standalone processor form-factors. The latter will be compatible with Intel Xeon sockets.

“Intel is re-architecting the fundamental building block of HPC systems by integrating the Intel Omni Scale fabric into Knights Landing, marking a significant inflection and milestone for the HPC industry,” said Charles Wuischpard, vice president and general manager of workstations and HPC at Intel. “Knights Landing will be the first true many-core processor to address today's memory and I/O performance challenges. It will allow programmers to leverage existing code and standard programming models to achieve significant performance gains on a wide set of applications. Its platform design, programming model and balanced performance makes it the first viable step towards exascale.”

Intel Xeon Phi processor code-named “Knights Landing” is scheduled to power HPC systems in the second half of 2015.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While Intel continues to be relatively tight-lipped about technical specifications of the Xeon Phi “Knights Landing,” it is obvious that the new chip truly changes the game when it comes to high-performance computing. Thanks to integrated high-performance fabric, high-bandwidth memory and modern x86 cores, the KNL solutions will offer a lot of advantages both from performance and programmability points of view.

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Intel teams up with Rockchip for low-cost quad-core SoFIA chip https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-teams-up-with-rockchip-for-low-cost-sofia-chip/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-teams-up-with-rockchip-for-low-cost-sofia-chip/#respond Tue, 27 May 2014 22:59:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=195461 Intel Corp. on Tuesday announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Rockchip, a developer of low-cost system-on-chips for mobile devices. Under the terms of the agreement, Rockchip will design an entry-level Intel Atom-based application processor for inexpensive tablets featuring Google Android operating system. At present not a lot is known about the …

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Intel Corp. on Tuesday announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Rockchip, a developer of low-cost system-on-chips for mobile devices. Under the terms of the agreement, Rockchip will design an entry-level Intel Atom-based application processor for inexpensive tablets featuring Google Android operating system.

At present not a lot is known about the new platform that will be developed by Rockchip for Intel. The two companies said that it would carry the Intel brand, integrate four Atom cores as well as Intel 3G modem technology. The new quad-core SoFIA 3G part is expected to be available in the first half of 2015. It is unknown whether the Rockchip-designed SoFIA will feature Silvermont or more advanced Airmont micro-architecture. All SoFIA chips will be produced by a contract manufacturer.

With today's announcement, the Intel SoFIA family now consists of three different offerings, including the dual-core 3G version expected to ship in the Q4 2014, the quad-core 3G version that is projected to be available in the first half of 2015, and the LTE version, also due in the first half of next year.

The Intel SoFIA family was added to Intel's mobile product roadmap late last year and includes Intel's first integrated applications processor and communications platform. The SoFIA is aimed at the inexpensive mobile devices.

intel_atom_merrifield

An Intel Atom processor with Silvermont cores.

Pricing for the quad-core SoFIA 3G part will be disclosed later, like the broader Intel SoFIA family, it is expected to be relatively low. Under the terms of the deal, both Intel and Rockchip will sell the new part to OEMs and ODMs, primarily into each company's existing customer base.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It looks like Intel wants to enter the market of mobile SoCs so badly that it actually contracts third-party makers to design chips for it. But will that help (especially in case of a 3G SoFIA)? Only time will tell!

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Asus MeMo Pad 8: First 64-bit Google Android tablet debuts https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/anton-shilov/asus-memo-pad-8-first-64-bit-google-android-media-tablet-announced/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/anton-shilov/asus-memo-pad-8-first-64-bit-google-android-media-tablet-announced/#comments Fri, 09 May 2014 21:30:17 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=192258 Asustek Computer this week unveiled the world’s first media tablet that is based on a 64-bit version of Google Android operating system. The new Asus MeMo Pad 8 media tablet is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom system-on-chip that promises to provide increased performance in select applications. Initially, the slate will only be available from …

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Asustek Computer this week unveiled the world’s first media tablet that is based on a 64-bit version of Google Android operating system. The new Asus MeMo Pad 8 media tablet is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom system-on-chip that promises to provide increased performance in select applications. Initially, the slate will only be available from KDDI in Japan.

