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Intel Releases Atom Chip for Mobile Devices

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 April 2008, 11:25 CDT

Intel Corp, the world’s largest chipmaker, is looking to create a new market by releasing five new Atom microprocessors and a collection of chips designed for portable gadgets that access the Internet and for other uses.

Intel says the small Atom chips are low-power and are capable of speeds up to 1.86 gigahertz. They say the speed, plus other technologies designed into the chip, make it the fastest processor that consumes 3 watts of electricity or less.

The Atom family of processors is part of Intel's effort to have chips designed with Intel Architecture, which is the fundamental blueprint of its semiconductors. They plan to use the chip in myriad computing devices, from what it calls mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, all the way up to high-performance computers.

The company plans to make this announcement at its Intel Developer Forum conference on Wednesday in Shanghai.

Anand Chandrasekher, who runs Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, says Global Internet growth continues unabated. "The best Internet experience is still on the PC, but users want to carry that experience with them."

The Atom and Centrino Atom are at the center of this portable revolution.

The Centrino Atom also includes a single-chip with integrated graphics called Intel System Controller Hub that allows for PC-like capabilities and long battery life for devices small enough to fit in a user's pocket.

"Intel is really pumping this category," said Roger Kay, an analyst with market research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates . "That said, mobile Internet is here. For them this is really a great potential business."

Intel calls the Atom processor the “brains” of an electronic device and its system controller hub will help device makers create a range of MIDs with differing functions and designs.

Major device makers are already planning to adopt Atom, with more than 20 manufacturers coming out with products using the processor. Chandrasekher says the MIDs will start shipping in May.

He also said Intel expects about 30 percent of those MIDs to have both WiFi (short range high-speed wireless Internet access) and WiMax (longer-range high-speed access) designed into them.

MID device makers including Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba, among others, will probably set the average price around $500. Chandrasekher said prices can be higher or lower depending on the functions of the device.

The die of the chip is less than 25 square millimeters, a 10th of the size of the low-cost Celeron desktop and notebook PC chip. The small size of the Atom processor lets Intel target the embedded market.

Embedded chips are used in devices such as robotics for industrial manufacturing, kiosks, portable cash registers, patient monitoring and car "infotainment" systems.

Kay says the economics of the tiny chip are appealing, noting Intel gets nearly 2,700 Atom processors from a single dinner-plate-size silicon wafer.

He put Intel's approximate cost-per-chip for Atom at about $11 and estimates Intel could yield about $30,000 per wafer with a gross margin of around 50 percent, not far off the gross margin of its mainstream PC chips.

"If you start looking at that number, then the profitability of one of these things sold at $45, or even $160, they're fantastically profitable," said Kay.

However, Kay doesn’t expect the MID and this new market to take off right away.

"It'll likely go a little more slowly than Intel would like,” said Kay. "The world often divides half way between the reality on the ground and where Intel would like it to go.”

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On the Net:

Intel Corp

"Intel Introduces 'Atom' Line of Microprocessors"

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

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