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The article is talking about Intel getting into the wireless market, but not ...
Intel muscles into smartphones, tablets
Bolaji Ojo
1/11/2012 6:23 PM EST
Intel Corp., the 800-pound gorilla of the semiconductor market, has finally entered the wireless court. After years of trying, the company said its processors will be designed into smartphones and tablet PCs at three of the world's leading OEMs.
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Intel announced critical design deals with China Unicom Ltd., Lenovo Group Ltd., and Motorola Mobility Inc.-- its first successful challenge of ARM Ltd. in the market. Lenovo, Motorola, and China Unicom will roll out devices based on Intel architecture this year. The world's leading semiconductor company will be getting the validation it has long sought as a player in the wireless industry.
"When great silicon and software technology meets great mobile and design innovation, amazing things can happen," Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, said in a press release. "Our long-term relationship with Motorola Mobility will help accelerate Intel architecture into new mobile market segments."
Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini (right), joined onstage by Liu Jun, a senior vice president at Lenovo, at CES Wednesday.
The significance of these design wins for Intel cannot be overemphasized. For years, the company has struggled to break into the sector. It initially fought vainly against the dominance of ARM architecture. Even Intel's PC OEM customers worried that another near-monopoly would result if it gained a large following in the wireless equipment market. There was even speculation that its processors, most of which were designed for the personal computer market, were power hogs and would not be so optimal for the cellular industry.
Efforts to prove the doubters wrong led the company to pour billions into acquisitions and product development initiatives. Many of the acquisitions—some early in the last decade—failed to produce the desired results, and Intel could not make a dent in the sector. More recently, it began deploying its enormous internal engineering resources and the huge cash hoard built up in the PC microprocessor business. Intel has since developed chipsets and reference designs for the wireless market.
These efforts produced the Atom processor, which China Unicom, Lenovo, and Motorola will use. The agreements gave Intel the bragging rights it has long desired and signaled clearly that it won't walk away from the sector, despite the past failures. Few companies would like to have Intel as a rival, as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) can attest.
Meanwhile, in England, a nightmarish journey is beginning for ARM, the IP company that rapidly built up a commanding customer base in the wireless sector on the strength of patronage by customers seeking to ward off another monopoly. ARM has maintained its leading position in this market, but Intel's latest design wins will most certainly break the dam wall. If other OEMs and telecoms embrace the Intel architecture (a lot of incentives from the company would help, especially in a price-challenged market), ARM's marketshare could slip dramatically over the next few years.
Of course, Intel could face another failure if its chips fail to catch fire. In that case, the company would be forced to try again. As Otellini said in a CES presentation, the world is transitioning from a focus on personal computers to a focus on personal computing. Intel cannot afford to be excluded from this wirelessly charged world. Somehow, it has to build on this toehold it has finally secured.
Bolaji Ojo is editor-in-chief of EBN, an EE Times sister publication.
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Intel announced critical design deals with China Unicom Ltd., Lenovo Group Ltd., and Motorola Mobility Inc.-- its first successful challenge of ARM Ltd. in the market. Lenovo, Motorola, and China Unicom will roll out devices based on Intel architecture this year. The world's leading semiconductor company will be getting the validation it has long sought as a player in the wireless industry.
"When great silicon and software technology meets great mobile and design innovation, amazing things can happen," Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, said in a press release. "Our long-term relationship with Motorola Mobility will help accelerate Intel architecture into new mobile market segments."
Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini (right), joined onstage by Liu Jun, a senior vice president at Lenovo, at CES Wednesday.
The significance of these design wins for Intel cannot be overemphasized. For years, the company has struggled to break into the sector. It initially fought vainly against the dominance of ARM architecture. Even Intel's PC OEM customers worried that another near-monopoly would result if it gained a large following in the wireless equipment market. There was even speculation that its processors, most of which were designed for the personal computer market, were power hogs and would not be so optimal for the cellular industry.
Efforts to prove the doubters wrong led the company to pour billions into acquisitions and product development initiatives. Many of the acquisitions—some early in the last decade—failed to produce the desired results, and Intel could not make a dent in the sector. More recently, it began deploying its enormous internal engineering resources and the huge cash hoard built up in the PC microprocessor business. Intel has since developed chipsets and reference designs for the wireless market.
These efforts produced the Atom processor, which China Unicom, Lenovo, and Motorola will use. The agreements gave Intel the bragging rights it has long desired and signaled clearly that it won't walk away from the sector, despite the past failures. Few companies would like to have Intel as a rival, as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) can attest.
Meanwhile, in England, a nightmarish journey is beginning for ARM, the IP company that rapidly built up a commanding customer base in the wireless sector on the strength of patronage by customers seeking to ward off another monopoly. ARM has maintained its leading position in this market, but Intel's latest design wins will most certainly break the dam wall. If other OEMs and telecoms embrace the Intel architecture (a lot of incentives from the company would help, especially in a price-challenged market), ARM's marketshare could slip dramatically over the next few years.
