Almost every day we see new presentation of ARM-based application processors and as if that wasn’t enough Intel has confirmed that the powerful 32nm Medfield SoC will appear in samples soon. The third generation Atom processor will come out free in Q4 with market leading energy efficiency.
This is at least what Intel claims when it presents additional information on the mobile Atom processor that has gone from being just a processor circuit to being a complete System-on-chip solution. Medfield is made with 32nm technology and will according to Intel be both a powerful and energy efficient alternative to the various ARM circuits on the market, which will use 45nm technology well into next year. Intel claims that GPU performance has doubled since Morestown and that the platform will appear in products this year.
The big question is perhaps which operating system Intel’s partners will use. Intel has been working with the open platform MeeGo together with Nokia, but the latest reports says that the operating system still has a long way to go before it is retail ready. Intel has confirmed that Medfield will support Android, which could be an interesting alternative.
We haven’t noticed any significant interest from the major players and with the jungle of ARM-based solutions available today there is no lack of competition.
