Intel reportedly speeds up development of low-power processors

Monica Chen, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 22 November 2012]

Intel is gearing up for a big comeback around mid-2013, accelerating the development of its next-generation, low-power mobile processor, according to sources in the PC industry.

Despite recent news negatively affecting market observers' evaluations of Intel's future performance, the upcoming Intel low-power chips designed for handsets and tablets are seen as a milestone for the company. The new line of low-power processors will see power consumption move closer to that rival ARM's, while reducing production costs through a process shrink, the sources indicated.

Intel recently announced the upcoming retirement of CEO Paul Otellini, followed by speculation that Apple is considering replacing Intel processors in its Mac PCs with designs based on ARM's architecture.

Despite the roll-outs of several Atom processors since 2012, Intel has thus far failed to catch up with ARM in the mobile space. ARM licenses its architecture to chip suppliers including Qualcomm and Samsung, and even system vendors which design their own chips, such as Apple.

While working hard to compete with ARM in the mobile computing segment, Intel has not seen the availability of Microsoft's Windows 8 OS trigger a PC replacement trend and buoy its performance in the sector. In general, market observers hold a pessimistic view on the future of Intel.

Nonetheless, Intel's planned launch of new processors including the next-generation Haswell microarchitecture and Atom processor (Clover Trail) will enable the company to close its gap with ARM, as the upcoming solutions will be built based on its newer process technology and feature significantly lower power, the sources believe.