Intel has announced that its next generation of smaller, more efficient mobile processors will be ready for “high volume manufacturing in 2013”.
Intel has struggled to compete with the likes of Qualcomm on the mobile processor front over the past few years, so it’s been scrabbling to ready a new slew of processors that can make it in the market. With any luck, they’ll at least fair better than the Medfield chip of this year.
Reuters reports that Intel announced at a San Francisco industry conference that its new manufacturing technologies would soon be capable of building system-on-a-chip systems that rival Qualcomm’s.
Currently Intel’s mobile processors use manufacturing processes which can produce features 32 nanometres in size, which doesn’t compare well with Qualcomm’s 28 nanometres. Smaller features, after all, bring better performance and efficiency — but are more difficult to make. Intel’s new mobile processors promise 22-nanometre features.
Intel already produces 22-nanometre PC processors, but using that technology to build system-on-a-chip units isn’t straightforward. Sounds like it’s cracked it though, and is hoping to put the silicon into mass production next year. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether a mobile Intel chip can steal the lead from Qualcomm. [Reuters]
Image: OnInnovation/Flickr