Asus MeMo Pad 8 utilises Intel Atom Z3580 “Moorefield” system-on-chip that features four 64-bit “Silvermont” cores with up to 2.30GHz clock-rate. The tablet comes with 8” display with 1920*1200 resolution. The slate sports 16GB of NAND flash storage (an microSDXC slot for up to 64GB cards is present), 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G/LTE, WiMAX 2+, NFC technology, 5MP camera, 1.2MP front-camera, 4350mAh battery and so on.

It is interesting to note that the slate is equipped with 2GB of memory, so the MeMo Pad 8 will not take all advantages of the processor’s and Google Android 4.4’s 64-bit capability (which includes support to over 4GB of memory). Nonetheless, once programs that actually benefit from 64-bit chips arrive, they will run faster on the new Asus MeMo Pad 8 compared to tablets with 32-bit application processors.

asus_memopad_8_android_64_bit

Intel demonstrated the world’s first tablet based on 64-bit Google Android operating system and its Atom “Bay Trail-T” platform last November at its annual meeting with investors. The company said back then that 64-bit processing technology could speed-up performance in numerous applications by 20% – 44% provided that apps take advantage of 64-bits (note that Intel demonstrated advantages in Windows 8.1 environment).

The new Asustek MeMo Pad 8 tablet features a sleek and lightweight (it weighs only 305 grams) design and will be offered to KDDI subscribers in three exclusive colours: pearl white, powder pink and metallic blue.

KDDI plans to offer the new 64-bit Android tablet to their subscribers in Japan at the end of August.

It is unclear when (and whether at all) the MeMo Pad 8 is set to become available in other countries. Theoretically, without all the WWAN [wireless wide area network] capabilities (which are currently tailored for the country of the rising sun) Apple could start selling the tablet outside Japan once it polishes off software in other languages.

At present only the latest Apple iPhone and Apple iPad gadgets feature custom-designed 64-bit chips based on ARMv8 architecture, which is believed to be a huge advantage for Apple iOS ecosystem.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Asus MeMo Pad 8 is clearly a very impressive media tablet. Unfortunately, since it requires KDDI to validate it in its networks, it will arrive on the market in August, considerably later than expected. If the MeMo Pad 8 also becomes the first Google Android 64-bit tablet, then Intel will hardly have a lot of advantage with its 64-bit Atom chips over its rivals from the ARM camp. The latter expect to start selling 64-bit Android-powered smartphones and tablets this holiday season, so, Intel’s partners will exclusively offer 64-bit tablets for only several months.

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Intel bets on Chromebooks, announces family of new chips https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-bets-on-chromebooks-announces-family-of-new-chips/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-bets-on-chromebooks-announces-family-of-new-chips/#respond Wed, 07 May 2014 13:49:54 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=191704 At present personal computers based on Google ChromeOS represent less than one per cent of all systems on the market. While the researchers forecast that eventually sales of such PCs will grow, they will still remain a small fraction of the global PC market. Nonetheless, it looks like Intel Corp. and its partners believe in …

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At present personal computers based on Google ChromeOS represent less than one per cent of all systems on the market. While the researchers forecast that eventually sales of such PCs will grow, they will still remain a small fraction of the global PC market. Nonetheless, it looks like Intel Corp. and its partners believe in ChromeOS. This week the chip giant introduced a line of chips specifically for Chromebooks.

The family of microprocessors that Intel aims at notebooks powered by ChromeOS are three Intel Celeron chips with two or four cores based on Bay Trail-M design and Silvermont micro-architecture with 4.3W – 7.5W thermal design power as well as several dual-core Intel Core i3 microprocessors based on Haswell micro-architecture with 11.5W – 15W thermal design power.

Several leading notebook makers, including Acer, Asustek Computer, Lenovo and Toshiba, plan to release ChromeOS-based laptops powered by Intel Celeron system-on-chips. The systems are projected to deliver up to 11 hours of battery life.

asus_c200_chrome_chromebook_chomeos_google

Acer and Dell also plan to release Chromebooks based on the Core i3 “Haswell” chips with ultra-low power consumption. Chromebooks with Intel Core i3 inside will feature Intel Wi-Fi 802.11ac modules, delivering state-of-the-art connectivity to entry-level PCs. Such systems will cost starting from $349.

In addition, Hewlett-Packard and LG Electronics intend to start selling desktops featuring Intel Celeron “Haswell” chips next month in the U.S.

