News & Analysis
Slideshow: Intel carves new path to x86 tablets
Rick Merritt
9/27/2012 11:18 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO – “This was arguably our biggest effort at concurrent engineering to date,” crowed Stephen L. Smith, Intel’s director of tablet development at the launch of Clover Trail, its latest Atom-based SoC.
The PC giant designed the dual-core, dual threaded 1.8-GHz chip in tandem with a handful of partners who worked on a full tablet reference design for the chip. The 10.1-inch tablet design came with a full Intel software stack of BIOS, drivers and firmware for Microsoft’s Windows 8.
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Intel, Microsoft, Lenovo and one unnamed customer created the reference system and shared the bill of materials with six other OEMs.. Acer, Asus, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Samsung and ZTE showed systems, each with minor variations, most ready to roll for the formal launch of Win 8 at the end of October.
Tom Butler, Lenovo product marketing manager, which helped define the reference design, shows its ThinkPad Tablet II.
Asus, Lenovo and Samsung also showed tablets with Wacom digitizers for pen input with a stylus. Acer and HP tablets docked into keyboards that housed a secondary battery.
Asus showed a model with an 11.6-inch LG display delivering 600-nits brightness. The Acer tablet supports 3G and near-field communications. All the systems include keyboard docks that essentially turn them into small notebooks.
The big question is whether the race to Clover Trail leads to a significantly bigger share for x86 tablets in a market dominated by the Apple iPad. It’s a complex issue given Microsoft is also enabling the first generation of ARM-based Windows tablets—and competing with its own Surface tablet.
“I think [the Win 8 Atom tablets] have a very different proposition from the Android and Apple folks in providing a single device that does the content consumption tablets are good at and creation that PCs are good at,” said Nathan Brookwood, principal of Inside64 (Saratoga, Calif.). “The open question is if that resonates with buyers."
“This is a really good start for Intel in tablets,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal of Moor Insights & Strategy (Austin, Texas). “Enterprise IT will be taking a very serious look at these tablets and potentially pause their iPad rollouts if they aren’t too far down that road."
Click the next page to see more slides.
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Brutus_II
9/28/2012 12:27 PM EDT
I wonder why this is only finally coming about: Dual core/dual threaded technology taking so long to be produced at this level is because of management decisions, certainly not technological barriers. Both Intel and AMD have missed out, at least until soon, it seems. Perhaps this will cause Apple to re-think the glaring and annoying limitations placed on the otherwise incredible iPad if they want to retain top-dog status in this area. It may be too late. If the quality is there (a very big if), I will run over my iPad and upgrade to a more functional tablet
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xx19xx
9/28/2012 4:26 PM EDT
When asked why competitors had quad-core offerings but Intel did not, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said he doesn't think it matters. "I may have started the core wars when we did our first dual core product, but we learned that wasn't what's important," he said. What matters is processor performance.
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xx19xx
9/28/2012 2:35 PM EDT
@Brutus_II quad core + Intel = hot
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Battar
9/28/2012 4:44 PM EDT
Having used a tablet running Android, I can't wait for Intel/MS to provide a workable alternative.
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rick.merritt
9/28/2012 5:51 PM EDT
I'm not sure I like the Win 8 "Metro" interface, which is one factor here balanced against the fact I do what access to those old Office programs sometimes.
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rd211
9/29/2012 4:42 AM EDT
I think win8 will win the market,so you can inolve in http://www.rd211.com
and get the answer
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agk
9/29/2012 8:05 AM EDT
With this Intel MS product i will feel good and easy to use it.Because i think all the windows will look the same like in the laptop i am using with windows7.
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alkey3
9/30/2012 9:51 AM EDT
Zzzzz.... Unh? Intel Atom? Oh, nevermind. Zzz..
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Daniel Payne
10/1/2012 10:57 AM EDT
I bought my first tablet in March, the new iPad and quickly added the Logitech ultrathin keyboard so that I could do touch typing, so now the tablet can be used like a netbook. I've played with the Windows 8 pre-release but there wasn't enough appeal for me to switch from iOS6, so I think that Microsoft has too-little, delivered too late by 2 years or so. Battery life is paramount in tablets, so for Intel+Others to be successful they have to optimize for 10+ hours per charge in a reference design.
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Stanley_
10/1/2012 11:28 AM EDT
Sorry but die size as large as ~200mm^2 is epic fail at 32nm.. Apple A6 at the same node (called 28nm at foundry) is only 96mm^2.. the cost of the clover trail + MS software will be much higher than ipad or android tablet.. It'll be cheaper than ultrabook or MBA, but way too expensive for tablet, putting the product in awkward market position.
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resistion
10/1/2012 9:08 PM EDT
I can easily see the Intel tablets and ultrabooks eating each other's markets.
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resistion
10/3/2012 12:24 AM EDT
Some reports of Clover Trail hiccup:
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/66580-more-trouble-for-intels-clover-trail-tablets
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