Intel Advances its Embedded Line

Intel is hoping to make more hay out of the
capabilities of three of its recently released processors.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaking giant said it has tweaked its
Intel Pentium M processor 745 (formerly code named Dothan) to support
communications infrastructure; its Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Intel Celeron M
processor for multimedia; and the Intel PXA270 processors (formerly code
named Bulverde) and products for other embedded computing environments. All
three feature Intel’s SpeedStep technology, which Intel says helps manage
voltage and frequency changes. The Dothan, running at 1.8 GHz and selling for USD$415 in 10,000-unit quantities, and the ULV Celeron, running at 600 MHz and selling for USD$127, are shipping now, the company said Friday.

Intel said it is sampling the PXA270, with volume production planned for
next quarter. When it debuts in PDAs and smartphones, the PXA270 will cycle
at speeds of 312MHz, 416 MHz and 520 MHz, and retail starting at USD$32 in
10,000-unit quantities.

“By choosing such standardized building blocks as the processors
introduced today, developers can accelerate their time to market on a broad
range of products and solutions,” Tom Franz, vice president and general
manager of Intel’s Communications Infrastructure Group, said in a statement.

The company is hoping to maintain momentum for its communications
products. Fueled by Intel’s Flash memory products, CFO
Andy Bryant bumped up the lower range of its estimated second quarter sales.
The company now expects revenue for the second quarter to be between $8
billion and $8.2 billion.

“Intel is absolutely dependent on selling faster and bigger, and in
increasing quantities, every year,” Melanie Hollands, president of Koala
Capital, a hedge fund that focuses on technology stocks, told
internetnews.com. “That cycle is broken; not because Moore’s law
doesn’t work any more, but because the demand for bigger and faster is being
decimated by the fact that the software we need and can use just doesn’t
require more.”

But as laptops, PDAs, smartphones and other embedded environments
continue to run the same types of applications as their desktop
counterparts, Intel is hedging its bets that the mobile form factors are
still in need of speed.

To that end, Intel has positioned its Dothan chips for its Advanced
Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) board designs. Embedded market
segments such as POS terminals and industrial computing are also applicable
for this processor.

The Ultra Low Voltage Celeron is being marketed for developers of small
form factor designs that do not require fans for cooling; that would include
wireless and wireline providers, including those that use mezzanine cards,
and the embedded market.

Intel said its Bulverde is for developers designing such graphics-rich
applications as personal media players, navigation devices and handheld POS
terminals. The company said its PXA270 is the first embedded communications
product to integrate the Intel Wireless MMX and has also incorporated Intel
Quick Capture technology to support full-motion video and 4-megapixel
cameras.

Intel’s Communications Group is looking to make up for lost ground after
the division suffered a $600 million write-off last December. The reorganized group
is now working on the development of WiMAX (802.11.6) wireless MAN networks
and is anticipating including the technology in its notebook chipsets
sometime in 2006.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web