14 DAY TRIAL // With just a few more weeks to go until Intel officially introduces its next-generation Atom processors for mobile devices, code named Medfield, the first performance figures regarding this system-on-a-chip (SoC) device were leaked on the Web.
The system used for providing these numbers was actually an Intel-designed 10.1-inch tablet powered by an unnamed Medfield processor running at 1.6GHz.
The CPU was paired together with 1GB of LP-DDR2 memory, a WLAN/Bluetooth/FM Radio chip produced by an unnamed manufacturer, a 1280×800 resolution display and eMMC/micro-SD card for removable storage.
VR-Zone reports that the tablet was using the 3.2 version of Google’s Android operating system, also known as Honeycomb, while the shipping products will utilize the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) mobile OS.
When running the Caffeinemark 3 benchmark, Intel’s reference tablet design managed to score around 10,500 points.
To put things into perspective, Nvidia’s popular Tegra 2 SoC scores around 7,500 in the same benchmark, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM8260 gets about 8,000.
So far, the fastest system-on-a-chip device to run Caffeinemark 3 is Samsung’s Exynos SoC since this returns around 8,500 points, but the quad-core Tegra 3 could also prove to be a strong competitor in this test once the first benchmark results arrive.
As far as power consumption is regarded, the Medfield-powered tablet showcased by Intel is consuming 2.6W in idle with the target being 2W.
The worst case scenario for this type of testing seems to be when running 720p video in the Adobe Flash format where power consumption goes to 3.6W, while the target for shipping parts should be 2.6W.
The first devices running Intel’s Medfield SoC are expected to be showcased at CES 2012, while the official product announcements are scheduled for H1 of next year.