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Intel whips out quad-core Surface-like tablet, runs Android

Chip giant shows off a sleek, fast tablet sporting its quad-core Bay Trail chip during a Computex keynote.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Intel demoed a tablet that looks similar to Microsoft's Surface RT. Notice the Surface-like kickstand and detachable keyboard. Inside is a quad-core 'Bay Trail' chip.
Intel demoed a tablet that looks similar to Microsoft's Surface RT. Notice the Surface-like kickstand and detachable keyboard. Inside is a quad-core 'Bay Trail' chip. Intel

Intel doesn't make tablets, but maybe it should.

At a Computex keynote speech Monday, the company showed a decidedly thin, Microsoft Surface-like tablet packing a quad-core Bay Trail processor.

Bay Trail is Intel's redesigned Atom chip, offering performance that gets a lot closer to the chipmaker's mainstream laptop processors than the Atom of old.

"Four cores, out-of-order execution, HD 4000 graphics...all day battery life," Intel said during the demonstration.

The reference design tablet is made by BYD Electronic (International), according to an Intel spokesperson. BYD also makes HP's Slate 7 Android tablet.

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The demo guy showed tablets running both Android and Windows 8 games.

On Android, he demoed the game Candy Rush, while on a Windows 8 tablet he ran Steam's Torchlight II.

And speaking of gaming graphics, Intel is expected to announce Wednesday at Computex that the graphics chip inside of Bay Trail offers "3x" (three-fold) the performance of the "Clover Trail" graphics -- the most recent iteration of Atom.

Also of note is Intel's new 4G/LTE chips. Tablets being brandished at Computex also integrate the company's own LTE chips. Not unlike Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3, which uses both an Intel Atom processor and Intel's 4G/LTE silicon.

Another shot of Intel's Bay Trail reference design tablet made by BYD. The keyboard attaches like Surface's Touch Cover and Type Cover.
Another shot of Intel's Bay Trail reference design tablet made by BYD. The keyboard attaches like Surface's Touch Cover and Type Cover. Intel