The Atomic Age
Lots of interesting tidbits have come out of the recent Intel Development Forum about the Atom processor. You remember the one, that useless little geegaw that Intel Chairman Paul Otellini called “something that most of us wouldn’t use”. It seems it may be time to serve those words diced over arugula and endive tips with a nice honey vinaigrette, since he could have to eat them soon.
First off, Intel is going to be looking to the Atom to be it’s ARM killer. It will ask the lowly Atom to lead the attack into a niche that has long resisted Intel’s advances, namely mobile phone chips. According to Intel CFO Stacey Smith, once the new 32 nanometer technology is ready next year, Intel will be selling the Atom as a Smartphone chip with devices appearing by late 2009/early 2010. In fact, there is still a rumor (now gaining more traction) that Apple is planning to produce an Atom powered iPhone within a year and a half. Now THAT could be the ultimate expression of Intel’s beloved (and thus far fairly vapourish) MID concept.
Also at IDF, Dadi Perlmutter, executive VP and general manager of Intel’s mobile platforms group stated in his keynote address on the second day of the forum that by 2012, Atom based devices will account for at least a full third of Intel’s notebook shipments. The Financial Times is reporting seeing a chart that Intel was showing around the forum which put the point even more directly, forecasting 200 million Atom based devices sold in 2012, as opposed to 300 million traditional notebooks. Perlmutter also admitted that he anticipates the Atom heavily cannibalizing the market for other low end Intel chips. So much for Otellini’s claim that the Atom would not take business away from Intel’s low end Celeron chips.
Welcome to the Atomic Age, Chairman Otellini
(Sources – The Financial Times, The Register)
Written by Zealot · Filed Under Intel
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