Intel claims that with today's announcements it became the No. 1 microprocessor supplier for the ChromeOS eco-system with 20 design wins. The company also says it is the first and only to support 64-bit Chrome OS.

acer_chrome_chromebook_chomeos_google

“Intel has grown to become the No. 1 microprocessor in Chrome systems,” said Navin Shenoy, vice president and general manager of Intel mobile client platforms group. “We've been working on five generations of Chrome and after Google, Intel is the largest contributor to the Chromium OS. Intel chips are the first and only to support 64-bit Chrome OS. This deep history and investment combined with our stellar Bay Trail and Haswell SoCs mean Intel can offer the best performing devices at every price point in the Chrome category. When people are shopping for Chrome devices, they should look for Intel Inside.”

Earlier this year ABI Research estimated that 2.1 million Chromebooks shipped in 2013 with nearly 89 per cent of total shipments reaching North America. The market share of Chromebooks was around 0.6 per cent last year. As Chromebook shipments expand globally, ABI Research forecasted an increase of compound annual growth rate of 28 per cent to more significant 11 million in 2019.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It seems that the main reason why Intel is so vocal about its support for Chrome OS is simple: there are Chromebooks based on various high-performance ARM-based system-on-chips available today from various manufacturers. The world’s largest chipmaker wants to stop the expansion of ARM application processors on the market of PCs, which is why it rolls-out reasonably-priced chips with ultra-low power consumption aimed at Chromebooks. What is unclear is why PC makers are so enthusiastic about the Chrome OS?

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AMD’s x86 processor market share rises, thanks to game consoles https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/amds-x86-processor-market-share-rises-thanks-to-game-consoles/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/amds-x86-processor-market-share-rises-thanks-to-game-consoles/#comments Fri, 25 Apr 2014 21:55:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=189258 New-generation video game consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. not only help AMD to offset declines of PC chips sales, but actually drive the company’s share on the market of x86 microprocessors. In the first quarter of 2014 AMD managed to gain share, whereas Intel Corp. lost some ground. Intel maintained the lead on …

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New-generation video game consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. not only help AMD to offset declines of PC chips sales, but actually drive the company’s share on the market of x86 microprocessors. In the first quarter of 2014 AMD managed to gain share, whereas Intel Corp. lost some ground.

Intel maintained the lead on the market of x86 central processing units in Q1 2014 with 82.8% share, but lost about 3% compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to Mercury Research. AMD managed to increase its share to 16.9% from 14.3% in the Q1 2014. Via Technologies, the third supplier of processors based on the x86 architecture, commanded 0.2% of the x86 chip market.

AMD has been losing market share to Intel for years since its chips could not offer similar performance in mainstream applications. Looks like with the arrival of the new game console AMD will be able to boost its share of the overall processor market.

amd_r_series_apus_cpus_embedded

An AMD accelerated processing unit with x86 general-purpose cores and AMD Radeon graphics. Similar chips are used inside Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4.

“The ratio of PC chips is declining in x86 processor shipments, helping AMD gain on Intel, which is relying heavily on tablet chips for growth,” said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research, reports PCWorld.

Personal computer CPU shipments were flat year-over-year: sales of microprocessors for desktops grew 1%, whereas shipments of notebook chips dropped 2%. Sales of x86 central processing units for servers also declined year-over-year, according to Mercury.

intel_atom_avoton_chip

An Intel Atom processor

Intel believes that going forward its x86 system-on-chips will gain noticeable presence inside media tablets, which will help it to maintain sales. In addition, the company continues to design various x86 chips specifically for servers, desktops, notebooks, storage solutions and other applications.

By contrast, AMD believes in hybrid microprocessors (which it calls accelerated processing units) that feature not only general-purpose cores, but also highly-parallel graphics processing cores that can be used for general-purposes as well. At present AMD is not solely focused on x86 architecture, but is actively designing microprocessors based on ARM architecture as well.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is nice to see that AMD is gaining share since it means that the company will remain on the market. However, it will be even nicer to see AMD gaining PC market share since that would mean that the company’s chips are becoming more competitive than they are today.

