Medfield. One Step Beyond Moorestown.

I’m very reluctant to be talking about Medfield. It’s the codename for the system-on-chip that Intel are working on for 2011. That’s the next step after Moorestown which is still at least half a year away. We’re still waiting for a bunch of promised Menlow-based devices a year after launch and two years after its first mention here on UMPCPortal so I’m not getting excited.

Moorestown is planned for early 2010 and will push Intel further into the MID category and enable voice-enabled, large-format smartphones. LG have already made an announcement along these lines. The marketing people will tell you about 10x lower platform idle power which works well for standby communicators but means nothing for devices you’re actually using. Menlow brought us swiftly down from the 10W power profile to the 6W power profile so I think it’s fair to say that we’ll be looking at devices operating in a 4W power profile with Moorestown.

The next step for Intel is into small-format smartphones. