14 DAY TRIAL // Intel’s presence in the mobile market has been so far limited to a few awkward devices built by small companies without any significant market share in the segments they targeted, but the launch of the Medfield system-on-a-chip (SoC) device could change that for the Santa Clara-based chip maker.
Planned to be released in the company’s Atom line, 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 in traditional PC designs.
"This is our first offering that's truly a single chip," said Stephen Smith, vice president of Intel's architecture group, during a recent meeting with the Technology Review website.
To showcase the advancements that Intel has made in this regard, Smith also brought with him a reference design for an Android smartphone and tablet.
The tablet was actually running the 4.0 version of Google’s operating system, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, and Technology Review reports that it was about the same thickness and weight as the iPad 2, but came with a larger screen.
Based on the limited time it spent with Intel’s Medfield-powered tablet, Technology Review said that it was “noticeably nicer to use” than other similar devices running the Android Honeycomb OS.
“Reference designs” are devices specially built to inspire manufacturers who want to release products based on their underlying technology, and have the benefit of cutting back developments costs for Intel’s clients.
"They can use as much or as little of the reference design as they like," says Smith, who continued by revealing that the upcoming CES 2012 fair will bring new devices built around the Medfield SoC.
Intel wasn’t able to reveal any info regarding the market availability of these products, but it did say that some official tablet and smartphone announcements should come in the first half of the next year.