Intel reveals Quad-Core, LTE-capable mobile chips are on the way

Posted on 24/09/2012 by Daniel Cooper

Intel's curious decision to shun the US and release Medfield-powered smartphones in India, China, Russia and the UK might be because of those countries' underdeveloped levels of LTE. Marketing chief Sumeet Syal told TechCrunch that its current-generation x86 system-on-chip won't support the standard, but a modem solution will arrive at the end of the year -- with production ramping up in 2013. He also let slip to the site that a replacement dual-core platform will arrive shortly, claiming they'll benefit from Intel's hyper threading know-how. Syal said that Santa Clara is "comfortable" with its progress just months after entering the smartphone space but declined to discuss numbers -- for which we'll have to wait for the Q3 earnings call in October to find out how well (or not) Intel's mobile ambitions are going.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Intel reveals Quad-Core, LTE-capable mobile chips are on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

TechCrunch | Email this | Comments

InterDigital sells nearly 2,000 wireless patents to Intel, pockets $375 million

Posted on 18/06/2012 by Daniel Cooper

InterDigital (we interviewed its CEO last week) is selling off around 1,700 wireless patents and applications to Intel for $375 million. The company is making good on its promise to monetize its vast portfolio of IP, including technologies relating to 3G, WCDMA, HSDPA, HUSPA, LTE and 802.11 WiFi connections. It's a short in the arm for Intel's burgeoning wireless arm, which recently outed its first handset, the San Diego. It'll also strengthen the hand of the company in any litigation relating to the technology should the lawyers come knocking. So far it's not clear if the company is retaining an interest in the files its sold off, but we've reached out for comment and will let you know when we do.

Update: The company let us know that it's not retaining any interest in the patents that it's selling off. It also mentioned that the 1,700-strong portfolio equates to around eight percent of the company's overall IP holdings -- a number that it generates roughly every 18 months.

Continue reading InterDigital sells nearly 2,000 wireless patents to Intel, pockets $375 million

InterDigital sells nearly 2,000 wireless patents to Intel, pockets $375 million originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Reuters | | Email this | Comments

Orange San Diego review: Intel does phones, finally

Posted on 14/06/2012 by Mat Smith

The first generation of Intel-powered Android phones has arrived, and while the chip maker doesn't appear to be claiming that its initial efforts are world-beaters, we've been promised a chipset that prioritizes what people want most: capable web browsing, strong camera performance and robust battery life. Although we've sampled plenty of incremental versions of this Medfield tech, Orange UK's San Diego is the first finished device to land for review. Priced at £200 ($308) it joins a large spread of wallet-friendly, entry-level smartphones in Orange's lineup. With a (1024 x 600) 4-inch LCD, 8-megapixel camera with flash, micro-HDMI port and 1GB of RAM, it looks to be a respectable, if middle-of-the-road, Android device. But the focus here lays with the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU and whether it delivers on those performance and battery life promises. Does Intel have a handle on mobile processors? Is the San Diego, near-identical to Intel's own reference model, going to be attractive enough for buyers? You'll find our verdict after the break.

Gallery: Orange San Diego review

Continue reading Orange San Diego review: Intel does phones, finally

Orange San Diego review: Intel does phones, finally originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Orange San Diego Medfield phone: a closer look at Computex 2012 (update: video)

Posted on 06/06/2012 by Myriam Joire

Well what do we have here? Yes, it's the Orange San Diego we first saw at Mobile World Congress and it's going on sale in the UK today for £200. This isn't just yet another Android smartphone, but one of the first Medfield-based handsets on the market. We caught this pre-production unit chilling out at the Intel booth here at Computex 2012 and decided to go up close and personal. First impressions? It's thin, light and feels great in the hand thanks to a pleasant soft-touch back. The Gigabyte-made device packs a 4-inch glass-capacitive 1024x600-pixel LCD (that's 300dpi), an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage.

While the screen looks decent enough, it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of viewing angles. The phone features Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) and runs most apps from the Google Play store directly via an emulation layer. Performance matched prior benchmarks and was on-par with current mid-range ARM-based Android handsets -- the experience was mostly smooth, but we noticed some lag when scrolling and zooming pages in the web browser. Battery life remains the major outstanding question when it comes to Medfield handsets, so expect more details once we have our very own review unit. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.

Gallery: Orange San Diego hands-on