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Intel to ship SoFIA chip with built-in 3G for low-cost phones in Q4 https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-ship-sofia-chip-with-integrated-baseband-for-entry-level-phones-in-q4/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-ship-sofia-chip-with-integrated-baseband-for-entry-level-phones-in-q4/#respond Thu, 17 Apr 2014 18:49:20 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=187940 Intel Corp. has been offering application processors for smartphones and tablets for several years now, but none of those chips featured integrated baseband capabilities, which is why the company was unable to address the mass market of mobile devices. However, this is going to change in the fourth quarter of this year when the world’s …

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Intel Corp. has been offering application processors for smartphones and tablets for several years now, but none of those chips featured integrated baseband capabilities, which is why the company was unable to address the mass market of mobile devices. However, this is going to change in the fourth quarter of this year when the world’s largest chipmaker starts to sell its highly-integrated code-named SoFIA solution.

“[At the MWC 2014] we demonstrated SoFIA, our first integrated application processor [with] baseband, after adding it to the roadmap late last year,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, during this week’s conference call with financial analysts and investors. “We ae on track to ship the 3G solution to OEMs in Q4 2014, with the LTE version following in the first half of 2015.”

The code-named SoFIA system-on-chip is designed for the value and entry-level mobile market. It is believed that the chip was originally developed by Infineon (the company whose mobile SoC assets Intel now owns) and featured an ARM core. Intel replaced the ARM core with a pair of its own 64-bit x86 cores based on Silvermont micro-architecture without touching other parts of the SoC. SoFIA features integrated 3G/HSPA connectivity as well as everything else necessary to power an entry-level smartphone. Initially SoFIA will be made at TSMC.

intel_atom_roadmap_update_rdmp_4

Intel hopes that thanks to additional performance provided by two Silvermont cores (compared to one ARM core) the SoFIA will become a popular solution for low-cost smartphones. The 4G/LTE version of SoFIA is projected to feature up to four cores, further improving general-purpose performance.

“Our dual-core SoFIA already performs quite well against quad-core systems,” said Mr. Krzanich. “As we move into next year, we will bring quad-core SoFIA-based products out as well. We believe that we can stay very cost competitive and have a performance leadership.”

Intel believes that one of the key advantages of the code-named SoFIA as well as other Atom chips is their compatibility with multiple operating systems, including Google Android, Google Chrome OS as well as Microsoft Windows thanks to x86 architecture.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it is good to see that Intel can finally offer a true highly-integrated chip for smartphones, it does not look like SoFIA in its initial version will be a breakthrough product. It lacks 4G/LTE and while it can be integrated in some of the existing designs, without new network connectivity it hardly makes a lot of sense for smartphone vendors to simply boost performance of previous-gen handsets. What remains to be seen is how good will the second-generation SoFIA with 4G/LTE be compared to its rivals in the first half of 2015. That chip may actually be a very important one for Intel and the industry.

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Intel shipped five million tablet processors in the first quarter https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-shipped-five-million-tablet-processors-in-the-first-quarter/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-shipped-five-million-tablet-processors-in-the-first-quarter/#respond Wed, 16 Apr 2014 22:59:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=187768 Intel Corp. on Tuesday said that it had shipped around five million of application processors designed for tablet computers in the first quarter of 2014. The company hopes that it would achieve its goal of selling 40 million tablet chips this fiscal year. The firm did not reveal any additional details about the chips for …

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Intel Corp. on Tuesday said that it had shipped around five million of application processors designed for tablet computers in the first quarter of 2014. The company hopes that it would achieve its goal of selling 40 million tablet chips this fiscal year. The firm did not reveal any additional details about the chips for portables it sold.

“In the first quarter […] we shipped 5 million tablet processors, making strong progress on our goal of 40 million tablets for 2014,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive of Intel.

Intel offers specially-designed Atom-branded processors for media tablets. At present the company sells several types of system-on-chips aimed at tablet devices. Those SoCs are made using 22nm or 32nm process technology and are based on either Silvermont or Saltwell micro-architecture, respectively.

intel_atom_bay_trail_baytrail_chip_2

Intel did not break out how many new and how many old chips for tablets it supplied to customers last quarter, but said it has won 90 designs with its chips.

“We set an aggressive goal of shipping 40 million tablet SOCs this year,” said Mr. Krzanich. “I am happy to say we've tallied more than 90 designs on Android and Windows and shipped 5 million units in the first quarter, placing us squarely on track to that goal.”

