Intel recently said it would invest US$300 million in companies that develop new technologies for Ultrabooks, a class of thin and light laptops promoted as an alternative to tablet PCs.

The Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund will invest in companies developing hardware and software in areas such as sensors and touch, longer battery life, thinner designs and improved storage capacity, Intel said. It will invest the money over three to four years.

The company disclosed its Ultrabook idea at Computex in June. It said the devices would be a new type of laptop with “tablet-like” capabilities such as instant on, touchscreens and batteries that last all day. The first wave is expected toward the end of the year, with more advanced designs appearing in the next few years.

Intel’s push for Ultrabooks comes at a time when the chip maker is trying to rejuvenate interest in the PC market, where shipments have slowed due to the popularity of tablets. But beyond competing with tablets, building thinner and lighter products should give laptops more appeal.

“It’s a good counter to pretty much everything. They just look at it as enabling the market,” said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

Laptops and tablets have different characteristics and Ultrabooks are an attempt to harmoniously merge the two, said Greg Welch, segment director for the mobile client platforms at Intel, in an interview last week.

On an Ultrabook, people will be switching between using a cursor and touching the screen without thinking about it, he said.

Ultrabooks may also be a way to draw users to Intel’s higher-end Core chips and away from its Atom and Celeron processors, McCarron said. Atom sales dropped during Intel’s second quarter, primarily due to a slowdown in netbook sales, which were hurt by demand for tablets and low-cost laptops with larger screens.

Intel has said Ultrabooks in the future will resemble Apple’s MacBook Air, with models less than 21 millimeters (0.8 inches) thick, and at mainstream prices. The company has showed Asus’ upcoming UX21 ultraslim laptop as an example.

Intel may look to price Ultrabook at around $800 or lower, McCarron said.

The first models will come later this year and have new chips based on the Sandy Bridge microprocessor. The second wave of Ultrabooks will be released early next year and have Ivy Bridge chips, which are faster and more power-efficient.

The first Ultrabooks later this year will not have touch capabilities, but will boot quickly and be always connected, to continuously receive e-mail and updates, said Kevin Sellers, vice president of investor relations at Intel, during a presentation earlier this week.

Starting in 2012, Ultrabooks will get touchscreens that can also swivel or slide out. They could be used in full PC mode and then converted into a tablet-like device to watch movies, for example, like convertible tablets today.

“Starting next year with our Ivy Bridge product line and with Windows 8 is when you’ll start to see tablet form factor, tablet capability integrated,” Sellers said. “This is the importance of combining this technology with something like Windows 8, which will give you the ability to do both.”

Fujitsu’s Q550 and Motion Computing’s CL900 tablets have Intel’s Z670 processor and Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. The tablets have 10.1-inch screens and provide eight hours of battery life.

Working prototypes of Oak Trail tablets made an appearance in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the chip was officially announced in April. Companies including Acer and Toshiba showed tablets with the chip at the Computex trade show in Taipei last week.

The single-core Z670 processor runs at a clock speed of 1.5GHz, and has on-chip features such as accelerators to decode 1080p video. In addition to Windows, the chip is compatible with Google’s Android 3.0 and Intel’s MeeGo operating systems.

The tablets have specific security features that could make them attractive to businesses. Fujitsu’s tablet has a fingerprint reader, while Motion Computing’s device is bundling Absolute Software’s Computrace Complete software, which helps track lost tablets. Both tablets include Trusted Platform Management 1.2 (TPM), a hardware-based cryptography and authentication technology to enhance security.

Oak Trail tablets will complete with Apple’s iPad which is finding growing interest in the enterprise. However, analysts have said that the iPad is geared more for consumers, while Oak Trail tablets will blend into IT infrastructures with compatibility for existing Windows or Linux applications.

The tablets have SSD storage and USB and HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) slots. They also have back and front-facing cameras, Wi-Fi capabilities, and come with optional 3G communication capabilities.

Fujitsu’s Q550 weighs about 1.7 pounds (0.4 kilograms). It is priced starting at $729 and is shipping worldwide. Motion Computing’s CL900 weighs 2.1 pounds, is priced starting at $899, and is shipping in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France and Germany.

Intel recently reported its Q1 2011 earnings and based on continued growth in server market and adoption of Sandy Bridge chips, we have upgraded our price estimate for Intel’s stock to $28.68. Below we discuss a few key takeaways from the earnings. Intel competes with Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia in the microprocessor and graphics businesses.