Of course, Intel could face another failure if its chips fail to catch fire. In that case, the company would be forced to try again. As Otellini said in a CES presentation, the world is transitioning from a focus on personal computers to a focus on personal computing. Intel cannot afford to be excluded from this wirelessly charged world. Somehow, it has to build on this toehold it has finally secured.
Bolaji Ojo is editor-in-chief of EBN, an EE Times sister publication.
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kdboyce
1/11/2012 7:45 PM EST
Playing through and playing where the ball lies takes on new meaning if your lab is next to a golf course.
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hm
1/11/2012 9:04 PM EST
Intel should have first tried with Tablet market. Also this is very low margin business. How long Intel will like it?
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daleste
1/11/2012 10:13 PM EST
Yes, it is very low margin. And it is also very demanding. But is it high volume. Look at the companies that walked away from this business, Freescale and TI. Intel has a lot of cash, but this may be more than they have the stomach to invest in.
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Charles.Desassure
1/12/2012 12:05 PM EST
Wow! This is great news. More power.
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chipmonk
1/12/2012 12:31 PM EST
This is trench warfare ( attrition ), Intel has to get into smartphones and tablets not to make same level of profit as for CPUs but to deny upstarts ARM and TSMC future viability. Even if it takes $ 20 billion and 5 years to get there it would be well worth it for the future of Intel. They have the money in the bank for such a strategy.
Technologies like finFET and low power dissipation transistors and architectures are the foundation for it. Once Intel brings out Medfield at 20 nm later this year, it will be very hard for system builders now tied to fabless processor vendors ( who get their chips made by TSMC, now 2 nodes behind Intel ) or even integrated vendors ( Samsung ), to ignore it.
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emerson1
1/12/2012 2:37 PM EST
AMD is winner here too! this will prepare the software/developer battlefield so to speak, for other x86 chipsets for mobile to enter as well.
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chanj
1/12/2012 5:44 PM EST
The consumer gets to choose who's the winner. If Intel doesn't fail to deliver a comparable power saving product to any ARM based product, Intel might have a chance. Otherwise, how many people are going to buy it? Another factor would be the availability of apps and, in particular, free apps. I am happy to see more competition. At the end, consumers win. ;)
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bigdada1
1/12/2012 5:50 PM EST
It's a lower margin business. It made no sense to use advanced technologies for the purpose of lower power consumption. 22 nm nodes' will be at least 40% more expensive than 32nm and 14 nm would be even much more when EUV litho kicks in. They should run the PC/server CPUs on new technology nodes and use the older generation technology at depreciated fabs to run lower margin products. Why can't Intel push the design architecture to get lower power same as ARM?
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resistion
1/12/2012 9:58 PM EST
Intel's 14 nm will be more expensive because of multi-patterning (EUV not ready for 14 nm). 22 nm is not cheap either.
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PHW_#1
1/13/2012 1:06 AM EST
All 4 core APU for smartphone will start shipping using 28nm 2012. it still can't handle the full-HD 3D graphic. Smart phone application is still pushing for better & faster chips even in low power application. Your cost analysis is only right for foundries' node migration. It doesn't necessary right to compare Intel 22nm vs foundry's 32nm. Intel delayed two generation immersion litho (compared to foundries) introduction just to save cost. Intel does follow Moore's law in perfomance/cost/schedule so far. and multi-patterning is required in too many critical layers from 28/22nm in foundries, you don't need to be in 14nm.....
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ibm221
1/12/2012 7:01 PM EST
Paul Otellini here looks like a humble high school kid, waiting to see his class project get approved.
how ironic...
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resistion
1/12/2012 10:06 PM EST
The Atoms weren't such high performers in notebooks, and they are not known to be power-competitive against ARM, so it's a tight squeeze for Intel.
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Vancouver
1/12/2012 10:20 PM EST
There are two monopoly words used in this article aimed at Intel. While ARM monopoly in the wireless sector is rewarded with words such as "maintain leading position". This aritcle is not meant to inform readers, but rather, to pre-empt Intel in order to pave the way for future lawsuits from ARM and AMD against Intel. I buy and support Intel products because of the jobs issue. The jobs created in the US from ARM and AMD is a drop in a bucket compare to jobs that Intel created. If you want to support jobs growth in the US, buy tech. products that contain Intel chips.
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selinz
1/13/2012 2:58 PM EST
This is all consistent trend toward more and more powerful handhelds. Just big enough to fit in my pocket with as much power as possible, thank you...
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elctrnx_lyf
1/15/2012 3:24 AM EST
Little confusing article.. Is the author is talking about the wireless chips or processor market segment?
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Robotics Developer
1/16/2012 12:41 PM EST
The article is talking about Intel getting into the wireless market, but not wireless technology; Intel is going to be in the handhelds and tablets that traditionally have been ARM based. I can't say what the power/performance tradeoff numbers are between Atom and the new/future generation of ARM cores, but I have an Atom based laptop that is not very impressive (as a laptop mind you). I think if the OS and system design delivers speed and long battery life then Intel will have a winner, if not then they will not achieve the success they aim for.
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knowledge
1/31/2012 12:44 AM EST
great....
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