Although Intel officially goal is to sell 40 million application processors for tablets this year, some unofficial sources indicated that the internal goal is to ship 60 million SoCs for slates in 2014. With only five million sold in the first quarter, that internal target will be hard to achieve.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is not really important how many tablet-oriented units Intel shipped during the quarter; what really is important is what were those chips. If Intel pushed a lot of old chips at a very low price to whitebox makers in China, it means that the company’s Bay Trail-T offerings are still not competitive enough against ARM-based SoCs and the company will have to play with the price to achieve its sales targets. If Intel actually sold millions of new-generation application processors based on the latest micro-architecture and made using 22nm fabrication process, then it means that the chipmaker is on the on right track and will become more successful in terms of future unit sales during the year.

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Intel aggressively drops prices on system-on-chips for tablets – report https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-aggressively-drops-prices-on-system-on-chips-for-tablets-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-aggressively-drops-prices-on-system-on-chips-for-tablets-report/#respond Mon, 14 Apr 2014 22:52:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=187359 In a bid to boost its share on the market of media tablets, Intel Corp. has aggressively lowered the price on some of its system-on-chips designed for media tablets. While the chips are most probably outdated, it looks like Intel is extremely serious about winning designs in the tablet space, so it is doing something …

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In a bid to boost its share on the market of media tablets, Intel Corp. has aggressively lowered the price on some of its system-on-chips designed for media tablets. While the chips are most probably outdated, it looks like Intel is extremely serious about winning designs in the tablet space, so it is doing something it does not usually have to do with chips for desktops or notebooks.

Prices of certain Intel Atom microprocessors aimed at tablets have dropped to below $5 recently, which is in line with offerings from China-based developers of application processors (Allwinner, Rockchip, etc.) and is considerably below what companies like MediaTek, Nvidia or Qualcomm ask for their SoCs, reports DigiTimes. The media does not elaborate on specifications of the chips or terms of the purchase.

While the publication claims that Intel is selling its “mainstream quad-core tablet CPUs” for below $5, it is more likely that Intel is trying it get rid of various outdated chips made using 32nm fabrication process (e.g. Atom Z2000 “Cloverview” processors based on the code-named Saltwell micro-architecture). However, the fact that Intel is trying to compete against small Chinese chip designers is an extraordinary one, of course, in case it is actually true.

intel_atom_oaktrail
Intel Atom solution for ultra-mobile devices. Image for illustrative purposes only.

Besides selling chips at low price points, Intel offers assistance to various white-box makers in a bid to help them integrate the Atom application processors into their designs. Thanks to affordable prices, technical and marketing help to makers of actual tablets, it is expected that Intel will gain share on the market of inexpensive tablets.

Intel plans to sell 40 to 60 million system-on-chips for tablets this year.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

KitGuru Says: In case Intel actually sells certain chips for $5, then expect sub-$150 or even sub-$100 tablets featuring x86 microprocessors in the coming months from Chinese vendors.

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Intel reveals code-named ‘Braswell’ microprocessors for low-cost PCs https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/intel-reveals-code-named-braswell-microprocessors-for-low-cost-pcs/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/intel-reveals-code-named-braswell-microprocessors-for-low-cost-pcs/#respond Thu, 03 Apr 2014 22:27:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=185835 Intel Corp. this week revealed the name of its new-generation code-named Braswell system-on-chip that will power upcoming value notebooks and desktops. The new chip will be made using a leading-edge process technology and will combine relatively high performance, small footprint, low power consumption and low cost. Intel did not reveal a lot of information regarding …

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Intel Corp. this week revealed the name of its new-generation code-named Braswell system-on-chip that will power upcoming value notebooks and desktops. The new chip will be made using a leading-edge process technology and will combine relatively high performance, small footprint, low power consumption and low cost.

Intel did not reveal a lot of information regarding Braswell, except the fact that it will succeed the Bay Trail-series processors in various mobile and portable devices. But here is what we do know: the chip will be made using 14nm fabrication process and will belong to the Atom family of highly-integrated system-on-chips. Since the chip is to be manufactured using 14nm process technology, expect it to be based on the code-named Airmont x86 micro-architecture and feature Intel’s high-performance integrated graphics, e.g., Iris-series.

intel_braswell_slide

Basically, the Braswell looks like a higher-performing version of the code-named Cherry Trail chip for media tablets. So expect higher core-count, larger caches, higher clock-rates, improved graphics horsepower and so on.

