Intel Medfield SoC Includes Special Hardware Tweaks for the Android OS

Intel’s collaboration with Google seems to have led to more than just an x86 port of the Android operating system, as the chip maker has recently confirmed that its upcoming Medfield SoC will include a series of hardware optimizations specifically designed for this mobile OS.

In a meeting with the Technology Review website, where Intel has presented to the publication a Medfield-running tablet and smartphone, the chip maker also talked a little bit about the SoC’s Android optimizations.

The most important of these cover Web browsing and a series of Android apps, but some dedicated imaging processing circuits were also thrown into the mix.

These come in part from a Dutch image-processing company called Silicon Hive, which Intel has acquired earlier this year, and are paired together with some dedicated software tweaks.

The end result, as Technology Review reports, is a camera that can capture 10 full-size eight-megapixel images at a rate of 15 per second, as proved by the Medfield reference smartphone demoed by Intel.

Needless to say, this kind of hardware could come as a great help to augmented reality apps and other similar software.

Medfield is a major step forward in the mobile space for Intel as this will become the company’s first single piece of silicon to incorporate all the hardware logic that is found inside the CPU and chipset of a traditional computer. 

As far as its performance is concerned, Medfield seems to be able to hold its own against many of the ARM-based SoC used in today’s smartphones, both in terms of power consumption and speed.

Intel is expected to bring quite a few devices running the Medfield SoC at the upcoming CES 2012 fair, some of which will announced in the first half of 2012.