Our price estimate for Intel stands at $28.68, a roughly 40% premium to market price.

Sandy Bridge Adoption

Intel stated in its earnings release that Sandy Bridge has received very significant early demand. And its not just with consumer PCs. Sandy Bridge based Xeon processors for the server market have seen solid demand as well. The company noted:

Early demand for Sandy Bridge has been outstanding. In fact, the ramp of Sandy Bridge in the channel is the fastest ramp we’ve ever seen, and sell through has been robust. The reviews of Sandy Bridge have been outstanding and we expect the ramp to continue on a very sharp growth trajectory. [1]

As the company’s comment indicates, Sandy Bridge is also helping to raise average selling prices for its processors. As a result we now project flat pricing for 2011 (vs. our previous forecast of a decline). Still, it is only a matter of time until Intel could feel pressure from AMD again, as AMD launches its hybrid Llano chips to challenge Sandy Bridge.

Atom Still Slow

Q1 2011 revenues for Atom stood at $370 million, representing growth of about 4% compared to Q1 2010 and a sequential decline of 5% compared to Q4 2010. [2] This suggests that there hasn’t been any significant improvement in the company’s push into mobile devices with its Atom processor. As a result we have toned down our forecasts for Atom’s market share in the years ahead.

Better Visibility on Server Impact After AMD Launches Bulldozer

The server market has been a key growth area for Intel in 2010. The fast revenue growth continued into the most recent quarter as well, where the company grew its servers related revenues by 32% compared to the same quarter last year. We do not have any evidence to suggest that Intel gained any market share, and thus we believe that the revenue growth might have been primarily driven by improving market conditions and higher average selling prices. Nevertheless, we still expect slight share losses for Intel in this segment for the full year 2011, since AMD is about to launch its bulldozer CPU.

Let’s be frank: AMD’s processors aren’t as good as Intel’s, by and large. Intel’s processors have offered better total performance and better performance-per-watt ever since the days of the Core 2 Duo, with few exceptions. If we set the way-back machine to 1999, the story is different. Intel’s dominance was seriously challenged when AMD released the Athlon, which crushed the latest Intel chip (the Pentium III) in just about every performance test you could throw at it. This kicked off a major speed race, but AMD held its own and generally outperformed Intel through the introduction of the Athlon 64.

Now, AMD seems almost hopelessly behind. Don’t get me wrong, Phenom II processors are by no means bad. They run all the apps people care about at a respectable speed, and AMD has really priced them aggressively. You get decent “bang for the buck” from the latest AMD stuff, but it still falls well short of Intel’s current chips in overall performance, and performance-per-watt. AMD based laptops suffer considerably worse battery life than their Intel counterparts, especially if you compare against Intel chips that offer similar performance.

AMD has survived some serious upheaval in the last several years. Purchasing ATI was probably a smart move in the long run, but integrating the two companies is challenging to say the least. The logistics of spinning off AMD’s chip manufacturing business into GlobalFoundries was another major undertaking. Then there are the high-profile executives that jumped ship in the last few years. Can a company “on the ropes” like AMD stand a chance of building a hands-down better processor than Intel again? Mind you, I’m not claiming that AMD can actually out-sell Intel. Intel can simply build far more chips than AMD or its manufacturing partners can, and it would take quite a few years (and many billions of dollars) to catch up to that capacity. What I’m talking about is whether AMD can build a better processor, not necessarily a better-selling one. I think it might, if the stars align just right.

Intel has major advantages in holding its dominant position. The company is more than a year ahead of everyone else in advanced manufacturing process technology. AMD is just about to bring to market its first processor built on a 32nm process, while Intel has been shipping them in volume since early 2010, and should start shipping 22nm processors in the next 8 or 9 months. Smaller and better manufacturing processes mean more transistors per chip, smaller and cooler chips, and faster-running chips; all serious advantages in delivering chips with great performance, energy efficiency, and price. Intel also has serious engineering chops. Naturally, some of the best CPU engineers work at Intel – this has been the case for decades. But in the last several years, Intel has increasingly hired top-tier talent to focus on graphics, video, and software.

