IntelMoorestown
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Intel Moorestown tablets will arrive before smartphones, won't hit for at least six months
Digging all the Moorestown tablets and phones we've been seeing at Computex? Yeah, us too, but it looks like we're still going to be waiting a considerable amount of time for them to hit the market. According to Intel's Anand Chandrasekher, the first Moorestown devices won't pop up for at least six to twelve more months. That may be after the end of 2010 mark we had heard before, but let's hope Intel is using the time to get things just right. Anand also said that the first Moorestown products will be tablets rather than smartphones, the latter arriving sometime in the first half of 2011 -- not too surprising given handset manufacturers' history of designing and optimizing around ARM silicon and the fact that the smartphone flavor of the Intel-friendly MeeGo OS is still in development.
MeeGo Moorestown-powered tablet preview
We saw a lot of new technology demoed at Intel's Computex keynote this afternoon, but the most impressive thing may have just been MeeGo running on a 10-inch Moorestown Quanta Redvale tablet. While the demo on stage was very brief, we caught up with some of the product managers right after the presser and convinced them to give us a peek at what is coming in 2011. To say we're impressed with the "pre-alpha" version of the software is a huge understatement. So, what are you still doing up here? Hit the gallery for a ton of hands-on shots and then that read more button for some impressions and video. %Gallery-94041% %Gallery-94039%
NVIDIA: Intel's Moorestown is like an elephant on a diet, iPad set bar too low
Leave it to NVIDIA to kick off the week with some good old Intel trash talking. Let's start with the company's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who when asked if the Atom Z6 processor could be competitive, quickly responded with a "not possible." Why? Well, if you ask him, "you could give an elephant a diet but it's still an elephant." He called out the Z6's x86 roots and being behind Tegra in wattage -- he claims it will be years before they can reach the power levels of the ARM based chip. That's certainly an interesting analogy, but NVIDIA product director Bill Henry also has a way with words. When talking about Tegra versus Atom in tablets at the Netbook Summit, he said Intel was trying to put the power of a dump truck into a Tonka toy. Oh, but the strikes weren't only at Intel -- Henry added that the "iPad set the bar too low" and cited the typical lack of Flash and inability to handle 1080p video shortcomings of Apple's tablet. That all sounds good and well, NVIDIA, but it's time to stop talking and start showing some real Tegra 2 phones and tablets.
Intel to announce dedicated tablet silicon at Computex
During this morning's press conference on the new Core i3, i5 and i7 ULV processors, Intel PC Client Group Vice President Mooly Eden revealed that Chipzilla will launch that special "tablet solution" we had heard about at Computex next week. No details were given on this "dedicated silicon for the tablet space," but we can assume that it's going to fall into the Atom line up. Whether it will be an extension of the Moorestown family or just be an outgrowth of the Pineview platform found in netbooks and nettops remains to be seen, but you can bet on us listening up for more info when we're live from Taipei next week. Hit the link below if you want to hear this guy spill the beans.
