Intel Wrestles ARM For Smartphone Markets With Latest Atom. Posted by Tom Foremski - May 5, 2010 Intel today announced a new Atom processor with lower platform power use with support for high performance graphics targeted at smartphone and tablet use. The latest Atom Z6xx is designed to compete against ARM Holdings, the UK chip design company. ARM-based chips dominate the smartphone market, Apple chose an ARM-based design to power its iPad and iPhone products. Here are the details on the latest Atom from Intel: >50x reduction in idle power, >20x reduction in audio power, and 2-3x reductions across browsing and video scenarios - all at the platform level when compared to Intel's previous-generation product.These power savings translate into >10 days of standby, up to 2 days of audio playback and 4-5 hours of browsing and video battery life3. Www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/atom/z6xx/index.htm. Intel's latest 45nm technology makes its process more compatible with the 45nm process used by TSMC.
Intel Launches Atom CPU For Smartphones -- Processors -- Informa. The Z6 low-power processor was released alongside Intel's Moorestown smartphone platform. Intel on Wednesday released its most power-efficient Atom processor, which the chipmaker is hoping will give it a foothold in the fast-growing smartphone market. Before the introduction of the Z6, the Atom family of CPUs used too much power to be useful in mobile devices smaller than netbooks, the inexpensive mini-laptops that were the fastest-growing PC category last year.
With the latest processor, Intel claims it's ready to take on makers of ARM processors, which dominate the smartphone market today. "Intel has delivered its first product that is opening the door for Intel architecture in the smartphone market segment," Anand Chandrasekher, senior VP and general manager of Intel's ultra mobility group. However, missing from Intel's announcement are smartphone makers committed to using the Atom Z6, which was released along with Intel's smartphone platform, formerly codenamed Moorestown. New Intel Atom Z6xx To Power Handheld and Tablets. Intel takes on ARM with Atom chips for smartphones - V3.co.uk - Inside Intel's Atom Z600 series. The Atom processor was something of a surprise success for Intel.
The company expected its product to succeed, of course, but perhaps not in the manner it did. When we first visited the Atom's Austin, Texas-based design team, the spotlight was firmly affixed on the low-power Menlow platform. Intel expected Menlow to find its way into several different sorts of handheld mobile devices, including GPS receivers and portable game players. Most notably of all, it hoped to see a new category of Atom-based products, variously called ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), become a consumer favorite. The other, larger Atom platform, code-named Diamondville and aimed at low-cost notebooks and desktops, was almost an afterthought.
Yet even at that time, the prospects for a UMPC revolution seemed dim, particularly in light of the iPhone's rising popularity. The reasons for Menlow's relative unpopularity were no great mystery. Then again, Menlow was only a first step. Intel’s Powerful New Atom: Can it Beat ARM or Topple Apple? Will. This week Intel brought out a powerful new Atom processor that, according to them, could fit into an iPhone form, is vastly more powerful with similar battery life, and is priced competitively. From a technology standpoint it is an impressive piece of work and had anyone argued that an x86 processor could even come close to being able to work this efficiently they likely would have been laughed out of the room a short decade ago.
However Intel faces a similar problem faced by companies that have tried to move in on Windows, the iPod, and even x86 and that is that people don’t like to move and once they pick a technology they are likely to stay with it unless they become extremely unhappy. It is somewhat ironic, if we use the iPad as an example of a product that could displace x86, that the right way of displacing an entrenched technology is being demonstrated by ARM and not Intel. Let’s explore this. However the Tablet market is still young and could go either way. Intel Takes on ARM for Mobile Processor Market - PCWorld Busines. New Intel Atom is aimed at tablets and smartphones | Technology. The new Intel Atom Processor Z6xx Series Family (formerly "Lincroft" SoC) and Intel Platform Controller Hub MP20 (formerly "Langwell") Photograph: Nick Knupffer Intel has launched a new version of its Atom processor that uses far less power and "prepares the company to target a range of computing devices, including high-end smartphones, tablets and other mobile handheld products," said Intel.