Next: How AMD Can Compete

How AMD Can Compete

So how can AMD hope to compete? First, it can wisely pick its targets. AMD did a great job of this with its Fusion C and E series processors. They’re designed to compete against Intel’s Atom processors in the market where Atom is delivering unsatisfactory experiences: low-cost netbooks. AMD saw the ways Atom disappoints – sluggish in-order execution processing cores and lackluster graphics and video support – and made a tiny, energy-efficient processor that is cheap and low-power enough to go into laptops that addresses those key issues. As Intel focuses on making Atom smaller and more energy efficient to end up in tablets and smartphones, AMD could continue to do well by making designs laser-targeted at the small and light $400 laptop. For the time being, AMD would be wise not to take on Intel were it is strongest.

Second, AMD should continue to focus on graphics. Video and graphics performance increasingly defines the way people use their PCs, and the focus on using graphics hardware to accelerate the web will only increase its importance. Intel has recognized this as put forth serious effort into dramatically improving its integrated graphics in the “Sandy Bridge” 2nd generation Core processors, but they’re still quite a bit behind what AMD can do. Fusion A series processors aimed at mid-priced laptops (code-named Llano), will push integrated graphics far beyond the already impressive low-power Fusion C and E processor. That’s should be just the start. AMD should do everything in its power to make sure that, if you don’t buy a system with a discrete graphics card, the graphics and video are going to be night-and-day better on an AMD system than an Intel system. And, if you are going with discrete graphics, make sure a Radeon brand card offers the best bang for the buck and lowest power utilization at all price tiers. That’s a tall order, but it’s totally in AMD’s wheelhouse.

AMD should just concede the tablet and phone markets for the time being. It will take years of fighting for marketshare and enormous engineering resources to chase down the competition in that arena. To make a real competitive solution, AMD has to beat the efforts of ARM, Intel, Nvidia, PowerVR, Samsung, TI, Qualcomm… It will consume R&D resources that could be spent making awesome processors for more traditional computers. Sure, smartphones and tablets are growth industries and the next Windows will run on ARM processors in addition to x86, but traditional computers aren’t going away anytime soon. They’re still going to sell in the hundreds of millions a year. AMD isn’t big enough to fight both fights right now – it should focus on the PC, Mac, and server markets for at least the next few years.

Will the Fusion A series that will hit the market in a couple months be the chip that puts AMD back on top, at least in terms of delivering the processor you want to have in your new laptop or all-in-one desktop? I’m not convinced. The architectural tweaks to the Phenom II-based CPU cores, 32nm manufacturing process, new power-saving features, and powerful integrated graphics make for a potent combo. Still, Intel is just too far ahead. Llano is likely to be the king of integrated graphics performance by a wide margin, but tasks that stress the CPU cores will still be considerably faster on 2nd generation Core CPUs. What AMD needs is a new CPU core design. That’s coming later this summer (probably) with the product code-named Bulldozer. It’s such an unusual take on multi-core design that I really have a hard time predicting if it can beat the Intel chips of comparable price and power usage. Even if it does, it’ll be another year before Bulldozer cores end up in a Fusion-style combination CPU and GPU, and Intel will be well into its 22nm chips by then.

For AMD to stay relevant, let alone deliver the “gotta have it” processor for future laptops and desktops, it really needs to remain focused, shorten the time between its major architectural design revisions, and work with its manufacturing partners at GlobalFoundries and TSMC to somehow shorten the manufacturing process lead Intel enjoys.

HELSINKI, March 14 (Reuters) – Intel Capital and International Finance Corp (IFC) will invest $12 million into Irish firm Altobridge, which specialises in making telecom network equipment for remote areas of emerging countries.

“We see a huge potential market there,” said Marcos Battisti, director at Intel Capital, venture arm of the world’s largest semiconductor maker Intel (INTC.O). Remote areas of developing countries are the last new market for the telecom gear makers like Ericsson (ERICb.ST), Huawei [HWT.UL] and Nokia Siemens Networks [NOKI.UL], as most of the rest of the globe is already covered by wireless networks.

Altobridge will also use some of the proceeds from its series C funding to commercialise its new technology, which enables operators to get more out of their increasingly congested networks.

“There is a real strain on the networks. Without any technology improvement carriers have to invest billions and billions into networks,” Battisti said. “Altobridge is a real play for both sides of the ecosystem.” (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Will Waterman)

SeaMicro has introduced its second high-density server that uses 256 dual-core Atom chips crammed into a box in oder to deliver power efficient computing at about a fourth of the power consumption of a traditional rack of machines. But the biggest news about this server is pretty small, namely the dual-core Atom chip that Intel has manufactured to go inside the SeaMicro box– perhaps the first time Intel has built a chip especially for a startup and a sign of how Intel will defend its x86 server territory from rival ARM.

