There was a time, not too long ago, when the name Intel (News - Alert) was constantly referred to as a leader in computer technology. Unfortunately, due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets along with all the associated mobile apps, people started using their Intel-based desktop computers less, relying more on their mobile devices.
So far, Intel has met with frustration in terms of getting into the mobile market. Given the company’s background, it is not really surprising that Intel’s initial foray into the tablet world was mostly focused on Windows-based devices. It seemed that Intel was shying away from Android (News - Alert)-based tablets.
The impression is that the name that is closely associated with mobile devices, as well as wearable devices is Qualcomm. Generally speaking, there appears to be little room in the mix for another premium System on a Chip (SoC). But there may be room for Intel due to the fact that it recently announced a new family of lower cost, entry-level Bay Trail SoCs.
I believe that these are designed to help adjust to the changing market. If that’s not enough to start making you think about Intel again, on May 27 the company announced an even more aggressive move. The announcement was a strategic partnership with Rockchip. Intel described the move “to expand the breadth of and accelerate the rate at which it brings its Intel architecture and communications-based solutions to market for a range of entry-level Android tablets worldwide.”
Rockchip can be considered as one of a handful of “fables” semiconductor manufacturers based in China. (Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips, while outsourcing the fabrication or “fab” of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry.) Currently, the company specializes in the development of ARM (News - Alert)-based mobile SoCs. However, under this new announcement, Intel will be leveraging Rockchip to bring about a low cost, entry-level Intel branded SoC platform for tablets.
“The strategic agreement with Rockchip is an example of Intel’s commitment to take pragmatic and different approaches to grow our presence in the global mobile market by more quickly delivering a broader portfolio of Intel architecture and communications technology solutions,” said Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich. “We are excited to work with Rockchip. We’ve added yet another derivative to the Intel SoFIA family, and we expect to have them all in market before the middle of 2015. We are moving with velocity to grow Intel’s offerings for the growing global tablet market.”
This move is not something that Intel thought of last week; in fact, Intel first started talking to Rockchip about this agreement almost a year ago. There are two primary motivations behind the agreement: it gives Intel additional resources to bring products to the market, while at the same time, it allows Intel to scale IA based Android tablets pretty quickly. In addition, it also expands Rockchip’s product portfolio with the addition of the performance and flexibility of the Intel architecture and leading communications solutions.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to differentiate our product portfolio and the first-of-its-kind collaboration with Intel helps us do this,” noted Rockchip CEO Min Li, in a statement. “The combination of Intel’s leading architecture and modem technology with our leading mobile design capability brings greater choice to the growing global market for mobile devices in the entry and value segments.”
If all goes according to plan, by the middle of 2015 Intel and Rockchip should launch a new SoFIA SoC, featuring four Intel Atom cores and an Intel 3G modem. From Min Li’s statement, it sounds like Intel will be providing the IP for the SoC while Rockchip will handle the integration of the actual design.
Additionally, Rockchip would become the first company to basically be able to license Intel x86 CPU IP for use in this combined, Intel-branded SoC. The low-cost ARM based SoC market is crowded and it's tough to differentiate when all of your competitors have access to the same ARM CPU IP. In this case, Rockchip would have access to Silvermont. If so, then it may be able to use this to set itself apart from the competition. There's obviously a tradeoff in shipping x86 into the Android space, but if Rockchip can help Intel get its numbers up, the x86 problem could reduce over time.
It does seem that Intel’s new CEO Krzanich is doing what he can to bring the Intel brand back to a household name. Earlier this month, UNICOM (News - Alert) Engineering, a provider of purpose-built application platforms, appliances and lifecycle deployment services for software developers and OEMs, announced the availability of the S-1600 R3, a scalable 1U rack mount server solution.
The S1600-R3 combines the performance of a single Intel Xeon E5-2600 or E5-1600 v2 series Sandy Bridge Microarchitecture processor with redundant power and up to eight hot swap hard drives with integrated RAID. It’s obvious that with this week’s announcement concerning Intel’s agreement with Rockchip, Krzanich is taking control and beginning to move Intel in the right direction.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson