Intel Demonstrates 'Moorestown' Mobile Platform

Intel demonstrated the world’s first working Moorestown platform at the 2008 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Taipei, Taiwan. The demonstration was comprised of a validation board using three-day old Moorestown silicon.

Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, spoke in his keynote at IDF about the Moorestown platform, scheduled for the 2009-2010 timeframe. Chandrasekher said that Intel was on track to reduce the idle power consumed by Moorestown by more than 10x compared to that of first-generation Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) using the Intel Atom processor. He also indicated that Moorestown platforms will support a range of wireless technologies including 3G, WiMax, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV.

Although a working demonstration of the Moorestown platform was given, it does not seem as if a fully functioning Moorestown-based MID has yet become a reality. A conceptual Moorestown-based MID had been shown in the past by Intel, which seems somewhat familiar in design to Apple’s iPhone. There were functioning MIDs on display at IDF however, with photos of these devices popping up on Flickr. More announcements regarding the Moorestown platform are expected at the spring IDF in 2009.

The Moorestown platform is comprised of the System on Chip (SOC) codenamed Lincroft and the I/O hub codenamed Langwell. Lincroft combines a 45 nm processor, graphics solution, memory controller and video encode/decode onto a single chip. Moorestown is expected to be a catalyst for bringing the full Internet experience into the smartphone space.

  • enewmen
    This is big news.
    PC cell phones may be a reality.
    Reply
  • pug_s
    Intel provided the original blackberrys (model 957 and 950) with 386 processors and they have extremely good battery life, so it is possible for Intel to compete in the handheld/phone market but they did not chose to do so. Hopefully morrestown will compete with companies like ARM in the phone market.
    Reply
  • seems to me like some mini-notebooks, especially those running linux, might benefit from this chip as well; provided the chip doesn't cost too much.
    On average a mininotebook costs about $200-$250 without the processor.
    Hopefully Moorestown will be cheaper than a bridge/VPU/Processor in one; meaning hopefully they'll stay under $150 to be used in the mini-notebook segment.
    Reply