SeaMicro aims to build a better server using Atom chips and its own specially designed silicon to handle the networking complexity that derives from shoving 512 cores (the first box contained 512 processors) into a box. Getting that many cores to allocate resources takes its own brain and access to a compute fabric inside the box capable of delivering 1.28 terabit per second. SeaMicro’s first server was launched last June but it had a few shortcomings. It only was capable of 32-bits processing (a problem associated with current generation ARM cores that vendors trying to sell ARM-based systems will also have to overcome) and only could access 2 GB of memory.

Most server software is written for 64-bit machines, so folks using 32-bit machines have to adjust their code. As for the memory issue, web services want to store as much information in memory or as close to the processor as possible to improve response times of their services. These changes make the SeaMicro box more competitive with more traditional servers, while still offering power efficiency.

Last June SeaMicro executives went to Intel asking for something better. Intel came up with a dual-core Atom processor that can deliver 64 bit processing and can address 4 GB of memory. In addition, the new chip allows for more real estate on the motherboard because SeaMicro can still cram 512 cores in its machine but now it uses half the number of chips (see image below). The reduction in components also means a 15 percent to 17 percent reduction in power usage.
When asked if Intel has built a chip for a startup before, Jason Waxman, general manager of high density computing within Intel’s within the data center group, stressed that other companies could use the new Atom part and that Intel listens to all of its customers when trying to fill out its processor roadmap. However, he did call SeaMicro a “definitional customer,” and said SeaMicro is “someone who is helping us anticipate what some customers want and value, and we always want to see what we can do, and are receptive to exploring.”

And should SeaMicro win selling low power servers to more customers (existing ones include Skype, France Telecom and Mozilla) Intel stands to win both in terms of sales and by shoring up its x86 architecture inside data centers even as low-power architectures built on ARM cores or other architectures seek to gain a foothold. As for Atom chips being cheaper than the traditional servers chips, yes, but Waxman points out that in SeaMicro’s box there are a lot of them, so he’s not worried about cannibalization of the existing Xeon server chip business.

“When a customer is buying a server they are not buying one server, so the question is how are they going to spend their money, on bigger boxes or smaller boxes,” Waxman said. “And if companies used a shared infrastructure [like SeaMicro] may be buying many more pieces of Intel silicon than the larger box type of infrastructure. So the trend toward microservers can be good for Intel.”

As for the encroachment of ARM into the server industry, Waxman pointed out that Intel is well aware of the demand for low-power servers as illustrated by its work with SeaMicro as well as 30-watt Xeon chips it offers. And ARM isn’t even in the game yet, he said.

“We haven’t seen any ARM-based products released to the market just yet. There are certainly a number pretty well-known issues in software compatibility — the lack of 64-bit — and to make a server platform that need to be addressed by any new architecture. Our perspective is we want to stay in tune with server customers and this is why we have a great engagement with SeaMicro and its new technology. If customers want something we want to be the first to go address it, which is why when 18 months ago we saw the trend for microservers we said, let’s have products to address it.”
Intel’s efforts to provide a server-appropriate Atom chip for SeaMicro are a big win for the 3.5 year-old hardware maker, but it’s also a sign that Intel won’t let other architectures encroach on its territory.

Intel has vowed to replace the ever-proliferating number of computer cables with a superfast substitute. On Thursday, tech-watchers are likely to get an update on its progress, perhaps preceded by a key endorsement by Apple.

A Light Peak module, with laser light added for illustrationThe technology is called Light Peak, which was first demonstrated at one of the chip maker’s forums for developers in September 2009. Intel, which has been working for years on laser-based communications, showed how Light Peak exploited such optical technologies to achieve impressive speeds–up to 10 gigabits per second–and send video images from a computer to a monitor as far as 100 feet way. Most comparable connectors on computers now only work over much shorter distances.

At 10 gigabits per second, Intel states, a user could transfer a typical Blu-ray movie in less than 30 seconds. And Intel predicted Light Peak could be upgraded to run at 100 gigabits within the decade. In the meantime, Intel has also discussed a variant of Light Peak that uses copper wiring and electrical pulses rather than glass fibers and lasers–a technology more easily adapted for laptop computers.

