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Intel's new mobile chip to boast up to 8 processor cores

Intel needs to make waves in mobile computing. That's exactly what the first overhaul of the Atom chip design intends to do.

The new Silvermont Atom micro-architecture -- the first major architectural change since Atom debuted in 2008 -- delivers a "significant reduction in power [consumption] and a significant increase in performance," Dadi Perlmutter, an Intel executive vice president, said in a conference call Monday.

Perlmutter was quick to point out that the two -- performance and power efficiency -- are not incompatible. A slide (below) showed Silvermont Atom performing at twice the level of the previous … Read more

Intel to announce first Atom chip redesign

Intel will detail plans for the first redesign of its Atom processor since its launch in Netbooks five years ago.

On May 6, the chipmaker is expected to announce the Silvermont micro-architecture, which will spawn Bay Trail and Merrifield processors, for tablets and smartphones, respectively.

"Intel Executive Vice President Dadi Perlmutter will...talk about Intel's next-generation Atom micro-architecture targeted at a range of market segments from low power tablets and smartphones, to microservers, the data center, and much more," Intel said in a statement Tuesday.

The new Atom uses a higher-performance out-of-order design, just like Intel's … Read more

Intel talks new chips, partners at Mobile World Congress

A year ago, Intel's CEO took the stage at Mobile World Congress to tout new partnerships and talk up the benefits of Intel's mobile chips.

At that time, the Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor maker's presence in the smartphone market was essentially nonexistent. Today, Intel has 10 phones shipping in 20 countries (though not the U.S.), and it keeps improving its power consumption and performance.

While that's good progress, Intel still has a long way to go, as the company readily admits. It hopes the new chips it's officially launching today at MWC 2013 will … Read more