Intel’s short term plans include the production of system-on-a-chip products that will compete directly with ARM chips now being manufactured by Broadcom, Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments.

Intel, which is expected to be eclipsed by Samsung as the world’s largest manufacturer of chips within the next 12 months, apparently has a plan to fight back. At the Intel Developer Forum, Intel executives showed that they have a battle strategy, and that they are planning on entering the smartphone processor business in a very big way by the end of 2011, a mere two years from today. Detractors say that such a move is not possible, but other analysts think Intel can realize their goal.

The chief weapon that Intel brings to the smartphone fray is its Atom processor, in its current form and as downsized and reinvented during the next two years. In 2010, Intel plans to introduce an Atom package consisting of a 45-nanometer Atom processor, a graphics processor, memory controller, and video encoder/decoder, all on a single chip. That will bring the company much closer to their competition, according to a TechWeb article. Then, in 2011, they plan to introduce the package codenamed Medfield, the third-generation of the Atom platform, which will be a 32-nm system-on-chip that will be Intel’s closest competition to the ARM architecture that dominates the smartphone market today.

Intel is after this market because there is much more growth there than in their current primary market, which consists mainly of personal computers and servers. John Spooner, an analyst for Technology Business Research, says “The PC market in general isn’t going to grow as quickly as it used to. It’s that simple. They need to expand their base to keep growing.” And in order to do that, they need to enter the smartphone market in a big way.

Leslie Fiering, a leading Gartner analyst, says “There’s people who believe there’s no way Intel can come in. “But Intel is very serious in designing for the smartphone, and when they get there, they will bring development tools and a lot of (processing) power to burn.” Intel is used to a leadership position in the processor marketplace, and will not easily yield that position to Samsung. With smartphones, and perhaps tablet computers, gearing up to possibly replace standard desktops and laptops, Intel seems to be putting much of its efforts into producing the best, smallest, and least power-hungry processor for the future of the personal computing device.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 6:19 pm under Cell phones, Intel, Technology.

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