News & Analysis
Android will run better on our chips, says Intel
Sylvie Barak
1/17/2012 5:04 PM EST
Intel; an Android “first class citizen”
The partnership with Google, said Bell, also makes Intel a “first class citizen” in the Android ecosystem, meaning that as new iterations of Android emerge, the corresponding Intel optimized versions will be released simultaneously.
“There shouldn’t be a time lag between the availability of the various flavors of Android. We will be doing all the enablement work, so our partners can almost have a seamless experience getting their products to market,” explained Bell.
To further help push its chips out into the mobile market, Intel is going an extra mile by building its own fully featured reference design smartphone to offer customers interested in becoming an Intel mobile partner. Partners can either adapt that reference design or use it as is, said Bell.
“It’s almost doing it a disservice, calling it a reference design,” Bell noted, saying the phone had fully passed Google’s compliance tests and was undergoing carrier certification. “For all intents and purposes, you could sell this as a phone tomorrow,” Bell noted.
The 10mm phone does indeed boast every bell and whistle available on the market, from NFC to HDMI, to support for full 1080p video in a chassis just 10mm thick. “This is a no excuses smartphone,” said Bell, showing off the phone in a demo.
The reference design shown by Intel at CES sported an 8mp camera, but Bell said the chipset could support up to 16mp cameras, as well as a bevy of other features and a battery capable of all-day use. Similarly, the demo model was using Android Gingerbread, because it was slightly more optimized than Google’s newer Ice Cream Sandwich at the moment.
“It’s up to the vendor, up to our partners, to pick what parts go into their design. We’ll help them with that. But we’re not dictating what people have to ship,” he said, noting that Intel had no interest in controlling the specs of the phones their chips were eventually used in. “We think people will largely adopt what we’ve done, but it’s really up to them,” he added.
At the end of the day, said Bell, Intel’s foray into smartphones would be successful based on positive customer experience. “We believe that the user experience is really what it’s all about,” he said, positing that the only way Intel could really differentiate its product in the market was to delivers omething better or different than its competition.
“Different is not just a spinny, 3D globe UI or some sort of tacky eye candy,” he noted, “it’s something that fundamentally makes the user experience better.”
Intel, he said was investing heavily to help its partners come up with that differentiation, building on the already powerful Android ecosystem.
“The nice thing about Android is that the ecosystem already exists and it’s an open platform, we have the full source code. There’s no reason why we can’t add capabilities to our flavor of it and maintain Google compatibility at the same time,” he said.
Indeed, much of the work that went into Intel’s failed MeeGo experiment is now purportedly being moved over to what’s being called Tizen, the firm’s latest open source effort.
“There’s no reason we can’t take the best pieces of that and integrate it in with our Android offerings,” Bell added.
Despite the clear, streamlined vision, however, it will take more than a reference design and a partnership with Lenovo in China to make Intel a success in mobile.
Analysts at CES were quick to note it was still early days for the chip giant in a market it has been attempting to penetrate for some 20 years. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, many said, would be the true test of Intel’s success in persuading partners it was a serious player, and with that show just over a month away, we may not have long to wait to see if Bell and his team can deliver on their vision.
Check out the full interview with Bell below:
The partnership with Google, said Bell, also makes Intel a “first class citizen” in the Android ecosystem, meaning that as new iterations of Android emerge, the corresponding Intel optimized versions will be released simultaneously.
“There shouldn’t be a time lag between the availability of the various flavors of Android. We will be doing all the enablement work, so our partners can almost have a seamless experience getting their products to market,” explained Bell.
To further help push its chips out into the mobile market, Intel is going an extra mile by building its own fully featured reference design smartphone to offer customers interested in becoming an Intel mobile partner. Partners can either adapt that reference design or use it as is, said Bell.
“It’s almost doing it a disservice, calling it a reference design,” Bell noted, saying the phone had fully passed Google’s compliance tests and was undergoing carrier certification. “For all intents and purposes, you could sell this as a phone tomorrow,” Bell noted.
The 10mm phone does indeed boast every bell and whistle available on the market, from NFC to HDMI, to support for full 1080p video in a chassis just 10mm thick. “This is a no excuses smartphone,” said Bell, showing off the phone in a demo.
The reference design shown by Intel at CES sported an 8mp camera, but Bell said the chipset could support up to 16mp cameras, as well as a bevy of other features and a battery capable of all-day use. Similarly, the demo model was using Android Gingerbread, because it was slightly more optimized than Google’s newer Ice Cream Sandwich at the moment.
