This week, February 25 through the 28th, 2013, the Mobile World Congress is taking place in Barcelona, Spain. Intel Corporation announced today that it was ready with a range of new products, ecosystem and enabling efforts that are designed to further accelerate the company’s presence in mobile technology. Intel will also help to usher in new devices and a richer experience with Intel Inside.
Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and co-general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group, said, “Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments. In less than a year's time we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom SoC tablet solution running Windows 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today. Looking forward, we will build upon this foundation and work closely with our ecosystem partners, across operating systems, to deliver the best mobile products and experiences for consumers with Intel Inside.”
The announcement includes a new dual-core Atom SoC, code named Clover Trial+, platform for smartphones and Android tablets. Included is also the company’s first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution. It is scheduled to be shipping sometime during the first half of this year. The platform’s 32nm dual core Intel Atom processors are available in speeds of 1.2GHz, 1.6GHz and 2.0GHz. The integrated platform also includes an Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator engine with a graphics core supporting up to 533MHz with boost mode, and delivering up to three times the graphics performance.
“Our second-generation product delivers double the compute performance and up to three times the graphics capabilities, all while maintaining competitive low power.” Eul said. “As we transition to 22nm Atom SoCs later this year, we will take full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by our design, architecture, 22nm tri-gate transistor technology, and leading-edge manufacturing to further accelerate our position.”
Intel may be busy launching a new dual-core Clover Trail+ processor for smartphones, but the company’s already looking ahead to next-generation Atom chips for smartphones and tablets. The company’s 32nm Clover Trail+ will eventually be replaced by the 22nm “Merrifield” processors. They will be designed to offer better performance and longer battery life. In the meantime the company is confirming that the upcoming Atom Bay Trail chips should start shipping later this year. This most likely means that you may be able to pick up a tablet with a 22nm Atom processor in time for the 2013 holiday season. You can read a little more about the Bay Trail chip here.
Bay Trail will be Intel’s first quad-core Atom SoC. It will be the most powerful Atom processor to date. According to Intel, it is designed to double the computing performance of Intel’s current generation tablet. It will offer and provide the ecosystem with a strong technology foundation and feature set from which to innovate.
Intel expects to have the Bay Trial platform available for the 2013 holiday season. It is already up and running on Windows and Android and is expected to create devices that are as thin as 8mm. In addition to the small footprint, it is expected to have all day battery life with weeks of standby time.
Up until now, Intel has not seen too much momentum behind Atom powered smartphones and tablets. Intel has about 10 smartphone designs in more than 20 countries. However, we’re still waiting for the Atom powered smartphones to show up in the U.S. The company is hoping to overcome this with the introduction of Clover Trial+.
The platform is also equipped with Intel Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT), helping to enable strong, two-factor authentication for protecting cloud services such as remote banking, e-commerce, online gaming and social networking from unauthorized access. The new platform should also allow for larger screen Android tablet designs. The WUXGA display support of 1900x1200 should make this possible.
The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest and lowest power multimode-multiband LTE solutions. Intel’s strategy is to deliver a leading low power, globalmodem solution that works across multiple bands, modes, such as LTE, DC-HSPA+ and EDGE, regions and devices,. Intel plans to do this in smartphones as well as, tablets and Ultrabooks.
Eul said, “The 7160 is a well-timed and highly competitive 4G LTE solution that we expect will meet the growing needs of the emerging global 4G market. Independent analysts have shown our solution to be world class and I’m confident that our offerings will lead Intel into new multi-comm solutions. With LTE connections projected to double over the next 12 months to more than 120 million connections, we believe our solution will give developers and service providers a single competitive offering while delivering to consumers the best global 4G experience. Building on this, Intel will also accelerate the delivery of new advanced features to be timed with future advanced 4G network deployments.”
Today’s announcement sees Intel expanding it ecosystem enabling efforts to deliver new device and market innovations across a wide range of Windows and Android based mobile devices. Intel is expanding its geographic presence. Some analysts expect smartphones in emerging markets to reach about 500 million units by 2015. Since Intel’s Atom Processor Z2420 platform was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Acer (Thailand, Malaysia), Lava (India) and Safaricom (Kenya) have all announced new handsets.
Edited by
Rich Steeves 
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