Intel, Ericsson Join Forces On Moorestown MID Platform
The announcement was made at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, Taiwan by Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group.
Additionally, Ericsson will be extending its 3G mobile broadband technology from notebooks to a range of pocket devices, a spokesperson for the Kista, Sweden-based company said.
Moorestown, the successor to Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel's Menlow platform, consists of a System on a Chip (SOC) design code named Lincroft, which integrates a 45nm microprocessor, graphics, memory controller and video encode/decode functionality onto a single chip, and an I/O hub code named Langwell.
Langwell supports a range of I/O ports to connect with wireless, storage and display components in addition to incorporating several board level functions.
Chandrasekher said that Intel is on track to reduce the Moorestown platform's idle power by more than 10 times compared to the first-generation MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor and associated hardware.
The new platform, shown working for the first time at IDF Taipei and planned for release in either 2009 or 2010, will further develop Internet use on smartphones and MIDs, he said. Moorestown will support various wireless technologies including 3G, WiMAX, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV, Chandrasekher said.
Intel also announced that wireless tech company Option is extending its collaboration with Intel to build HSPA modules to the Moorestown platform. These3G modules are optimized for Moorestown power requirements, according to Chandrasekher, and will help provide MID users with more powerful, consistent Internet connectivity.
In a separate announcement from Ericsson, Johan Wibergh, senior vice president and head of Business Unit Networks, said that the company sees "great potential in embedding mobile broadband in MIDs, creating new markets in the industry."
The company said it will extend its 3G mobile broadband technology to pocket-size MIDs that can be used for entertainment and media, connected GPS navigation, online gaming, social networking, data communication and productivity.
Ericsson's 3G technology is built on its latest generation of HSPA chipsets in small, thin modules available to manufacturers of end-user devices. Ericsson said that it is optimizing its module for not only Intel's Moorestown platform but also Moblin-based Linux operating systems. The module will work on both WCDMA/HSPA and GSM/EDGE networks worldwide.
According to Ericsson, HSPA is the world's most widely deployed 3G mobile broadband technology, with 221 commercially deployed networks available around the world serving more than 60 million subscribers, a figure that is increasing by 4 million per month.
Damon Poeter contributed to this article