Intel says it has 'first silicon' for next mobile chip
Update 9:23 a.m. PDT: Adds information on Intel showing a Moorestown-related wafer at IDF.
At the Intel Developer Forum, the chipmaker said it has achieved a milestone with its next-generation Moorestown processor, aimed at the smartphone market.
ZDNet video: Intel touts Moorestown 'mobile' chip
Moorestown, due in 2009 or 2010 will be--for Intel--a highly integrated chip, bringing it more in line with silicon designs in the smartphone market--at which Moorestown is targeted. For example, it will integrate components like the memory controller and graphics, boosting communication speeds between these crucial devices.
And, like Atom, it will run all the popular software on PCs today.
In a conversation wit Pankaj Kedia, director of Global Ecosystems Programs at Intel's Mobile Internet Devices group, he confirmed that Intel has achieved "first silicon" --a crucial first step in chip development--but would not confirm if this means Intel is ahead of schedule with the mobile platform that will follow the current Atom.
At IDF on Wednesday, Anand Chandrasekher, general manager for Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, showed a wafer with "Lincroft"--the main processor for Moorestown. This will be delivered "on or before the 2009-2010 time frame," he said.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