Belli Kuttanna, chief Intel Atom processor architect, said: "After we delivered the first-generation Intel Atom processor with 10x thermal power reduction, we challenged ourselves to achieve 50x power reduction at the platform level. " The Z6xx system-on-chip (SoC), formerly codenamed Lincroft, includes 3-D graphics, video encoding/decoding and memory and display controllers.
Intel says it can support "HD 1080p high-profile video decoding and 720p HD video recording", bringing "a rich, PC-like visual experience to powerful handheld computers". Intel Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Processor for Smartphones | Gad. Intel launches chip for smartphones, tablets | Nanotech - The Ci. Intel on Tuesday announced its long-awaited Atom chip for smartphones and tablets, a crowded market populated by a host of formidable rivals--unlike the PC market where it dominates.
Previously known by the code name "Moorestown," the Atom Z6 processor series will "open the door" for Intel chips in the smartphone market, said Pankaj Kedia, director in the Ultra Mobility Group. To date, Intel's Atom has been used primarily in Netbooks, where it has been adopted widely by all major PC makers and been an unqualified hit. "The specific focus of Moorestown is entering the smartphone segment but it also does very well, it scales very well in the tablet segment," Kedia said.
The entire package of chips is composed of the Atom Z6 series system-on-a-chip and two accompanying pieces of silicon. The system-on-a-chip is the "brains of the smartphone" and does all of the heavy lifting such as the core data processing, the handling of video and audio streams, and graphics, Kedia said. Intel takes aim at mobile devices with Atom update. By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Intel Corp. on Wednesday unveiled a new version of its Atom chip, raising the stakes in its bid to establish a bigger footprint in smartphones and tablets, the hottest segments of the consumer tech arena. The rollout of the Atom platform, codenamed Moorestown, which the chip giant touts as being more power-efficient, underscores the Santa Clara, Calif.
-based company's aggressive push into new areas beyond its core PC market, which has seen growth slow in recent years as more customers flock to mobile devices. Intel The new Intel Atom chip, which is being targeted for smart phones and tablet devices. It is an arena where low power consumption is key, and Intel /quotes/zigman/20392/delayed/quotes/nls/intc INTC -0.11% is stressing the new chip's energy efficiency, while highlighting the processor's ability to deliver a "PC-like" experience. Microsoft's KIN Provides Easy Photo Sharing /quotes/zigman/20392/delayed/quotes/nls/intc. Intel Atom Z600 promises 1080p for smartphones, tablets | Electr.
Intel Moorestown finally launches as Atom Z600 Intel today at last launched its first Atom processor designed for smartphones and tablets. Once known as Moorestown, the Z600 and its companion MP20 hub are much more power efficient than regular Atom chips, especially in low-demand situations. It gets a strictly average 4-5 hours of battery life for cellular browsing or video viewing but over 10 days of standby and about 2 days of audio. The chipmaker also claims much better performance than a typical smartphone, with about 1.5 to 3 times more raw computing power as well as a GMA 600 graphics core that supplies more visual details through OpenGL ES 2.0 and hardware video acceleration.
It can record video at 720p and play it back at 1080p. Z600 also supports Hyperthreading, for behaving like two cores in certain cases, and a burst mode that very briefly spikes performance when needed. Different processors are available depending on the power demands. Aava Mobile OpenPeak OpenTablet 7. New Intel Atom smashes ARM; Moorestown SoC unveiled - Computerwo. New Atom Z6 Positions Intel for Phone, Tablet Push | News & Opin. Intel's Atom processor revolutionized the computer industry a few years ago when it essentially created a new category of systems: the netbook.
Lightning can't strike twice today with Intel's announcement of its new Atom Z6 processor and supporting platform, as the kinds of systems they're designed to drive—smartphones and tablets—are already well established in the market. But the CPU does signal Intel's serious intention to dominate mobile the way it does traditional PCs. Intel has based the Atom Z6 CPU family (formerly code-named "Lincroft") on its new high-K 45nm2 LP process. The CPU, which has 512KB of L2 cache, and 24KB of data and 32KB of instruction cache on L1), has 140 million transistors packed into the System on Chip (SoC).
The Z6 is designed for both smartphones and more traditional tablets, but Intel hopes that the phone is where the platform, based on the traditional X86 architecture, eventually ends up. The Atom Z6 family of chips is available today.