IDF, Day Two: Intel Talks Mobile Roadmaps, Next-Gen UMPC Platforms, and Silicon Scaling

April 18, 2007

During day two of the Intel Developer's Forum in Beijing, Intel executives are expected to discuss the company's future plans for mobile processors, including a next-generation UMPC platform based on a 45-nm, high-k low power microarchitecture.

Intel provided advanced summaries of speeches to be made by David Perlmutter, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the Mobility Group, and other Intel executives before the Beijing event, as well as other supporting documents. Perlmutter will discuss personal computing and how it's becoming increasingly mobile, with notebook shipments expected to outpace desktop by 2011. He will also highlight some of the chipmaker's forthcoming platforms for notebooks.

Intel will not only try to build on important mobility characteristics like performance, battery life, form factor, and wireless communications, but also use those attributes to design entirely new types of devices and usage models, according to Perlmutter.

"The Internet is one of the driving forces in today's PC market and there is a desire for the Internet to be mobile," Perlmutter said, according to the transcript. "Intel is serving the market today with notebook PCs, and will expand its reach by adding WiMax to notebooks as well as small form factor MIDs - mobile internet devices - in 2008."

In May, Intel will launch its new Centrino processor technology, codenamed "Santa Rosa." . According to Perlmutter, the chipset will be comprised of a next generation Core 2 Duo processor, the Mobile 965 Express chipset family, an integrated 802.11n wireless connection, Intel's 82566MM and 82566MC Gigabit Network Connection, and optional Intel Turbo memory.

Santa Rosa will subsequently be "refreshed" in the first half of 2008 with Intel's 45-nm, high-k dual core mobile Penryn processor, Perlmutter said. Following that transition, the company will deliver its "Montevina" processor technology, which will feature components that are approximately 40 percent smaller. Intel says that Montevina will be ideal for mini- and sub-notebooks, and that it will include integrated hardware decode for high-definition video.

As announced earlier , Intel will also demonstrate its integrated Wi-Fi/WiMAX solution, which will be available as an option with Montevina-based notebooks in 2008, according to Perlmutter.

During Tuesday's keynote, Intel is also expected to announce what it's calling the Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 (formerly codenamed McCaslin) for MIDs and UMPCs.

Anand Chandrasekher, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, said a group of companies, including Aigo, Asus, Haier, HTC, and Samsung, have all signed on to work with Intel and flesh out their MID and UMPC categories , which have tended to struggle.

Chandrasekher added that systems using the Intel Mobile platform - based on the Intel A100 and A110 processor, the Intel 945GU Express Chipset, and the Intel ICH7U I/O Controller Hub - will be available from the latter companies starting this summer.

"Today's environment is primed for a truly personal, mobile Internet experience and the Intel Ultra Mobile platform 2007 combines the flexibility of a PC with the mobility of a handheld device," Chandrasekher is expected to say during the keynote.

"But we will not stop here. In 2008, Intel will deliver an entirely new platform based on Intel's 45nm low-power micro architecture designed from the ground up to let people to carry their personal mobile Internet in their pocket."

Chandrasekher said Intel will deliver "Menlow," its next-generation platform for MIDs and UMPCs, in the first half of 2008, upping the previous release schedule by half a year. During a demonstration of the Menlow-based prototype, Chandrasekher said that the platform will be based on a new 45nm high-k, low-power micro architecture-based processor, codenamed "Silverthorne," and a next-generation chipset known as "Poulsbo."

Chandrasekher will conclude the keynote by announcing the formation of the Mobile Internet Device Innovation Alliance, whose members will work on various engineering challenges like power management, wireless communications, and software integration associated with delivering the full Internet in increasingly smaller form factors.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International