The world’s biggest chips maker has thus far been absent from what is predicted to be one of the biggest moneymakers in silicon: mobile. Intel has been working to develope an Atom-based CPU that could work in mobile phones. The so-called Moorestown chips were shown off in May, but you’re going to be waiting a bit longer still to get your hands on a phone rocking an Intel chip. The first Moorestown CPUs should be arriving in phones starting in 2011. They have also hinted a Moorestown tablet could show up by year’s end.
Intel has been trying to figure out the mobile market for a number of years with little success. In 2006 they seemed to write off the idea completely when they sold their XScale mobile CPU division to Marvell. Intel then went on to push standard Atom CPUs in mobile devices. Power concerns kept this from taking off.
ARM-based CPUs currently rule mobile because of their high performance to power use ratios. Intel may have expertise in developing great desktop and laptop silicon, but can they overcome ARM’s foothold?
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