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Nokia might bail out Intel for mobile slip-up
WHILE CHIP FIRM Intel has been sitting on the sidelines of the mobile revolution it seems that its pal Nokia might be getting ready to bail it out.
The rumour mill says that Nokia will be releasing a smartphone or similar device using an Intel chip this week.
Intel has been trying to get into the market for smartphones and somewhat larger devices it calls MIDs using the x86 technology. The problem is that its chips use too much power and eat up batteries.
Chipzilla's Moorestown processors, which are supposed to draw just a tenth the power of Intel's existing Atom chips, will be available in the second half of 2010. While LG already has a prototype ready, word on the street is that Nokia will follow suit.
Intel and Nokia announced a partnership last June, which they said would be aimed developing designs for new kinds of portable gadgets and the chips that would be used in them. So far nothing has come out of the arrangement. Indeed some said that it was mostly dealing with software and ways to merge Moblin and Maemo.
The big idea apparently is that the pair hope to come up with a more potent competitor to Android. After all what the mobile scene really needs is another operating system and yet another App store.
We have been told that this week Nokia and Intel are going to update us on the latest developments from this relationship and how they will help to foster industry cooperation and accelerate "a wealth of new Internet, computing and communication experiences."
Nokia has confirmed that there will be some announcements this week related to potential future products.
However, what future products? Even with Moorestown, Intel is a long way behind the power consumption levels of ARM chips and sticking its chips in smart phones will not be a popular choice.
It is possible that Nokia is working with Chipzilla over its third-generation Atom chip, dubbed Medfield, that is expected in 2011.
Stay tuned, we reckon we will find out later this week. µ
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Sound Good!
It certainly will tick some as__s, especially those charge us hundreds of dollars for a A7 core!
... because it already is available in samples ... :-)
Ok, not quite that bad.
Mind you, developments for a new chip platform are happening BEFORE the chip is actually available. And software is written to this platform well BEFORE any tape out has happend.
http://coware.com/products/virtualplatform.php et al
Once the chip is used in production for a couple of month it becomes outdated.
So rest assured that designs using the OMAP 4 are in the works for a long time already.
What does this mean?
It means, that the industry is already working on OMAP 5.
The rest of the industry isn't sleeping as well, 3 month late to market and your profit margin is going down the drain.
OMAP 3 is an old hat, call it old fashioned, outdated if you will.
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Apple:
A4?
We know the A4 is an ARM based design.
We also know that Apple has bought the same license that Intel had bought back then (for the XScale) which allows Apple to change the ARM design itself and adapt it to their very own needs.
There also must be a reason why Apple spent (so) money for a semiconductor design specialist. It somehow must pay out in some way. Apple is also shopping for semiconductor IP as far as I have heard, so I guess they will have a use for it.
Well, again, I don't know.
I am just guessing.
An curious to know how things will develop.
P.S.:
The N900 is really very late to the market.
Was a nice idea when I first heard about it.
Now its boring and outdated.
The concept is very interesting, but it is a bit like Windows Vista. Too little, too late and not ready for prime time. I'll wait for a MeeGo device that meets competition. (He whoever created the term MeeGo deserves a slap in his face. Both Moblin and Maemo were much better. How about Amigo instead of MeGoo?)
Cheers, Fred
What "special circuits" are Apple using then?
Presumably you mean the A4, in which case I suspect you'll find it's using pretty much bog standard stuff straight from ARM and elsewhere, possibly tweaked a little but nothing special.
Don't read too much into what Jobs said about "special circuits" - if there are any they'll only exist to lock down the platform further than could already be achieved with ARM TrustZone.
OMAP4? Yeah, it's starting to become available *now* - in prototype/sampler form. It takes 12+ months to design a new handset device and get it to market, and the OMAP4 wasn't available 12 months ago so don't expect to see an OMAP4 based handset for at least another 12 months.
That's why all the *current* top-end devices are using OMAP3-class SoCs. And that includes the N900.
Neil, you are right: Nokia got out of semiconductors completely. They leave this business to others.
However: Nokia still needs to leverage special circuits that are exclusive to the company. Apple is doing it, so Nokia needs to do it as well.
Nokia may use ARM SoCs or Atom SoCs.
Maybe Intel will design an Atom SoC on Nokias behalf sooner or later, who knows.
It's a guess, really.
I also guessed publicly way in advance that Microsoft will migrate the Zune interface to Windows Mobile.
So, who knows, maybe my latest guess - an Atom SoC for Noika - will prove to become true as well.
Who knows? I surely don't, that's why I guess. I just think that this is quite likely.
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P.S.:
TI OMAP 3 is completely outdated, really. Noone would touch this device for a new design. The talk is all about OMAP 4 or successors. The pace is fast, very fast.
If Nokia had wanted to get into the SoC game they'd have done it years ago in order to minimise costs on all those devices that been sold by the tens of million. The fact is Nokia know where their strengths lie, and its making and selling devices by the million using more or less off the shelf parts - TI produce probably the best and most integrated ARM SoCs on the market which is why Nokia use them, and Nokia know it would be hard to improve on these designs.
As for the N900 - what are you talking about outdated technology? The TI OMAP3 and it's Cortex-A8 CPU is current technology, essentially the same hardware you will find in the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre etc.
Maybe Nokia will use a home-grown Atom SoC produced by TSMC.
Nokia is big enough to do this and it needs ways to differentiate its products.
This also would explain why Nokia used an outdated hardware for the N900 and did not show any efforts to update this hardware-platform.
Who knows.
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