Intel Tri-Gate Transistors Will Fuel Mobile Push vs. ARM

Intel’s new 3D transistors, which will appear first in the upcoming “Ivy Bridge” processors, will help drive the vendor’s mobile efforts, but will they be enough to dislodge ARM?

Intel’s new transistor technology will enable the giant chip maker to continue extending Moore’s Law in PCs and servers for at least the next few years, but it’s the possible impact on the company’s mobile ambitions that will draw the most interest from industry observers.

Intel officials on May 4 introduced the new three-dimensional transistor technology they called Tri-Gate, which essentially moves away from the flat “planar” circuitry of previous designs and to a three-dimensional structure. The Tri-Gate transistors will appear in Intel’s upcoming “Ivy Bridge” processors, the 22-nanometer shrink of the current “Sandy Bridge” microarchitecture.

The Tri-Gate design enable the Ivy Bridge processors to offers higher levels of performance while driving down electrical leakage and power consumption, all in a package smaller than the current 32-nm chip design, according to the officials. Bill Holt, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Technology Manufacturing Group, likened the idea behind the Tri-Gate design to that of a skyscraper.

“Clearly you can pack anything in the same space if you go up and not just sideways,” Holt said during a press conference in San Francisco that was also Webcast.

The numbers are impressive: 37 percent better performance than current 32-nm chips and 50 percent power reduction Ivy Bridge chips will begin sampling later this year, and begin appearing in PCs and servers in early 2012, officials said. They later will begin moving into other devices—including tablets and smartphones—at a later date. The officials would not be more specific.

David “Dadi” Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, said during the press conference that not only will the new transistor design keep Intel “extra-competitive” in the company’s core server and PC market—where Intel controls more than 80 percent of the market—but also enable it to move even deeper into the smartphone and tablet spaces, which are dominated by processors built on designs from ARM Holdings.

Those are areas that Intel executives in which executives said they expect to be major players, thanks to their Atom chip platform.

“The fact that x86 products will have first access to 3D transistor gate technology will likely help offset to the architecture handicap of x86 vs. ARM in optimizing low-power,” Doug Freedman, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., said in a research note. “We do not view this as game changing, but do see it as heating up the x86 versus ARM battle.”

Roger Kay, principle analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, said it makes sense that Intel will make a significant push into the tablet space with the 22-nm Ivy Bridge chips, but that he wouldn’t expect the company to make its mark in smartphones until it starts coming out with its 14-nm chips—featuring the Tri-Gate technology—about two years later. It won’t be until that time that Intel processors will be able to challenge ARM in low-power capabilities, Kay said.

“Not at 32, maybe at 22, for sure at 14,” he said in an interview with eWEEK. “Maybe 22 is not all the way there for handsets yet, while it’s plenty for the tablet business.”

Both Kay and Rob Enderle, principle analyst with The Enderle Group, said Intel also is facing a market situation from an unfamiliar vantage point. Intel for years has been the dominant player in the PC and server chip space, giving it an advantage similar to that of a political incumbent. Now, however, it’s the upstart company trying to displace the top vendor—ARM—in the mobile device space.

“There is still a lot of inertia holding ARM in place,” Kay said.

That inertia will be difficult for Intel to displace, even with the kind of resources it has.

“Intel is coming at this market from behind, but the investment is almost unparalleled in the history of the company and yet it still might not be enough,” Enderle said in an email. “The difficulty is they have to not only be better, they have to be enough better to displace a very different technology. Generally, Intel has benefited from this dynamic as the entrenched vendor in the PC space; now this market dynamic works against them. Making a massive improvement like this [new transistor structure] will be critical to this battle, but it will still require them to walk away with major wins, and is this is enough to move, even with major Intel co-funding, a major vendor to their product set?”

Over the past week, there has been speculation that Intel is looking to serve as Apple’s foundry for ARM-based chips for such popular mobile devices as iPhones, iPads and iPods. The rumors were fueled by a research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard, who said that “based on a number of inputs, we believe Intel is also vying for Apple's foundry business. It makes strategic sense for both companies. The combination of Apple's growing demand and market share in smart phones and tablets gives Intel a position in these markets and drives the logic volume Intel needs to stay ahead in manufacturing.”

Such a deal would be critical for Intel, Enderle said.

“Rumor is that Apple is looking at such a move, and if they get Apple, the earth moves,” he wrote. “But if they don’t get a major brand and/or a very popular product, [the Tri-Gate technology] still won’t be enough.”

Intel is not sitting still waiting for the Ivy Bridge chips. The company last month officially announced its Atom Z670 “Oak Trail” processor designed for tablets, with officials saying they expect at least 35 designs powered by the chip to start hitting the market this month. They also have said they expect Intel-powered smartphones to be released beginning later this year.

Along with helping drive Intel’s mobile ambitions, the Ivy Bridge chips will help counter efforts by ARM and its partners, including Marvell and Nvidia, which are looking to push ARM-based processors into the data center.

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Apple kills the optical drive, and other stories

Apple [AAPL] seems set to kill the optical drive when it releases Mac OS X 'Lion' as a downloadable upgrade via the Mac App Store. While this begs questions -- principally how a Mac user can launch a faulty Mac from disk, without a disk -- this isn't the first time Apple's changed an industry. Here's a short -- and necessarily incomplete -- list:

[ABOVE: The Alto in action, c/o Computer History Museum, copyright Mark Richards.]

Dude, where's the PC

"We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams." Steve Jobs.

Way back when computing was text-based, an Apple team visited Xerox Parc, where it saw the Alto. Equipped with a mouse, keyboard and screen, Jobs seized on the new interface and took the ideas back to the Apple team. There, he told them, "Let’s make a dent in the universe. We'll make it so important that it will make a dent in the universe."

