01/13/2010
IBTimes
London – Microprocessor maker Intel took a leap into the highly competitive smartphone market this month by unveiling BW990 an LG smartphone that is powered by its new processor Moorestown.
With Moorestown processor, Intel has thrown the gauntlet to the entrenched leader of smartphone processor maker Qualcomm.
However, Intel is confident of doing well as Moorestown platform is not only based on the Atom CPU computing platform (which presently powers nearly every netbook and mobile internet device or MID) but also it is faster and more efficient than its older cousin.
In other words, Moorestown is powerful enough to take on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and promises to rival it in terms of speed and performance, if not surpass it.
And, the good news is that Moorestown is not a power guzzler – Intel claims Moorestown has been designed to hog up to 10 times less power than the Atom or any other processors while running and up to 50 times less power at idle. In other words, with Moorestown platform, you won’t have to worry about the smartphone’s battery dying very quickly.
The Moorsetown platform can also support HD video playback and recording as was demonstrated by some Moorestown-based devices at the CES.
But, that’s not all. Moorestown also supports Moblin OS, Intel’s very own Linux-based OS for netbooks and high-end smartphones. Though relatively new in the smartphone market, Moblin OS has been around long enough to come out with 2.1 version (as showed off by Intel during demonstration of LG GW990 smartphone) and looks good enough to support multitasking. In fact, an attending LG representative at the CES in Las Vegas was happy enough to demonstrate that the platform can run a movie without hiccup even as a user is busy editing a text message and checking the phone’s onboard calendar.
And, thanks to Moblin OS, users of Moorestown-based phones have access to the Mobile Garage (their equivalent of an App Store) where some of the applications include useful as well as fun stuffs like AbiWord for word processing, Firefox, the GIMP graphics program and FreeCiv, which is a strategy game.
No wonder, Intel is looking to make the platform a serious competitor in the smartphone market. Is Qualcomm listening?