Intel's SENS platform pictures a world of Moorsetown-powered and sensor equipped phones
We wish we could tell you those were working Intel Moorestown or Atom powered phones, but alas, they are just mockups that were created to illustrate what Chipzilla is hoping to do with its tiny silicon parts and SENS concept platform (not to be confused with HTC's Sense or Samsung's old Sens laptops). Now, we have to warn you to understand this whole SENS thing, you've got to be able to dream big -- the idea is centered around the "phones of tomorrow" being able to understand what we are physically doing through sensors, including accelerometers, audio, location, and so on. In other words, these phones not only know that you are talking on the phone to Mom, but they also can tell you're in a meeting by reading your calendar and cross referencing that information with your geographic location. Still with us? Then once the phone knows exactly what you're doing it can alert your contacts not through text, but with animated avatars. Yes, we just said "avatars." So, the idea is that your friend could then see you as a digital rendering in that meeting, picking your nose or whatever it is you do in the conference room. We told you it was out there -- but it's certainly interesting considering these phones will need to have Intel inside to communicate in this way. We'll be waiting on the more realistic Moorestown-powered LG GW990 to arrive, but really, SENS is way better illustrated in video so you'll want to hit the break to see just how Intel is picturing this whole future thing. %Gallery-89955%
LG GW990 shows up on video, competes with HTC HD2 for camera's attention
When people say the smartphone market is growing, they don't usually mean literally, but looking at the massive popularity of HTC's HD2 whopper, and the anticipation surrounding Dell's Mini 5 and LG's GW990, it's pretty safe to say there is a market for oversized and overpowered (is there such a thing?) handsets. The Moorestown-powered GW990 has made another video appearance, this time showing off its multi-screen functionality and not altogether smooth pinch-to-zoom skills. We're reminded this Mobile Internet Device (a title that's inscribed on its case) will run Moblin (now known as MeeGo), before a HD2 is whipped out for a showdown between super-sized smartphones. It's really quite a sight. After all that excitement is done, the video continues on to take a look at the forthcoming GT540 Android handset and Mini GD880, giving you all the more reason to click past the break for a viewing. [Thanks, Iacopo]
OpenPeak introduces Moorestown-powered OpenTablet 7, sticks with Open naming scheme
OpenPeak is a company so open it just can't resist throwing the word into damn-near every product it makes, and the new OpenTablet 7 is no exception. The number refers to the size of the thing: a seven-inch TFT LCD tablet with LED backlighting, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. It's all powered by an Intel Moorestown processor, and is designed to serve as a "fully functioning telephone and multimedia platform," the latter bit helped by a microSD slot and not one but two cameras. It will quite naturally run the OpenPeak platform, which is powered by Flash, meaning no concerns about back and forth name calling here. No concerns about pre-ordering yet, either, as the company hasn't seen fit to tell us when this will be shipping, or how much it will cost when it does. %Gallery-85670%
LG GW990 hands-on video
You'll know this device as the 4.8-inch revolutionary intent on making us fall madly in love with MIDs all over again (or should that be for the first time?). Good thing then that we now know it as the device that bears a thousand Engadget fingerprints. The Moorestown-powered GW990 from LG has finally become official and we have to say it is exactly the huge slab you might imagine it to be. In terms of specs, it comes with 16GB of built-in flash memory and 512MB of RAM, with 720p video output possible should the 1020 x 480 screen resolution not be enough for you. Chunky, sturdy and curved in all the right places, it's an appealing device even if it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Powered by Moblin and primarily marketed as a 3G device, we were told by LG that -- behind the 1,850mAh battery and alongside the MicroSD expansion slot -- your SIM can make a home, and some such AT&T appendages have already been spotted inside this... smartphone? The UI at present is just a standard S-class layered on top of Moblin, giving us no cause for excitement, but we were reassured that LG will be offering many other OS options when the device shows up in the second half of this year. Anyhow, enough blabbering from us, check out the gallery below and don't forget the vid after the break. %Gallery-82086%
Intel debuts 2GHz Atom Z550 processor, demos Moorestown platform
In celebration of the Atom's one-year anniversary, Intel's unveiled Z550, the latest processor in the family and as the rumors suggested, it clocks in at a pretty impressive 2GHz along with support for Hyperthreading, all in under three watts of power usage. Additionally, it took the veil off of the Z515 with Intel Burst Performance Technology, which can bump the speed up to 1.2GHz. In more forward-thinking news, senior VP and general manager Anand Chandrasekher demoed its Moorestown MID platform on stage at a presentation, which we last heard was supposed to show itself in a more tangible form sometime this month via an Archos netbook. We've contacted Intel for video of that demonstration, so you're just gonna have to wait a bit for that.Update: The Moorestown demo was (how should we put this)... lame -- from a consumer's standpoint anyway. Instead of demonstrating it in a hand-held MID, Intel was again showing off silicon in a desktop rig strapped to enough life support to keep AMD afloat. The demo did show the 10x less idle power consumption promised but we've got a ways to go (2010 or before) before we see Moorestown product.