“It’s up to the vendor, up to our partners, to pick what parts go into their design. We’ll help them with that. But we’re not dictating what people have to ship,” he said, noting that Intel had no interest in controlling the specs of the phones their chips were eventually used in. “We think people will largely adopt what we’ve done, but it’s really up to them,” he added.
At the end of the day, said Bell, Intel’s foray into smartphones would be successful based on positive customer experience. “We believe that the user experience is really what it’s all about,” he said, positing that the only way Intel could really differentiate its product in the market was to delivers omething better or different than its competition.
“Different is not just a spinny, 3D globe UI or some sort of tacky eye candy,” he noted, “it’s something that fundamentally makes the user experience better.”
Intel, he said was investing heavily to help its partners come up with that differentiation, building on the already powerful Android ecosystem.
“The nice thing about Android is that the ecosystem already exists and it’s an open platform, we have the full source code. There’s no reason why we can’t add capabilities to our flavor of it and maintain Google compatibility at the same time,” he said.
Indeed, much of the work that went into Intel’s failed MeeGo experiment is now purportedly being moved over to what’s being called Tizen, the firm’s latest open source effort.
“There’s no reason we can’t take the best pieces of that and integrate it in with our Android offerings,” Bell added.
Despite the clear, streamlined vision, however, it will take more than a reference design and a partnership with Lenovo in China to make Intel a success in mobile.
Analysts at CES were quick to note it was still early days for the chip giant in a market it has been attempting to penetrate for some 20 years. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, many said, would be the true test of Intel’s success in persuading partners it was a serious player, and with that show just over a month away, we may not have long to wait to see if Bell and his team can deliver on their vision.
Check out the full interview with Bell below:
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resistion
1/17/2012 6:35 PM EST
Trouble is most Android apps suck currently compared to iPhone, speed doesn't help.
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ibm221
1/17/2012 7:06 PM EST
eet, can you tune your video setup?
my ie7 not showing anything.
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SylvieBarak
1/17/2012 7:52 PM EST
We're checking into this. Wasn't aware the problem extended to IE7. I thought it was only IE6 users having trouble.
Try using firefox or chrome for now, and we'll work on getting that IE problem fixed. Thanks!
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Bert22306
1/17/2012 7:54 PM EST
The article pretty much quotes the significant parts of the video clip.
I think the most significant point being, any apps written to run over Android should run over an Android-Intel system as easily as they run over Android-ARM. That's what you'd expect of an OS, after all.
But Bell says that Android over Intel will be faster, and that they've invested a lot of resources to improve power efficiency, to the point that battery life should last all day.
Good for Intel, is my comment. Go for it.
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Bert22306
1/17/2012 8:08 PM EST
This is all extremely interesting, IMO.
So, we have seen speculations that future PCs may run ARM instead of x86 architectures, and now it looks like Intel is working hard and evidently succeeding to support Android over x86 architecture, without the power penalty.
Things are evolving in the most interesting ways. The possibility of Win8 running over ARM or x86, and Android running over ARM or x86, and x86 no longer being a non-started for power-challenged devices, can only be fun to follow.
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KB3001
1/20/2012 5:54 PM EST
Without a power penalty? Says who?
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daleste
1/17/2012 9:01 PM EST
I didn't know Intel had made so much progress in the wireless area. Maybe they should look at the Apple model and start selling their own phones and not just the chips.
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SylvieBarak
1/17/2012 9:06 PM EST
Well, Mike Bell did use to work for Apple... and he's in charge of Ultra-Mobility now. I think Intel is starting to get fed up of waiting for others to adopt their chips for phones... and this reference design is almost at the point where Intel has made one itself and is basically delivering it on a silver platter to anyone who will sell it. That's a pretty sweet deal for OEMs... Intel makes all the design investment and they just have to slap their name on it and sell it? Intel couldn't be making it much easier!
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Bert22306
1/17/2012 9:08 PM EST
Don't know about that, although possibly it would be a good business model.
The reason I'm skeptical is, the vertical integration of Apple is exactly why I prefer Wintel and Android. I'd hate to see Intel becoming a closed shop too.
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hm
1/17/2012 9:58 PM EST
Apple, Samsung and other design their own mobile processors and few more chips. When other mobile vendor gets them from Intel with their hefty profit margin, their product may becomes costy. Intel will have difficult time in this price sensitve market.
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goafrit
1/17/2012 10:02 PM EST
A very brilliant idea indeed. There is no need to waste time competing against Google.
