Michael Kanellos
New details have emerged regarding Intel's plan to bring chips based on the same designs of its PC chips to handhelds and consumer electronics.
The chipmaker has formed the Low Power Intel Architecture project (LPIA) to try to devise energy-efficient versions of its x86 processors, software and components for handhelds, micro-PCs and other devices. The company has also developed concept phones and portable video players containing prototype chips.
"This is one of many projects we have in trying to get better performance per watt," a spokesman for the chip giant said.
Last year, executives at the company said Intel was devising low-power derivatives of its x86 chips for consumer electronics, but few details had emerged. At that time, the company did not elaborate on the name of the group, the performance goals or whether prototypes existed.
More details on the LPIA will be revealed at the Intel Developer Forum next week, sources said.
Ideally, a handheld with about 300 cubic centimetres in volume containing these chips will run for eight hours or more and consume only 5 watts of power maximum under average conditions, according to an Intel white paper on the subject. The research is being conducted by Intel's Systems Technology Labs.
"Over time, handheld and embedded devices will become true computer systems in miniature," wrote Intel researcher Ram Chary in a white paper on the LPIA project. "Handheld and similar devices will have enough computing power, memory and storage to do big jobs like speech and image recognition... Even small devices in the future will have large screens [relative to the device], audio, imaging capabilities and other sensing technology."
In the last several years, Intel has come up with a number of ways to reduce power consumption in its chips. The company also spearheads industry-wide efforts to reduce power consumption in components such as screens and to improve the technology behind batteries and other power sources.
Reducing the total system power to 5 watts maximum, however, will take some work. The ultra-low voltage Pentium M Intel sells today has a thermal ceiling, or maximum energy output, of 5.5 watts, although average power consumption is less than a watt. That figure doesn't include the power consumed by the screen or hard drive, which consume more energy than the processor. The standard Pentium M has a thermal ceiling of 27 watts.
Low power will also be crucial in limiting heat dissipation. Few consumers want a phone with a fan. Handhelds based on these chips therefore will have to run at comfortable levels, or somewhat close to 25 degrees Celsius, the typical ambient temperature of office buildings. Most people are uncomfortable holding a handheld that gets up to 50 degrees Celsius, according to the white paper. At 55 degrees Celsius, skin can burn.
Bringing out a line of x86 chips for this market would benefit Intel in two ways. First, it would permit Intel to land its chips into a wider variety of machines. Although Intel microprocessors are widely used in handhelds, the company cuts a much smaller swath in the far larger market for mobile phones.
Second, Intel mostly sells Xscale processors into this market. Xscale chips derive largely from a processor design licensed from UK-based ARM. Coming up with an x86 chip would let Intel dodge paying royalties.
Some of its Xscale chips for mobile phones, such as Manitoba have not sold well either.
Intel has actually sold chips into the handheld market, but typically these chips tend to be versions of older chips that provide lower levels of performance. Research in Motion, for instance, has used 386 chips -- the same type that Intel sold into the PC market in the early 1990s -- in BlackBerry handhelds.
Intel's rival AMD is also making overtures to the portable market, kicking off an effort in May to get its chips into consumer electronics devices.
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