IDF 2008: Intel pushes high and low end mobile chips

Notebooks will further close the performance on desktop systems, thanks to more powerful and more capable multi-core chips and better support for multi tasking.

According to David Perlmutter, executive vice president of the mobility group at Intel, high-end quad-core notebooks based around the Core 2 Extreme processor are “all about dramatic mobile performance without compromise”. Such machines, demonstrated at IDF, will offer some of the raw computing performance lacking on lower-end Intel platforms, especially the Atom.

Chips such as Atom cannot offer satisfactory multi-tasking performance with desktop operating systems or with demanding applications, Perlmutter said. “[Atom] is a wonderful thing,” he said, “but like any wonderful thing, if you buy a $10,000 car and expect it to behave like a BMW, it's not going to do that. If you have a single task, if you're going to play a simple game, Atom is wonderful. If you try to do two or three things it is not as good. If you try to do things at a higher level it is not going to work.”

The Core 2 Extreme processor is intended to address some of these shortcomings. But Perlmutter conceded that lower-end, Atom based machines could cannibalise sales of more powerful systems. “If I say they won't, you won't believe me.”

The low-power Atom processor has already proven more successful than Intel had expected, Perlmutter admitted. “We intended to use Atom for extremely small form factor mobile Internet devices. When we envisioned the netbook we thought it would be predominantly for emerging markets but we are surprised - happily surprised - to see that this technology is also being desired in mature markets,” he said.

Other devices, too, could benefit from Atom chips. Atom-based systems could be ideal for adding multiple features to smartphones and IP phones for the home, for example. “Every phone you have in the house becomes an IP phone. It may be the centre of your house, doing security, with video and other capabilities not just VoIP,” predicted Perlmutter.

Currently Intel’s Atom can use anything from 0.5W up to over 3W of power. In 2009 or 2010, Perlmutter predicted, Intel will scale Atom down to lower power devices, allowing it to compete with the low-power ARM processors that power many current smartphones.

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