Intel's Future Mobile MPUs May Add Communications

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February 28, 2001 (2:09 PM EST)

Intel's Future Mobile MPUs May Add Communications

By Mark Hachman,

SAN JOSE, Calif.—A forthcoming mobile microprocessor from Intel Corp. may contain integrated communications functions, according to an executive with the company.

The new chip architecture, which does not have a formal name, will likely be closely tied to the mobile communications standards used around the world, said Donald MacDonald, director of marketing for Intel's mobile products group, Santa Clara, Calif.

In an interview at the Intel Developer Forum here, MacDonald said the new chip would not only be required to have the traditional low power and low cost of a mobile processor, but also would need to be closely tied to the Bluetooth and 802.11 personal-area functions and traditional wireless networks.

The chip will be launched in volume in 2003, MacDonald said.

On top of the hardware, a layer of services will be needed to identify the device to the surrounding network. Intel will develop some of these services itself, and also form partnerships, MacDonald said. "You can't have external standards; it's got to be pervasive," he said. "The environment needs to recognize who you are, what device you're using, and what network you're on."

Intel (stock: INTC) executives began to allude to a totally revamped mobile chip architecture in October of 2000, when executives disclosed the chip's existence in a lunch at the Microprocessor Forum here. At the time, the chip's disclosure was seen as a response to Transmeta Corp.'s Crusoe chip, which had begun attracting headlines as well as customers for its low-power architecture.

Of course, Intel's current mobile Pentium III and Celeron line are already somewhat optimized for the mobile PC, MacDonald noted, with features such as the SpeedStep technique for lowering the chip's active power.

Tuesday, Intel released a 700-MHz version of the Pentium III with SpeedStep, which runs at 500 MHz in battery-optimized mode. The chip consumes less than 1 watt of average power, and is priced at $316. Toshiba Ltd. will use it in a new Portege subnotebook PC, and Dell Computer Corp. (stock: DELL) will include it in its Latitude L400.

MacDonald declined to release concrete details of the forthcoming redesigned architecture. He also refused to confirm whether an integrated communications core was planned or how the chip would deal with the multitude of standards throughout the globe.

"In general, however, it's true that integration addresses the need for low cost, low power, and a small footprint," MacDonald said.

Historical precedent, however, said that such a chip might also feature some sort of programmable logic core. The integrated modems featured in virtually all PCs used to be tailored to each individual country's wireline phone protocols, requiring a custom digital-audio amplifier. So-called "silicon DAAs," however, is a standard chip that can merely be programmed.

Communications of the type Intel may be pursuing typically requires three different functions, according to Martin Reynolds, an analyst at GartnerGroup Dataquest Inc., San Jose, Calif. They include a transceiver, which can be made in the CMOS process of a microprocessor; a control DSP; and a protocol controller, which actually tells the world which wireless protocol is being transmitted.

Reynolds said the protocol controller could be run on-chip, but only if the operating system runs in real time. Since the desktop versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows do not have a real-time kernel, that function might have to be partitioned out with a separate OS. Power will also be a factor, Reynolds added.

Intel's Timna processor was Intel's last attempt at designing an integrated processor for the PC market. However, last year the chip was pulled because an accompanying memory-translation hub component failed to work properly. Analysts also suspected the chip was merely too large to be manufactured cheaply enough for the low-cost PC market, already served by Intel's Celeron line.