Computex 2011: Intel's plan to tackle tablets

The rise of the tablet is part of a broader movement toward what Intel call companion computing, a category that includes all sort of personal and mobile devices from smartphones to netbooks to convertibles and sliders. In an event at Computex today Intel executives said companion computing was still in the early stages and discussed the strategy for getting Atom chips into these devices.

Intel believes that no one companion computing device will work for everyone and that there will be a lot of innovation in the hardware and software as companies developer different user experiences over the next 10 years. But it all “starts with the silicon,” said Doug Davis, VP and GM of Netbook and Tablet Group.

Intel introduced Atom three year ago and it will ship its 100 millionth Atom SoC this month. But most of those have gone into netbooks and the vast majority of mobile devices use processors based on the ARM microarchitecture designed by companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Nvidia and manufactured by semiconductor foundries. Intel’s strategy to break into tablets and smartphones is to leverage its lead in process technology and manufacturing.

Davis reiterated that for the next several years, Atom would scale at a faster rate than Moore’s Law until it catches up with Intel’s Core processors for PCs and servers. The first 32nm Atom SoCs will begin shipping in volume production later this year followed by 22nm Ivy Bridge versions in 2013. By 2014, Atom and Core will be aligned on 14nm.

“Intel gets this and we’re investing in this space,” Davis said. “We’re accelerating our process technology roadmap.”

But today Intel is still shipping several 45nm Atom SoCs. This includes the N series for netbooks. Intel demonstrated the Asus Eee PC X101, a 10-inch netbooks announced at Computex which uses an Atom processor and the MeeGo operating system and costs about $200. One of the first laptops to use Google’s OS, Samsung’s 12-inch Chromebook Series 5, has an Atom N570 dual-core processor.

Another 45nm SoC, the Atom Z670, or Oak Trail, was designed specifically for tablets. It has a smaller footprint and uses less power, but still has the performance for tasks such as 1080p video playback (as well as HDMI). At the Computex event, Intel showed a number of ODM (Original Device Manufacturer) designs-both “shipping systems and development platforms”-running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Intel also demonstrated an interesting Fujitsu LifeBook slider and a Fujitsu Stylistic Windows slate for business.

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