14 DAY TRIAL // Intel's recently announced Tri-Gate 22nm manufacturing process may enable the company to compete with the armada of ARM-based chips that took the mobile world by storm, believe analysts at one of the largest market research firms.
“Marching down the nanometer curve will definitely help Intel to penetrate the market for mobile devices,” noted Francis Sideco, principal analyst for wireless communications at IHS iSuppli.
Compared to planar transistors that are used for building most chips, Intel's Tri-Gate technology can provide up to a 37% performance increase by using the same amount of power, which enables the company to reduce the operating voltage, and thus the power consumption, of its 22nm chips.
Combined with the move to a smaller manufacturing node, iSuppli observers believe that Intel will be able to reduce the power consumption of its processors by as much as 50%, when compared to 32nm planar CPUs.
“A 50% reduction in power consumption is significant. The less power your electronic device consumes, the longer the battery will last, and the longer a user can be truly mobile,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at IHS iSuppli.
However, what we don't know at this time is when Intel plans to launch the first low-power, mobile processors built using the Tri-Gate technology.
The company's Atom line is slated to get a new architecture in 2012 and could be one of the most likely contenders, but Intel hasn't revealed any information regarding these chips.
More importantly, if the Santa Clara company doesn't move quickly to take advantage of its manufacturing authority, it could provide its competitors, which include IBM, GlobalFoundries, TSMC and Samsung, with a chance to catch up.
According to some analysts, the technology gap may be as small as 18 months, as afterwards Intel will lose its process technology advancement and will have to rely solely of the advantage brought by Tri-Gate, which may not be enough to battle the low-power ARM architecture. (via Xbit Labs)