IDF: Intel lays out plans for Atom smartphones

Intel is paving the way for smartphones to use Atom processors with the latest generation of chips.

Renee James, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Services Group, said during her IDF 2010 keynote that the company is aiming squarely for the smartphone market with new Atom chips that combine low power and high data processing capabilities.

However, James explained that there is a software gap to be filled, and that a single phone platform could not be stretched to fit all mobile devices.

Intel's MeeGo platform is a genuine attempt to bring open source computing to the Intel developer community, according to James, and Atom will play an increasingly important role in developing smartphones using the chipset.

The latest series of Atom processors cuts power consumption by 50 per cent, she claimed, and idle power consumption by 90 per cent.

Intel also confirmed that it will develop LTE handsets for the mass market. The company had concentrated on WiMax in the short term, but future chipsets will be multi-platform, according to Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's Embedded and Communications group.

"WiMax has been very successful," he said. "But in some environments LTE is the most successful platform and we'll be developing for that."