At least as important for many users is Intel’s declaration that Light Peak will be “multi-protocol.” The term suggests that one wire can handle communication formats that are now associated with multiple wires–one wire for Ethernet, one wire for USB, one wire for HDMI, and so on.

Intel, which has predicted Light Peak will arrive in systems this year, has scheduled a briefing Thursday morning in San Francisco. Two people familiar with the matter said Light Peak is the focus; one of them said he expects Apple to precede Intel’s event by announcing plans to use Light Peak on new Mac laptops, a break from the normal pattern of Intel announcing technologies and PC makers following later.

Some technology websites, such as Mac4Ever.com, have posted photos that include references to a new connector dubbed Thunderbolt. An Apple spokesman could not be reached Wednesday.

Whatever happens Thursday, Light Peak faces some hurdles in trying to replace many wires and sockets with one variety. For one thing, there are rules to contend with of standards groups that oversee particular communication technologies.

The USB Implementers Forum–which oversees the evolution of that ubiquitous variety of connectors–put out a statement last summer that did not sound particularly friendly to Light Peak. “USB connectors are not general purpose connectors and are not designed to be used in support of other technology applications or standards or as combo connectors,” the group said.

Jeff Ravencraft, the forum’s president, declines to discuss Light Peak directly. But he notes that many companies contributed patents and intellectual property for the creation of USB, setting terms that limit those inventions for use in specific ways. Anyone who uses the technologies in other ways “can’t claim an IP license,” he says.

It should be noted that USB could be categorized as a competitor of sorts. The latest version, known by the designation 3.0., is slated to operate at up to 5 gigabits a second, up from a peak of 480 megabits for the widely used USB 2.0 technology. Intel is also expected to support USB 3.0, however.

Tom Rossi, a Silicon Valley consultant who worked for Intel for 30 years, wrote a research report last September for IGI Consulting about Light Peak. He predicted USB 3.0 is likely to find broad usage, but expects to find much narrower applications for the new Intel technology–such as docking stations that allow laptop computers to connect to external monitors, keyboards and the like.

“You will see people experimenting with Light Peak,” he says. As for whether all connectors could ultimately be rolled into one? “I don’t think it’s practical,” he says.

At Mobile World Congress, the chips that power mobile devices are getting as much attention as the gadgets themselves. Over the past week Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have announced new chips that look more like PC processors.

Mobile World Congress, the mega-conference taking place in Barcelona this week, is all about mobile phones. But the chips that power mobile devices suddenly seem to be getting as much attention as the gadgets themselves.

Over the past week a who’s who of chipmakers including Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have announced new application processors. The pace of development has picked up as chipmakers start to focus on tablets, which operate on a faster PC cycle, as well as smartphones which have traditionally had long design cycles. Suddenly these new chips–all of which are based on ARM designs–are starting to look a lot more like PC processors in terms of performance and capabilities.

The best example of this is Nvidia, a newcomer to general-purpose processors that is challenging both incumbent wireless chipmakers, and to a lesser degree Intel and AMD, with its Tegra line. Nvidia was the first to ship a dual-core mobile processor, Tegra 2, and it worked closely with Motorola and Google to deliver the first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet. The Motorola Xoom, which will reportedly be available February 24, will be followed by Tegra 2 tablets from LG, Samsung and Toshiba.

But Nvidia is already on to its next big thing. This week it demonstrated a tablet using a next-generation Tegra, code-named Kal-El, with four ARM Cortex-A9 cores and a 12-core graphics processor. (My colleague, Sean Portnoy, covered the news here.) Nvidia said Kal-El will deliver 5x the performance of Tegra 2, which has eight graphics cores. More interestingly Nvidia showed Kal-El outperforming the 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, one of Intel’s older Merom processors for laptops. If Nvidia can stick with its aggressive schedule, Kal-El should be the first quad-core in its class when it goes into production in August (last year Marvell announced a processor using four 1.6GHz ARM-compatible cores, but the Armada XP is really designed for Web servers, network attached storage and media servers–not mobile devices). It will be followed by Wayne in 2012, Logan in 2013, and finally Stark in 2014, which Nvidia promises will deliver 75x the performance of Tegra 2.

Qualcomm has responded by adding a new standalone application processor to its Snapdragon line. It generally prefers to sell platforms that integrate the wireless communications and other components–a strategy that has worked well in smartphones–but it seems tablet companies want the flexibility to mix and match the best processors with different Wi-Fi and 3G/4G modems.