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kinnar
1/18/2012 6:38 AM EST
It seems that the giant has suddenly waked after a very sound sleep in the mobile processors segment. But it is better late then never. Android required a strong interfaceablity with a stable, up-gradable and consistent hardware platform, that only a dedicated processor manufacturer can provide as compared to IP vendors.
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t.alex
1/18/2012 10:41 AM EST
Why is it better?
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luting
1/18/2012 11:28 AM EST
When Intel is claiming 2-5x performance, what are they comparing with? ARM7 or Cortex-A15? There are few fundamental reasons I don't believe Intel is going to fly there:
1. ARM is encumbrance in mobile world and there is no fundamental incentive from Intel processor to convince cell manufacturer to replace it;
2. Intel margin is high and fab is expensive. That is why Xscale division never made money before sold to Marvell.
3. Comparing many ARM SoC choices from different vendors such as TI, Qualcomm, Marvell, etc, no one wants to stuck into a single vendor x86 solution;
4. It might be the power that help ARM to win initial position in Mobile world. But there are many other reasons help ARM hold its helm.
5. At last, has Intel had good tracking record to score major design wins outside their PC/desktop world.
My recommendation to Intel: Don't be obsessed with Mobile world. You don't have to control everything to do with CPU. Focus on your core business before ARM could steal from it.
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eewiz
1/18/2012 3:06 PM EST
The problem with that recommendation is that sooner or later the CPU business itself will shrink to mostly mobile CPUs, as they get enough performance to run major apps. ie. Mobile CPU will disrupt the entire CPU business. So Intel is forced to play now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology
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KB3001
1/20/2012 5:55 PM EST
They have indeed to try at least, but sticking to x86 is insane IMO. They want to have their cake and eat it!
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abraxalito
1/19/2012 12:45 AM EST
"There’s no downside, there’s only upside,” he said." - I see the Koolaid is still being freely dispensed over at Intel.
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KB3001
1/20/2012 5:55 PM EST
Could not agree more! It's insane!
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eembedded_janitor
1/19/2012 2:57 PM EST
I think the ultimate shortcoming that Intel in their ARM war is that their whole business is tuned to high margin chips. Will they be able to change gears and tackle the low-margin business effectively?
Intel also is one chipmaker. ARM, on the other hand, is a whole ecosystem of hundreds of different parts from scores of different manufacturers with different capabilities.
ARM's single core chip (stripped down to achieve power numbers) is going up against ARM parts which are going the other way - multi-core chips with DSP and SIMD processing on-chip.
Sure Intel have deep pockets and some clever people on board, but they have a lot of challenges if they want to play this game.
I predict that Intel will do what they've always done with their non-core business (8051, i960, ...) - do something interesting for a bit and then just walk away leaving their customers high and dry.
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panzerboy
1/20/2012 6:33 AM EST
I'm not so sure this is a fight that Intel can afford to step away from.
Much as I would enjoy ARM using the same sort of FUD Intel used to market the 386 against the 68K. "Will you risk not using the industry standard".
Superphones and Tablets are eating PC sales. My niece does all her Facebook on her iPhone, she doesn't have a PC. Superphone + Internet TV, why have a PC?
Most ARMs are going into featurephones, the Cortex-A7 is fine for that and operates at 10% of the power of this new Atom. So ARM's core business is safe. I can't see the upcoming 'tock' of architectural redesign of Atom dropping power by more than half.
Intel's still enjoying good profits, I suspect that's at the expense of AMD. They haven't landed a blow on ARM yet.
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selinz
1/20/2012 8:22 PM EST
The main reason people need real computers these days is for media and information creation. It's been said many times in the past and the recent improvements in smart phones and tablets have not changed anything. Have you tried rendering video, modifying a weekend's worth of pics or even doing a term paper on a tablet? It doesn't make sense. We all enjoy our smartphones and are amazed how much they do. But the gap in capability and practicality is still enormous.
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panzerboy
1/20/2012 8:23 PM EST
The reference design phone reminds me of the way Intel releases motherboards for their desktop processors. Could this be the start of the PCification of the smartphone? May we be able to one day swap cases, boards, displays (betteries) with the same ease we do now with the PC.
He said angry birds was an ARM native application. ARMulators have been around for a while for x86, I wonder how they're doing the ARM simulation. The best silicon process, dragged down by a legacy x86 design, dragged further by emulating the competition, and yet it's still competitive. Remarkable, but there's got to a be a simpler way.
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fvr1973
1/23/2012 2:49 AM EST
Intel will only succeed when they make an ARM cpu themselves. I you can't beat them, join them.
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