Medfield

Intel executive quits as smartphone biz falters

The Intel executive who led Intel's so-far-unsuccessful push into smartphones and tablets quit as that business comes under unrelenting competitive pressure from companies like Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia.

Anand Chandrasekher, who had been senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, announced today that he will be leaving Intel to "pursue other interests." Effective immediately, Mike Bell and Dave Whalen, both vice presidents of Intel Architecture Group (IAG), will co-manage the group, which is responsible for building Atom chips that go into smartphones and tablets.

This follows the departure last year of Eric … Read more

Intel has broad smartphone strategy

Intel plans to offer a broad selection of silicon technologies for smartphones, as it seeks to grab a part of German chipmaker Infineon.

Intel is on a mission: the world's largest chipmaker is virtually absent in one of the hottest digital device markets. And, as Apple has demonstrated with its iPhone and its own A4 chip, high-end smartphone technology is bleeding over into tablets, another hot market.

The circumstances for Intel couldn't be more different from the PC market, where it is too dominant, as the settlement with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday underscores.

So, what does Intel have to do to catch up with the dominant silicon players in smartphones, such as the Qualcomm and Texas Instruments? It will buy its way into the market if necessary, while moving its chip manufacturing technology forward at a blistering pace to squeeze more performance onto a smartphone chip than competitors by 2011 or thereabouts.

But first it needs more silicon technology. A requirement for any major smartphone chip supplier is to have not only the processor--referred to as an application processor--but also have a smorgasbord of connection options--such as 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, GPS--for customers.

Enter Infineon's wireless unit, which Intel is making a play for in order to "fill that hole," according to source familiar with Intel's plans.

Or, if necessary, it can make the silicon itself. Intel is currently doing an "aggressive analysis on make versus buy," according to the source. Intel does not want to lose business in the future because it "doesn't have a certain kind of protocol," the source said. In other words, Intel wants to cover all of its connection technology bases.

And this is a long-range plan. Intel is slated to bring out a smartphone-centric chip called Medfield by early next year… Read more

The next, big thing for Intel: Sandy Bridge

Sandy Bridge is arguably Intel's most important future technology. So, what is it exactly?

Intel has been careful to reveal only snippets about the technology over the last 12 months or so. But enough is out there now to understand how the technology moves Intel forward.

In a nutshell, Sandy Bridge is Intel's next microarchitecture, or redesign, of its processors. A chip revamp is the single biggest undertaking for Intel. And it happens every two years. The current design, Nehalem, was introduced in November of 2008 and it pervades all Core i3, i5, and i7 processors (the latter two finally made it into Apple laptops on Tuesday). Its successor, Sandy Bridge, is scheduled to go into production in the fourth quarter.

Key points While Intel Executive Vice President David Perlmutter said he would "not do a deep dive" on Sandy Bridge in his Intel Developer Forum Beijing keynote this week, he did reveal some key points about the architecture.

More efficient: the central processing unit, or CPU, delivers a "significant improvement in instructions per clock," according to Perlmutter, meaning that it is more efficient at executing tasks. Faster on-chip communication: different parts of the chip will talk to each other faster--what Perlmutter called "improved inter-buses." Shared memory: on-chip memory called cache is shared between the CPU and graphics processing unit, or GPU. GPU now part of CPU: Intel combines the CPU and GPU on the same piece of silicon. According to an unofficial photo of the Sandy Bridge chip from Japanese Web site PC Watch, the GPU takes up roughly 25 percent of the processor's real estate. New instructions: Sandy Bridge will be the first chip to support Intel's Advanced Vector Extension (Intel AVX) instructions. AVX accelerates a host of multimedia tasks, including video and audio processing. More intelligent overclocking: and, finally, Perlmutter mentioned improved Turbo Boost--which speeds up (i.e., "overclocks") or slows down… Read more

Intel's 'Medfield' smartphone chip gets clarity

Intel's Medfield is the chip that will drive the chipmaker's smartphone strategy in 2011 and beyond, according to an Intel executive speaking recently at an Intel investor meeting.

Slides (accessible on Intel's Web site) shown by Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, at last week's Intel investor meeting map out the road Intel will take to the mainstream smartphone market. (The slides were highlighted on technology sites such as Engadget and UMPC Portal).

Intel's Medfield was first disclosed in December.

Chandrasekher showed a slide that put Medfield in the mainstream smartphone … Read more

Roadmap of future Intel Netbook chips surfaces

Update at 4:20 p.m. with additional information throughout.

An Intel Netbook processor roadmap has emerged showing technology that extends to the 32-nanometer generation of silicon.

One recent version of Intel's handheld and Netbook roadmap shows a chip platform code-named Medfield, which will be based on next-generation 32-nanometer process technology. The roadmap is featured in a report by UBS Securities.

Medfield (2010) will be preceded by Pineview (2009), based on a 45-nanometer process--the manufacturing process currently used in Atom processors. (Note that Pineview has already been mentioned and discussed by other sources on the Web. It is cited … Read more