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Otellini wants to put an Intel chip in your pocket
April 28, 2008
Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini wants to move beyond supplying processors for conventional computers. That won’t come as a surprise to anyone who visited Intel’s booth at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) earlier this month or who has taken note of recent third-party efforts to support Intel’s embedded-computing strategy. The third parties in question include MontaVista Software, which announced (at the ESC) Embedded Linux support for Intel's Atom Processor Z500 Series, and Asset-InterTech, which announced (two weeks earlier at Apex) that its µMaster is the first CPU emulation test and diagnostic system to support Intel's Atom processor.
But now the mainstream press, or at least the Wall Street Journal, has taken note. Reports the WSJ’s Don Clark in today’s edition: “The Silicon Valley giant's chief executive is no longer content to just supply the electronic brains for conventional computers. He also wants to push Intel microprocessors into people's pockets, exploiting a shift to add Internet capability to cellphones and other gadgets.”
Clark notes the challenges Intel will face: “Intel has failed before in handsets, a market now dominated by chip makers that license technology from ARM Holdings PLC." (See the related article "LabView targets ARM microcontrollers" from the ESC.) Clark continues, "Instead, the company is promoting the idea of 'mobile Internet devices,' or MIDs—between the size of a cellphone and a notebook computer—as well as new-wave laptops called Netbooks, which cost $300 or less. Such portables need low-power chips to preserve battery life. Low-priced chips are another priority. Intel, whose new chips typically start above $100, must be able to make money on products like its new Atom line that start at $20 or so.”
In a Q&A with Clark, Otellini predicts that within 10 years enough cell phones will be sold that everyone on earth could have one. “Now the Italians have three and some people have none, so it's an average,” he elaborates. “But the idea that you have one per person of anything in this world has never happened. There's not even one television per person.”
As for Intel’s difficulties getting into the mobile space previously, Otellini says Intel has a new paradigm in place with its low-cost Atom chips, which “use the most advanced technology we have to build the smallest, most cost-effective chips we can—as opposed to just building the biggest, fastest microprocessor for laptops or desktops or servers.”
In the Q&A, Otellini elaborates on MIDs and Netbooks, discusses Intel’s restructuring and acquisition strategy, says he’s seen no signs of an economic downturn, and comments that North America has been Intel’s strongest market. He also offers readers five tips—the fifth of which is “Be careful about tips: No set of rules meets everyone’s needs.”
Posted by Rick Nelson on April 28, 2008 | Comments (0)
