Intel integrates radios into Atom with Rosepoint

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Intel integrates radios into Atom with Rosepoint

Chip will enable cheaper connected devices with long battery life, but not until mid-decade, says CTO

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 20 February, 2012

READ MORE: Processor | RF (WAN) | Wi-Fi

Intel is to show off its next generation Atom model, Rosepoint, which will integrate Wi-Fi into the main dual-core chip. The device is two or three years away from commercial gadgets, but the giant will demonstrate the concept at this week's ISSCC (International Solid State Circuits Conference) in San Francisco.

Processors with integrated Wi-Fi would help make high performance connected devices smaller, cheaper and less power hungry in future and Intel is initially eyeing its own ultrabook slim notebook design, which is heavily targeted at the market for gadgets constantly linked to the cloud. The advantages of inbuilt wireless could make the platform more attractive against rivals like cloudbooks and future iterations of the MacBook Air. Incorporating a wireless transceiver into the Atom silicon could support many days between charging for an ultrabook, said Intel CTO Justin Rattner.

Intel will also look to include cellular radios as it aims to take a role in the smartphone market for the first time, bringing Atom closer to ARM-based, highly integrated chipsets like Qualcomm Snapdragon, which ties the app processor, coprocessors and radios close together. The first Atom powered handsets, from Motorola Mobility and Lenovo, are expected later this year, while Intel is also poised to launch Clover Trail, a chip optimized for Windows 8 tablets.

But Intel is looking further than just catching up with Qualcomm. Rattner said some firms have integrated baseband MACs (media access controls) in apps processors, but "RF integration is very rare to non-existent [in commercial chips] and full digital integration has yet to come to any of these products. Many of these blocks are the first of their ilk."

He told EETimes: "We are getting close to having a complete kit of digital RF building blocks for radios. The next step in research is to integrate these blocks on SoCs with digital logic circuits." Intel has worked for years on its own radios but suffered many setbacks before it acquired Infineon's mobile chip arm, mainly for its baseband technology.