Telecom Lead India: Intel on Tuesday said the 4th generation Intel Core processors offer over 9 hours of battery life and two times the graphics capability versus the previous generation.
The success of the new Intel Core processors is important for the Chip giant, which is facing uncertain market conditions due to decline in PC sales, to strengthen its presence in the growing tablet market.
Market research agency IHS says Intel in 2012 held a 5 percent share of the market for digital baseband and applications processors used in mobile phones and other mobile devices.
Intel faces challenge from Qualcomm which holds a market share in the mobile-phone semiconductor business that is currently seven times larger than Intel’s.
Aside from its legacy Infineon business, Intel had seen some design win activity from its Atom product line in smartphones from Lenovo, Motorola and various Chinese brand OEMs. Furthermore, Intel has introduced its LTE platform.
“However, even ifIntel is successful in this area in 2013, it won’t enjoy rapid growth, but rather slow and steady progress. The company faces significant challenges because of the momentum and positioning of strong incumbents such as Qualcomm,” said Francis Sideco, senior director for consumer electronics and communications technologies at IHS, recently.
Sales of netbooks, a product Intel dominated with its Atom family of low-end processors, have been badly impacted by the downturn in the PC market as well as the growth in the media tablet.
Netbook shipments this year are forecast to amount to just 3.97 million units, down a gut-wrenching 72 percent from 14.1 million units in 2012.
Intel in the fourth quarter of 2012 retained its dominant position at the top of the global semiconductor industry with $11.98 billion in revenue, representing 15.4 percent of global chip market takings. This was more than 4 percentage points ahead of Intel’s nearest competitor, Samsung, which held an 11.1 percent share. However, Intel’s revenue declined by 3.4 percent from $12.4 billion one year earlier in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“The PC Industry is facing major challenges as it struggles to find a place in the consumer’s budget amid the rising popularity of the lower-priced media tablet,” said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS.
Intel, showcasing new solutions at Computex 2013, said 4th generation Intel Core processors serve as foundation offering better PC performance with tablet-like mobility in one device.
Intel demonstrated for the first time its next-generation 22nm quad-core Intel Atom SoC for tablets in conjunction with its forthcoming 4G LTE multimode data solution.
Tom Kilroy, executive vice president, Intel said: “Intel has more than 50 different 2-in-1 designs in the pipeline across a range of price points, including premium Ultrabook 2-in-1s powered by the new Intel Core processors, and other designs powered by forthcoming processors based on the company’s 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture.”
“With the new Intel Core processors introduced today, our next-generation Atom SoC for tablets and other 22nm products coming soon, the advances in Intel architecture are accelerating the pace of innovation, enabling new experiences and powering some of the best mobile devices coming to market this year,” said Kilroy.
Benefits
The 4th generation Intel Core processors deliver 50 percent increase in battery life in active workloads over the previous generation.
Systems based on the quad-core version of the new Core processors are available now, with additional versions available in the coming months.
The 4th generation Intel Core processors also have built-in graphics that deliver discrete-level performance, or up to 2 times the performance of Intel’s prior generation.
Kilroy also showcased progress in bringing human-like senses to 2-in-1 and other Intel-based devices through the addition of touch, voice and facial recognition and other technologies.
Intel’s 22nm low-power, high-performance Silvermont microarchitecture is enabling the company to accelerate and significantly enhance its tablet and smartphone offerings.
For tablets on shelves for holiday 2013, Intel’s next-generation, 22nm quad-core Atom SoC (Bay Trail-T) will deliver superior graphics and more than two times the CPU performance of the current generation. It will enable 8 or more hours of battery life and weeks of standby, as well as support Android and Windows 8.1.
Kilroy demonstrated Intel’s 4G LTE multimode solution in conjunction with the next-generation 22nm quad-core Atom SoC for tablets. The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions and will support global LTE roaming in a single SKU.
Kilroy showed for the first time a smartphone reference design platform based on Merrifield, Intel’s next-generation 22nm Atom SoC for smartphones that will deliver increased performance and battery life. The platform includes an integrated sensor hub for personalized services, as well as capabilities for data, device and privacy protection.