First, Qualcomm announced the APQ8060, a dual-core processor with Adreno 220 graphics that will power HP’s TouchPad, which is due this summer. This week Qualcomm followed up with its next-generation line of Snapdragons, code-named Krait. It will include the APQ8064 with four cores running at up to 2.5GHz and Adreno 320 graphics. Qualcomm said it will deliver 150 percent better performance than “currently available ARM-based CPU cores” and 15x better graphics than the original Adreno. The line will also include the single-core MSM8930 with an integrated LTE modem and the dual-core MSM8960 with a dual-code 3G/LTE modem. The Krait processors will also be manufactured on a more advanced 28nm process and will use 65 percent less power than current ARM-based processors, according to the company. The Snapdragon processors are compatible with the ARM instruction set, but Qualcomm designs its own CPUs (using ARM recipes) which enables it to further optimize power management. Qualcomm will ship early samples of its MSM8960 to customers next quarter, but the MSM8930 and APQ8064 won’t be available until sometime next year.

Samsung and TI are focused on building powerful standalone application processors.

Samsung announced the Exynos 4210 (formerly known as Orion), an application processor with two Cortex-A9 cores running at 1GHz that will power the Galaxy S II smartphone (the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2 tablet, however, will use Tegra 2). Samsung hasn’t said much about the graphics; there have been some reports that the Exynos 4210 uses ARM’s Mali graphics, but I think it is more likely that it uses Imagination Technologies PowerVR, like Samsung’s current Hummingbird Cortex-A8 processor. (Samsung is generally believed to be the manufacturer of Apple A4 processor–though neither company has ever confirmed it–and there has been lots of speculation about the features of the A5 as well.) The Exynos 4210 will be in production in March.

TI’s OMAP 4 platform has been in the works for some time (TI announced it at last year’s MWC), but the first device to use the OMAP4430, RIM’s PlayBook tablet, should arrive in late March or early April. The OMAP4430 is based on two Cortex-A9 cores running at up to 1GHz and Imagination’s PowerVR540 graphics. LG’s Optimus 3D will also use this chip (Anandtech posted some interesting benchmark results yesterday). TI will follow up with the OMAP4440, which boost the frequency to 1.5GHz and has better graphics performance. It will be in production in the second quarter.

Naturally at MWC this year TI announced the OMAP 5 platform, which is likely to be the first application processor based on ARM’s Cortex-A15. The Cortex-A15 is not only faster, but it also supports more memory and hardware virtualization. With two CPU cores running at up to 2GHz and multi-core graphics, OMAP 5 will have 3x the processing power and 5x better 3D graphics than OMAP 4, according to TI. The company hasn’t discussed the graphics in any detail, but the GPU is likely to be a multi-core version of Imagination’s PowerVR SGX543. There will be two flavors: the OMAP5430 with stacked low-power DRAM for smartphones and the OMAP5432 with external DDR2/DDR3 for “mobile computing and consumer products.” Like Qualcomm’s Krait, TI’s OMAP 5 will be manufactured on a 28nm process and TI says it will use 60 percent less power than OMAP 4 (which is manufactured on a 45nm process). TI says some customers will get early samples later this year, but OMAP 5 won’t show up in mobile devices until the second half of 2012.

Like Qualcomm, Broadcom and ST-Ericsson focus on integrated chipsets that include powerful application processors, wireless modems and other system components.

At MWC, Broadcom announced the BCM28150, which includes an HSPA+ baseband and the company’s Merlyn applications processor, with two Cortex-A9 cores running at 1.1GHz and its VideoCore IV video and 2D/3D graphics processor. The platform, which also includes RF, power management and connectivity chips, is designed for “affordable” Android smartphones. The company has not said when it will be available.
ST-Ericsson announced the U8500, with two Cortex-A9 cores and ARM’s Mali-400 graphics, way back at MWC in 2010, and should have beat Nvidia to the dual-core punch. But it fortunes have been closely tied with a struggling Nokia (it looks like the N9, which was rumored to use the U8500 and MeeGo, may never see the light of day).

This year ST-Ericsson rechristened its platform NovaThor and announced several new additions with some very high-end specs. The NovaThor U9500 combines an application processor (the Nova A9500) with two Cortex-A9 cores running at 1.2GHz and Mali-400 graphics with an HSPA+ baseband making it a direct competitor to the BCM28150. It is currently sampling and will be available later this year. In the second half of the year, ST-Ericsson will start sampling an enhanced version manufactured at 32nm, the Nova A9540, clocked at up to 1.8GHz and with four times the graphics performance of the U8500.

