Barcelona, Spain (iTers News)  – To snatch back growth momentum lost to ARM processor core camp in global smartphone and tablet CPU market, Intel will run far ahead of what Moore’s Law dictates to scale down the chip size every year. According to Intel’s roadmap released at a press conference here in Barcelona, Intel will ramp up to 22 nm process technology next year and will ship 22nm applications processor SoCs for carrier certification. The chip maker is also already working on a 14nm process technology to have SOC chips of 14nm geometry ready for shipments in 2014. “This ramp-up cycle for mobile processor is even faster than what Intel has done with Moore’s Law to scale down PC CPUs, Paul Otellini CEO with Intel said. Moore’s Law is the observation of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the numbers of transistors on a chip will double every 18 months, or 24 months, while manufacturing costs will be halved.

The one-year interval is in sync with Intel’s catch-up drive to expand its Atom mobile microprocessor ecosystem, because the smaller chip size translates into higher clock speed, lower manufacturing costs, and more importantly lower power consumption- the most important value proposition in mobile CPU market.

The PC CPU titan also detailed its Atom processor roadmap, announcing that it will ship samples of Atom™ Z2580 processor, a successor of Atom Z2460 codename Medfield in the second half of this year.

The Z2580 chip solution double the performance of the Atom processor Z2460, of which clock speed runs up to 2GHz and features an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G solution. The commercial version of the Z2580 for customers will be shipped in the first half of 2013.

Low-cost smartphone markets in emerging economies such as China and India are also where Intel is now refocusing on to seize back market leadership. To tap into just fledgling, but fast-growing smartphone market in emerging economies where consumers look for more value at lower prices, Intel disclosed plans for the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2000.

The Z2000 is aimed squarely at low cost smartphone market segment of less than US$100 before subsidies, which industry sources predict could reach up to 500 million units by 20151.

The platform includes a 1.0 GHz Atom CPU offering great graphics and video performance, and the ability to access the Web and play Google Android* games.

It also supports the Intel® XMM 6265 3G HSPA+ modem with Dual-SIM 2G/3G, offering flexibility on data/voice calling plans to save on costs. Intel will sample the Z2000 in mid-2012 with customer products scheduled by early 2013.

In 2011, Intel shipped in more than 400 million cellular platforms, according to CEO Paul Otellini.

Building on this successful market penetration, Intel announced the XMM 7160, an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G platform with support for 100Mbps downlink and 50Mbps uplink, and support for HSPA+ 42Mbps.

Intel will sample the product in the second quarter with customer designs scheduled to launch by the end of 2012.

Intel also announced that it is sampling the XMM 6360 platform, a new slim modem 3G HSPA+ solution supporting 42Mbps downlink and 11.5Mbps uplink for small form factors.

By Don Jiang
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