Intel's Medfield SoC: Blazing!

[Mopetar]

If Apple struck any deal with Intel it's likely that it would be for Apple to use Intel as a fab. Right now they're stuck with Samsung as there aren't any other fabs that can handled the volume that Apple needs. That's not a deal that Intel would want to take on, but if Apple used some Intel IP in the design and Intel got to claim that it was in some way their CPU.

That scenario is probably just as unlikely as Apple switching to Intel, if not more so, but given Apple's recent string of investments, it seems as though they're trending towards designing even more of their own hardware components.

 

[Mopetar]

Seems as though Samsung might have a reason to partner with Intel after all. Apparently, Samsung is going to merge Bada with Tizen, which is what Intel folded MeeGo into after Nokia decided to go with Windows Phone 7. Seems as though Intel is interested in getting in good graces with Samsung or at least selling them some chips for a few phones. Hopefully this ends better for Intel than their efforts with Nokia.

 

[Jodell88]

Seems as though Samsung might have a reason to partner with Intel after all. Apparently, Samsung is going to merge Bada with Tizen, which is what Intel folded MeeGo into after Nokia decided to go with Windows Phone 7. Seems as though Intel is interested in getting in good graces with Samsung or at least selling them some chips for a few phones. Hopefully this ends better for Intel than their efforts with Nokia.

Tizen isn't Meego. They're two completely different platforms. Meego was built from the ground up to use QT toolkit as it's primary development platform. Tizen is using html5, css, javascript. Tizen is closer to WebOS in that regard than Meego.

I'm just informing.

 

[Mopetar]

Tizen isn't Meego. They're two completely different platforms.

While it's true that Tizen isn't MeeGo, Intel has incorporated some things from MeeGo into Tizen. I think that they're just doing it as a way to push their own chips. I just wonder if this new endeavor will end as poorly as MeeGo did.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Medfield needs to obliterate the competition in order for Intel to gain traction. The average consumers does not know or care about wich brand the processor in their phone is using. If performance is close, OEMs will buy the cheapest. The strength of ARM is that they dont sell you a chip, they sell you the IP and allow you the flexibility to customize your SOC, you choose the direction you want to take your company. With Intel, you are forced to basically buy whatever they sell you

ARM presents a huge advantage for companies and i dont see them abandoning it unless Atom chips are so superior that its not even comparable. And that wont be the case, Cortex A15 will still be competitive even against Silvermont but im confident that Silvermont wont be competitive in power at idle against Cortex A15 + big.little

Im still not buying Intels numbers for watts at idle. They faked the Ivy Bridge gaming demo, why wouldnt they embellish a little here? I will believe when Anand reviews an actual released retail phone. Competition is good for business, but Intel taking over would be bad for consumers.

Customize your SoC...yeah, sure. So instead of buying it from Intel, you can just buy an SoC from Qualcomm, Marvell, or whoever. So from a phone/tablet manufacturer standpoint, they're still just buying an SoC.

 

[ITHURTSWHENIP]

Customize your SoC...yeah, sure. So instead of buying it from Intel, you can just buy an SoC from Qualcomm, Marvell, or whoever. So from a phone/tablet manufacturer standpoint, they're still just buying an SoC.

Nope. Lets take Apple as an example

They buy the IP from ARM and design the processor themselves, they decide if they want dual channel or triple channel memory or whatever, they also license the GPU themselves (for example Intel uses an old SGX 540 for Atom while Apple is already using a 543MP2)

then they buy the 3G/LTE/Wifi/ from Broadcom or Qualcomm or whatever company that can offer them the best services

Then they send it to Samsung to fab the SOC

This level of customization allows them to replace any part of the supply chain they are displeased with. Intel can offer a slightly faster CPU and a worse GPU and the ability to emulate games while using said worse GPU. Not to mention Intels famous GPU drivers

Seems like quite a bargain for Apple

 

[alent1234]

if intel made this on the 22nm and used the extra die space to integrate their crapfineon radio chips and a wifi chip as well they could probably sell a bunch