It did: Apple's GUI revolutionized the industry, gave Microsoft the ideas that became Windows, and while Apple is innovating the interface today, introducing touch, it is undeniable that Apple helped invent the computer world. Even though Commodore boss, Jack Tramiel, called the Mac a toy, admonishing Jobs with the advice, "I guess you'll sell it in boutiques".

Looking at the success of Apple retail since the company launched its chain of "boutiques". Tramiel was ahead of the curve.

From an Acorn an ARM tree grows

Remember the Newton? Apple's mobile solution created its own cohort of fans across its five-year history, and while the project was killed off by Jobs on his return to the cash-strapped company, people who worked within the team went on to help kick-start the mobile solutions industry at Palm, while an early Apple investment in a processor partner for these devices paid long-term dividends, history now shows: after all, Apple was a major start-up investor in today's leading mobile processor company, ARM.

[This story is from Computerworld's Apple Holic blog. Follow on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don't miss a beat.]

Originally part of UK firm, Acorn Computers (Acorn's BBC Micro computer was widely-used in UK schools). Acorn was taken over by Olivetti in 1985, with the first RISC-based ARM processor arriving in 1987. ARM was spun-off from Acorn and Apple after they began working on an ARM processor as part of the development of the Newton. Fast forward to the low power demands of 2005, and about 98% of the more than one billion mobile phones sold each year used at least one ARM processor. Apple's own A5 (and the preceding A4) processors are based on ARM reference designs.

Without Apple's investments in the Newton, then Apple would have needed to invest in another chip designer to create its mobile processors.

Objectify me

You have to love Mac OS X. After being on the market for what feels like a billion years, but isn't, there's still no significant virus threats, there's still no significant malware, and despite the constant paranoid carping from security vendors, sensible password management and remaining aware of dangers in opening unknown images or using public wireless points is enough to keep most users safe.

Contrast this with the constant high-level security alert which is using Windows, or the known but criminally-under-reported huge great big yawning chasms of security problems on the so-called open Android OS. (So open Google can delete Apps from your phone if it wants to do so).

It wasn't always so. Way back in time Macs ran a form of OS called, appropriately enough, Mac OS. This quirky operating system was good enough to be fun to use, and charismatic enough that it created its own vast congregation, but it had too many limitations. Apple's own attempt at creating a new OS, Copland had failed --- so the company went scampering to evicted Apple founder Steve Jobs, and his new firm, NeXT, in search of a replacement.

NeXT was acquired for $400 million in 1996. Jobs finally returned to Apple with the deal. "It's perfect," said IDG's Bob Metcalfe in 1996. "The new team at Apple has Amelio and Ellen Hancock (CTO). They are extremely competent, but they lack one thing: charisma. Steve adds that to the mix." Within a year both Amelio and Hancock were out and Jobs had taken over as interim CEO, becoming full CEO in 2000.

And this is significant why? Mac OS X was the starry-eyed offspring of Mac OS and NeXT. Combining user simplicity with graphical features that made it fun to use, this easy-yet-powerful OS had abilities no other OS could match.

Take video handling, for example. iMovie bought movie editing to everybody's computer, but the secret reason Microsoft couldn't match it (until it finally got to grips with creating a truly competitive OS in the form of Windows 7) was because its systems just crumbled and died when trying to handle video. (I'm not saying Windows systems couldn't handle it, just that they couldn't handle it while doing something else).

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MacBook Pro dropped from balcony in G-Form Extreme Sleeve

Last month we saw Tom Cafaro show off his G-Form iPad 2 cover with the aid of a bowling ball. No damage was done to the iPad even after the 12-pound bowling ball was dropped from a height of three feet. Well, Cafaro is back in another video with the MacBook Pro G-Form Extreme Sleeve for Laptops.

In the video below, we see Cafaro drop a shiny, new MacBook Pro from a considerable height. He doesn’t specify the exact height, but it’s from a deck high above the ground, that’s for sure. G-Form’s slogan, “Soft and Floppy, Extreme Protection,” makes us cringe a little, but it’s right on. The case is made out of a special material called PORON XRD, which lives inside the sleeve’s outer shell. The material is unique because it hardens upon impact. The foam shell absorbs the force somewhat, but the PORON XRD is what really protects the laptop.

Both the iPad video and the MacBook Pro video show Cafaro starting the Pixar short film “For the Birds,” and then inserting the iPad or laptop into the sleeve. Instead of seeing a bowling ball drop onto the MacBook, Cafaro drops the MacBook off a balcony, unzips the sleeve, opens the laptop, and voila, the 13-inch MacBook continues to play the adorable Pixar short as if nothing had happened. We would like to see the same test done with the MacBook landing on its edge rather than flat, though.

The case is designed for 11-inch, 13-inch, and 15-inch laptops. It’s available for pre-order now at $69.95 for the 11-inch model, and $79.95 for the 13- and 15-inch models.

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Desktops and Notebooks: Apple iMac Features Fast Intel, AMD Chips, FaceTime HD Cameras: iFixit

Apple took a break from defending itself during the swirling controversy around iPhone data-collection practices to introduce its new iMac all-in-ones May 3. Arriving months before the previous models reached their first birthdays, their most notable updates include Intel ThunderBolt I/O technology, FaceTime high-definition cameras and speedy AMD and Intel processors, making for machines that are 70 percent faster than their predecessors and offer three times the graphics performance, according to Apple. Repair site iFixit quickly got to work on a teardown and found the ThunderBolt port IC to be similar but not identical to the technology debuted in the MacBook Pro, the same LG displays that Apple used last year, a win for Atheros, on the communications front, and the surprising option of being able to replace the GPU without springing for a whole new logic board. Unlike the repair-averse MacBook Air, the new iMac earned a repair score of 7 out of 10—making it "very respectable," according to iFixit.

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