The Braswell will be aimed mostly at low-cost notebooks, Chromebooks, affordable desktops and other systems that cannot integrate Intel’s higher-performing Core i-series chips.
Intel’s Kirk Skaugen declined to reveal when the new chip code-named Braswell is expected to arrive, but it is logical to expect it to show up on the market either late in 2014, or early in 2015.

KitGuru Says: Last year Intel announced plans to accelerate its Atom roadmap, speed up introductions of new low-power/low-cost products as well as to make those chips using leading-edge process technologies. By now, Intel should have a lot of interesting x86 (e.g., energy-efficient Airmont and Goldmont x86 cores)  and graphics solutions (low-power graphics, high-performance graphics, PowerVR graphics) up in its sleeve and it can relatively easily and quickly design SoCs to respond to market needs. Therefore, the Braswell could be a tip of an iceberg here with more interesting solutions in the pipeline.

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Intel unveils Atom “Merrifield” SoC for smartphones, tablets https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-unveils-atom-merrifield-soc-for-smartphones-tablets/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-unveils-atom-merrifield-soc-for-smartphones-tablets/#comments Mon, 24 Feb 2014 18:48:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=178868 Intel Corp. on Monday introduced its new Atom Z3400-series system-on-chip code-named “Merrifield” designed for smartphones and tablets. The new application processor is powered by the latest low-power Silvermont micro-architecture, features Imagination Technologies PowerVR 6-series “Rogue” graphics and integrates a host of promising technologies. Intel Atom Z3400-series “Merrifield” SoC features two 64-bit x86 “Silvermont” cores with …

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Intel Corp. on Monday introduced its new Atom Z3400-series system-on-chip code-named “Merrifield” designed for smartphones and tablets. The new application processor is powered by the latest low-power Silvermont micro-architecture, features Imagination Technologies PowerVR 6-series “Rogue” graphics and integrates a host of promising technologies.

Intel Atom Z3400-series “Merrifield” SoC features two 64-bit x86 “Silvermont” cores with Hyper-Threading technology, Imagination Technologies PowerVR G6400 graphics engine (with four compute clusters), dual-channel LPDDR3 memory controller, integrated co-processor designed for managing sensor data, new video processor with support for all modern codecs including VP9 and H.265 (HEVC), new image signal processor with up to 13MP camera support and so on. Intel’s Atom Z3400-series chip will rely on Intel XMM 7160 multi-band multi-mode 4G/LTE modem with support up to 15 LTE bands (up to 150Mb/s download/50Mb/s upload speed) as well as third-party Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chips.

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The new Atom “Merrifield” is one of the first system-on-chips compatible with 64-bit Google Android operating system. Intel has developed its own Android kernel that takes advantage of its Silvermont micro-architecture and other peculiarities.

“Sixty-four bit computing is moving from the desktop to the mobile device,” said Renee James, the president of Intel. “Intel knows 64-bit computing, and we're the only company currently shipping 64-bit processors supporting multiple operating systems today, and capable of supporting 64-bit Android when it is available.”

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Intel expects Atom Z3400-series Merrifield-based devices from multiple OEMs to launch beginning in the second quarter.

Intel on Monday also disclosed plans to offer quad-core Atom Z-series “Moorefield” system-on-chip for smartphones and tablets later this year.

Asustek Computer, Dell and Lenovo have confirmed plans to use Intel Atom Z3400-series SoCs. Foxconn, the world’s largest contract producer of electronics, will also utilise Intel’s mobile chips for tablets this year.

KitGuru Says: While the Merrifield chip looks promising and very powerful even for high-end smartphones, it may still not win a lot of contracts with device makers. The main reason is the fact that the Atom Z3400-series does not feature integrated communication capabilities: manufacturers will have to separately acquire XMM 7160 modem as well as Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chips, which makes design of their products more complex and expensive. Nonetheless, thanks to low-power consumption and high-end features, Atom Z3400 may become a popular solution for media tablets as well as high-end smartphones.

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