Intels New Mobile Internet Device

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 by Aaron Besson
Category: 3G iPhone, Off Topic, What's New, iPhone.



On Monday, Intel presented a prototype handheld device running Moorestown, its upcoming Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform that is designed to enable a new generation of ultra-thin, touchscreen devices with extensive battery life.

When Moorestown arrives sometime in the 2009-2010 time, it will introduce a more than tenfold reduction in idle power consumption when compared to Intel’s first-generation MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor. Intel is targeting Moorestown at the smartphone manufacturers. The platform will support a range of wireless technologies including 3G, WiMAX, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV. Intel is collaborating with both Ericsson and Option on new 3G HSPA data modules that will come in 25×30x2.x mm small size and provide an “always connected” Internet-based experience.

In the videos below, the Intel exec can bee seen demonstrating the first working Moorestown-based handheld, which Engadget claims is “little more than a validation board running fresh from the factory, three-dayold Moorestown silicon in an Intel lab.” A similar device had been flaunted by the chipmaker in recent years, though those versions are said to have been non-functional mockups.

At one point, it was reported that Apple would embrace Intel’s MID platform as the foundation for its own next-generation mobile Internet device, sometimes referred to as a next-generation Newton handheld or Internet tablet. However, the company’s recent acquisition of chip designer PA Semi to build proprietary ARM chips for iPhones and iPods may signal a change of direction on the part of the electronics maker.

[via AppleInsider]