With an eye on the fast-growing demand for Internet access using smaller mobile gadgets, Intel Corp unveiled its latest mobile Internet device (MID) platform — Moorestown — in Taipei yesterday.
The Intel “Moorestown” platform is scheduled for commercial release next year or in 2010, the world’s biggest chipmaker said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
Intel is on track to reduce Moorestown’s idle power by more than 10 times, compared with the first-generation MIDs based on Intel’s Atom processor, Anand Chandrasekher, a senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, said in a statement.
“As the next billion people connect to and experience the Internet, significant opportunities lie in the power of technology and the development of purpose-built devices that deliver more targeted computing needs and experiences,” said Chandrasekher in his keynote speech at the Intel Development Forum in Taiwan yesterday.
Chandrasekher said that Moorestown would be a catalyst for exciting and innovative developments that would extend the full Internet experience into the smartphone space with the communication MID.
Moorestown platforms will support a range of wireless technologies, including 3G, WiMAX, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV, he said.
By 2015, shipments of MIDs enabling fast Internet access are expected to grow to 15 billion units, Intel said.
Intel said yesterday it was collaborating with Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson AB for high-seed high-speed packet access (HSPA), or 3.5G, embedded data modules optimized for the Moorestown platform, making HSPA as one of its wireless technologies.
“We see great potential in embedding mobile broadband in MIDs, creating new markets in the industry. We are very excited to work with Intel to bring together the telecom and computing industries and extend the mobile broadband ecosystem,” said Johan Wibergh, senior vice president and head of Ericsson’s Business Unit Networks, in an e-mail statement.
At least half of 200 million notebook computers on the market would be outfitted with embedded HSPA mobile broadband modules by 2011, said Mats Norin, vice president of Ericsson’s Product Area Mobile Broadband modules, without specifying his market source.
HSPA demand will expand along with the pickup in mobile broadband growth in emerging markets and rising replacement demand in mature countries, Norin said, while showcasing an MID made by Taiwan’s Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) on his palm.
Ericsson projected that about 100 million consumer electronics devices would be equipped with built-in HSPA modules within five years.
Ericsson is also in talks with a couple of Taiwanese MID makers, which makes a big portion of electronics used around the globe, to use its HSPA mobile broadband modules in their products.
Ericsson declined to give the names of those Taiwanese companies. A lot of local electronics makers, including BenQ Corp (明基), see MID as the main driver for the next wave of growth.
Ericsson currently supplies its mobile broadband modules to Dell Inc, the world’s second-largest PC maker; China’s Lenovo Group (聯想), South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc and Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
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