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Intel Launches Multicore SoCs Supporting Android and Windows 8 Mobile Devices
Intel is rolling out a new family of low-power systems-on-a-chip (SoC) designed for a wide range of consumer and business-grade mobile devices.
The "Bay Trail" family of processors is based on Intel's flexible, high-performance microarchitecture, known as "Silvermount," which was announced in May. In the fourth quarter of this year, manufacturers such as AAVA, Acer, ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba plan to release mobile devices such as tablets and 2-in-1s featuring the new Bay Trail processors.
The Intel Atom Z3000 processor series (Bay Trail-T) is the company's first mobile multicore SoC and is designed for sleek mobile designs. According to the company, "it delivers a fast and fluid experience and a powerful balance of performance, battery life, graphics, and rich features." Compared to the previous generation Intel Atom processor, the Z3000 features a smaller footprint, lower power usage, double the computing performance, and triple the graphics performance. The Z3000 will be available in tablets and 2-in-1 devices running Android and Windows 8.
The Bay Trail-M line includes the Intel Pentium N3510 and Intel Celeron N2910, N2810, and N2805 processors. The -M line of processors will enable manufacturers to offer 2-in-1 devices and notebooks with touch capabilities at a lower price point that previous devices.
The Bay Trail-D line includes the Intel Pentium J2850, Intel Celeron J1850, and Intel Celeron J1750 processors. According to the company, they are Intel's smallest-ever packages for desktop processors, and they are ideal for fanless and small form factor entry-level desktops or for vertical uses such as intelligent digital displays.
The company also announced a new lineup of Chromebooks featuring Intel processors based on the Haswell microarchitecture. The lineup features a lead design from HP, followed by others from Acer, ASUS, and Toshiba. The company is also enabling 64-bit kernel support for Android with over 4 GB of system memory for better application performance.
Another announcement from the company was the availability of new fourth generation Intel Core vPro processors for business computing. According to the company, the vPro line offers "enhanced manageability, hardware-based security, improved productivity and collaboration" in a variety of computing devices, including tablets, 2-in-1s, Ultrabooks, laptops, all-in-ones, and desktop PCs.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.