Intel Corp said yesterday it remained bullish on mobile Internet devices (MID) and viewed them as a cross category between smartphones and netbooks, but with higher performance and software compatibility.
“Going into the near future, we shall see MIDs with voice capabilities, long battery life, mobile augmented reality as seen in Tom Cruise’s movie Minority Report, high-definition video, high-quality camera and constant Internet connectivity, all in a smaller package,” said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel’s ultra mobility group senior vice president and general manager, in a speech at the Computex trade show yesterday.
Demonstrating a couple of MID prototypes, Chandrasekher said future MIDs would be able to connect seamlessly all hardware peripherals and computer devices at home.
Last year, Intel introduced the Atom chip-based MID platform, codenamed Menlow, the first ground up, low power central processing unit (CPU), targeting at ultra mobile personal computers (UMPCs), MIDs and netbooks.
Intel said last October it would launch a more advanced Moorestown platform for MIDs next year.
“Moorestown, which is set to be released sometime in 2010, is on track to achieve up to 50 times idle power reduction, translating to allday computing, while reducing the board size by half, compared to its predecessor Menlow,” Chandrasekher said.
“Moorestown will be accompanied by a newer Moblin software version — the Moblin v2.0 — that is based on the Linux operating system. This software is designed specifically to deliver a greater PC-like Internet experience, while also supporting cellular voice capabilities,” he said.
Future Moorestown-based MIDs will provide dual environments such as Windows and Moblin, or even Android, he said.
The third generation of MID CPU, codenamed Medfield, is targeted at mainstream smartphones with more power reduction and is scheduled to reach to manufacturers sometime in 2011, he said.
Intel announced a short list of MID hardware and software partners working on the Moorestown platform yesterday, including Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達), as well as Nordic smartphone developer Aava Mobile, UK-based storage and multimedia distributor CCI Distribution Ltd and Finland’s Elektrobit Corp, which develops embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries.
Separately, Intel and Ericsson AB will cooperate in using mobile-phone technology for netbooks, helping the chipmakers benefit from the fastest-growing segment of the computer business.
Ericsson will offer a mobile-phone module that will work with Intel’s Atom chips for netbooks, Jan Backman, director of marketing for Ericsson’s mobile broadband business, said yesterday in Taipei.
“We’re recommending Intel and vice versa,” he said.
The two chipmakers will jointly design netbook technology and market their products to computer manufacturers, he said.
Shardae Chiu (邱雅欣), a Taipei-based spokeswoman for Intel, confirmed the cooperation.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS