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Intel CEO confirms 140 Ivy ultrabooks in design stage

by on18 July 2012



20 Atom Clover Trail Windows 8 tablets


Many expressed their concerns about the fast approaching threat to decades of x86 dominance in the form of Windows RT and next generation chips from the ARM alliance.

Hardly surprising then that Intel CEO Paul Otellini used the company’s quarterly earnings conference call to talk about the future of ultrabooks and Windows 8 Intel based tablets. Otellini revealed that there are 140 Ivy Bridge based Ultrabooks in the pipeline and 40 of them will sport touchscreens.

We had hoped that more companies would include touchscreens as this is obviously the way to go in 2012 and onwards. Tablets have proven surprisingly popular and the same goes for smartphones. Some next generation tablets will be convertible and $699 ultrabooks are expected this fall. Many will really like this price as it will bring ultrabooks within reach of students and other consumers on a tight budget.

Intel is also tracking more than 20 Windows 8 tablet designs based on the company’s Clover Trail architecture. To refresh your memory Clover Trail is a second generation 32nm system-on-chip Atom design in 32nm high K metal gate with clocks of 1.8GHz to 2GHz and of course it’s a dual-core.

It is expected in second half of 2012, so anytime between now and the end of the year. It is basically a dual-core version of the Atom Z2460, better known by its Medfield codename. Medfield already found its way to some smartphone designs.

Clover Trail comes with Power VR SGX 544MP2 graphics in dual-core version and 533MHz clock and should end up shipping together with Windows 8.
Intel also told the world that some tablets will also end up with Core based processors. In addition, some of the 140 ultrabooks will come in convertible form factors and we believe most if not all of them will feature touchscreens.

We are sure that Intel will put a good fight against the ARM alliance, especially in tablet and phone markets, and that there is no doubt that it will be the first with 20nm and later 15nm mobile processors to market. Remember, big boys have fabs, they cost a lot of money but they can allow you to be first to market with a new production process. Current 22nm parts practically have a one year lead over the competition and the same can be expected of Intel mobile parts.

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