Samsung has chosen Intel's Clover Trail+ mobile chip for at least one version of its Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, which competes with Apple Inc's iPad, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the specifications have not been announced.
Samsung has previously used chips designed with energy-efficient technology from the UK's ARM Holdings for its best-selling mobile devices. It employs Intel processors for its line of Microsoft Windows "ATIV" tablets -- a much smaller market compared with devices based on Google Inc's Android.
Samsung will unveil new ATIV tablets using Intel chips at a June 20 event in London, said the source, as well as an additional person familiar with the event. It was unclear whether the Galaxy Tab would debut at the same event.
The Asian electronics giant's decision to begin using Intel in a marquee Android device counts as a coup for the US chipmaker as it races to establish itself in a mobile market it was slow initially to recognize and invest in.
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Intel has called the shots in the personal computer industry for decades, but was slow to make chips that appealed to makers of smartphones and tablets as the market boomed following Apple's iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010.
Applications processors based on technology from ARM and designed by Qualcomm Inc, Samsung and Nvidia now dominate a market that research firm Strategy Analytics estimated could hit $25 billion by 2016 versus $9 billion in 2011.
WAKING UP TO MOBILE
Intel is rushing to adapt its powerful PC chips to use less energy and work more efficiently in mobile devices. It has so far scored a few minor "design wins", getting its processors into a few mobile devices.
For instance, an Intel mobile processor was used in a version of Motorola's Razr smartphone launched last year in markets like Argentina, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany and Mexico. Intel has yet to launch chips capable of supporting high-speed Long Term Evolution technology, a major barrier to competing in mobile devices aimed at the United States, where the standard is becoming increasingly common.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com