back to article Intel's plan for Haswell, Silvermont, Bay Trail: WORLD DOMINATION

Intel says that its upcoming "Silvermont" Atom microarchitecture, coupled with Tuesday's announcement of low-power, dual-core "Haswell" 4th Generation Core processors, will not only vault it into smartphones and tablets – including detachable tablet-keyboard combos it calls "2-in-1s" – but will also invigorate its low-power …

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  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    So still not really a SoC, or even a system in the carrier

    IE putting putting 3rd party (EG the cellphone makers) ASIC in with the CPU, like certain other mfgs will do.

    Or am I missing something?

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge
    Devil

    Excuse me while I yawn

    Battery life on decent portables is already at the point where we do not look for the charger all the time. All of my gear has 5-7 hours "typewriter" use and 2-3h+ use on full blast (none of it is the latest and greatest kit either).

    This improvement could be valued by Joe Transatlantic user a few years back. However, in this day and age Joe is likely to have a socket even if he flies economy. Same for "family use". If I have to look for the charger every 20 mins - that's annoyance. If I have to look for it after 3h use full blast - that is acceptable. Difference between looking for it 3h and 3h 30 mins? Yawn...

    It's better, it's faster, it's more efficient. None of it is revolutionary in any sense. Nothing to match AMD announcement on making the GPU cache synchronous with the CPU in their APU units from a couple of months back.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Excuse me while I yawn

      You hit the nail on the head there : AMD's *announcement*. Let's see if they can get product out the door within a reaonable time frame and then if it actually performs in the marketing speak ball park. I've soon a few to many magic and revolutionary announcements to get very excited by all this.

    2. mmeier

      Re: Excuse me while I yawn

      Q: How much does the unit weight?

      I can get 10h of working time from a Fujitsu T-series notebook/convertible with a non-ULV core-i CPU. No problem - but the beasts weights 2.1kg + sleeve and mouse (I hate trackthingys).

      I can not get that time from a lighter device with similar power. 4-5h from a core-i based tablet pc are currently best I get. With Haswell this will go up to 6+hours, enough to carry me over the average workday without lugging around the charger. And the "dual battery" 2in1 units like the Q702 will benefit even more, a 1.1kg device that runs 11+ hours with a core-i and no more "do I have to bring the charger and other gear"

      Long runtime for low weight/bulk was the only benefit of Win8 Atom and Samsung Fragmentdroid units - with Haswell the choice between light but long running and powerful but short legged in the 1kg weight class will go away.

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    Everything?

    Are they forgetting life and the universe?

    Mine is the one with the cassette tapes of the radio plays in the pocket

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Everything?

      ...and IA-64

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Yes, yes it's all very nice but…

    … the prices and margins of these devices continue to fall and Intel's prices will as well.

    1. P. Lee

      Re: Yes, yes it's all very nice but…

      It isn't just prices, its about controlling your own destiny. Samsung will see no reason to be held hostage by Intel over chips when it can reuse an existing design ARM bluebrint, be beholden to no-one and have the product cheaper to boot.

      Having seen how MS dealt with vmware, Checkpoint dealt with Stonesoft, Nokia etc, I would never base my business on adding value to someone-else's product.

      1. mmeier

        Re: Yes, yes it's all very nice but…

        Samsung has just announced the next Galaxy tab will use - Intel

  5. zooooooom

    4th Gen?

    TFA says Haswell is Intels 4th Gen "core" architecture.... Core, Core 2, Nehalem, Sandy, .... ????

    Then "The first Ultrabooks were based on Intel's 2nd Generation Core processors, aka "Sandy Bridge"; the next wave were powered by the 3rd Generation "Ivy Bridge"

    Sandy and Ivy are different generations? I thought one was a die shrink...

  6. tentimes
    Stop

    "Clock-for-clock, Haswell chips should be about 15 per cent faster than Ivy Bridge " Nope - go read Anand's review. Max about 5% and they're a dog for overclocking. Maybe way down CPU scale they are 15% (i.e. tablet size) but not on the desktop.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Massive increase in Intel x86 SoC licensees threatens ARM world domination

    What are the odds?

    No, thought not.

    Intel still irrelevant then outside the legacy x86 market, now and for the foreseeable future, despite their increasingly desperate puffery.

  8. druck Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    The debate is far from over

    "The myth that Intel will never be able to get power down low enough to get into phones is gone," Intel spokesman Bill Calder told The Reg. "That debate is over."

    Really? I'll believe that when phone makers start paying for Intel processors, rather than Intel paying the phone makers to use them.

  9. Wang N Staines
    Thumb Down

    Intel, the company with dodgy business practices, producing chips that are 2 years behind the curve.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately...

    ...AMD is delivering the real deal with Kabini and Richland so Intel is up the creek without a canoe.

    1. mmeier

      Re: Unfortunately...

      I believe that if the units show up in a big electronic store near me.

      Until then I place my bets with Haswell and Baytrail

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Debate is over?

    @Article

    "The myth that Intel will never be able to get power down low enough to get into phones is gone," Intel spokesman Bill Calder told The Reg. "That debate is over."

    No, it is not! By the time Intel thinks that it has reached the goal-post, they realise belatedly that the goal-post has moved! Claiming that the debate is over is not going to solve problems. And releasing spin after spin does not help either. Intel is becoming like an ostrich. Burying your head into the sand is not going to help!

  12. Charles Manning

    Two huge hurdles for Intel

    Firstly Intel is a high margin company. They know how to make high margin chips which have huge set-up expense and huge profits. They will really struggle to compete in the low-margin spectrum where a smart phone SoC costs under $20.

    Secondly, they can't make the wide diversity of products that the embedded industry uses. There are tens of vendors cranking out hundreds of different ARM-based parts with different peripheral mixes and price points. Intel is struggling to make just one SoC fly. They just don't have all the resources required to generate the diversity that the industry expects.

    Domination of the bottom of the KoolAid punch-bowl: maybe, world: no.

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