But the big news here is the Nova A9600, which will be based on two Cortex-A15 cores running at up to 2.5GHz manufactured on a 28nm process. ST-Ericsson claims it will also be the first processor with Imagination’s PowerVR 6 series, code-named Rogue, capable of 210 gigaflops (a gigaflop is a billion floating point operations per second). Overall the A9600 will have 200 percent better performance and 20x better graphics than the U8500, according to the company. A direct competitor to TI’s OMAP 5, the A9600 will be sampling this year but isn’t likely to show up in devices until well into 2012.

All of this sounds impressive, but is there really a need for this kind of power in a mobile device? In a blog post, Nvidia’s Mike Rayfield claimed there is real demand for these multi-core monsters. “You might well ask, ‘What on earth can be done with nearly 75x improvement in performance over Tegra 2 that Stark will provide in 2014?’ Our customers and partners have already indicated that they’re confident they can use everything we give them.” The usage scenarios that are mentioned frequently include heavy multi-tasking, the capture and playback high-resolution video (1,080p and even 1,440p) at up to 60 frames per second, stereoscopic 3D images and video, support for multiple cameras with sensor resolutions as high as 20 megapixels, to ability to drive multiple high-resolution displays, and augmented reality applications.

Intel is battling all of these companies as it works to shrink its x86 architecture down into mobile devices. I expected to hear more on Intel’s Oak Trail platform for tablets out of MWC, but it now looks like that may have to wait for Computex in June. Intel did announce that its 32nm Medfield processor for smartphones was sampling, and CEO Paul Otellini vowed that smartphones using its silicon would ship this year. The acquisition of Infineon’s wireless business should also make it much easier for Intel to integrate wireless technologies–the new Intel Mobile Communications unit announced several new modems at MWC–making its platform more competitive with those of Broadcom, ST-Ericsson and Qualcomm.

Intel continues to insist that the x86 architecture is a critical advantage, but the software world is changing too. On the mobile front, Intel lost its key partner for MeeGo when Nokia threw its lot in with Windows Phone. On the PC side, the shift to cloud-based software and services and the rapid growth of the iOS and Android ecosystems for tablets have partially neutralized the x86 advantage. Most important, Microsoft has now committed to porting the next version of Windows and Microsoft Office to ARM. These new versions should arrive in late 2012 just as mobile devices using these 28nm multi-core processors are hitting the market (and as 4G LTE is hitting its stride).

Most of these new application processors will end up in smartphones and tablets, but the combination of more powerful hardware and broader software support will spur the creation of entirely new devices as well. We will almost certainly see hybrid devices along the lines of the Motorola Atrix using multi-core ARM-based processors and running Windows or Android. All in all, it should make for a very interesting 2012.

LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O) said it would look for new partners for the MeeGo mobile operating system after partner Nokia chose to focus on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. [ID:nLDE71A0DG]

Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a meeting with analysts in London, accessed by Reuters via conference call, that Nokia’s (NOK1V.HE) choice of Microsoft (MSFT.O) over Google’s (GOOG.O) Android platform, sidelining the open source MeeGo platform in the process, was a financial decision.

“I wouldn’t have made the decision (Nokia CEO Stephen Elop) made, I would probably have gone to Android if I were him,” he said. “MeeGo would have been the best strategy but he concluded he couldn’t afford it.”

He said Nokia would find it hard to differentiate using the Windows platform: “It would have been less hard on Android, on MeeGo he could have done it.”

“We will find other partners. The carriers still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that’s the thing that drives our motivation,” he said.

MeeGo was created last year by the merger of Nokia and Intel’s Linux-based platforms Maemo and Moblin.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Editing by Mark Potter)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Intel Corp. has resumed shipments of a chip with a known flaw. But in order to get it, computer makers must promise not to use it in designs that trigger the serious performance problem.

Intel stopped production of the faulty “chipset” last month, after discovering that it would cause some computers to gradually lose their ability to talk to their hard disk and DVD drives. Cleanup was expected to cost $1 billion.

Intel said Monday that customers demanded that the faulty chip go back on sale while Intel hustles out a fixed version of the chip, which is expected to ship this month. Computers can be designed in a way that avoids the problem.

Intel said the latest decision wouldn’t change the company’s financial guidance.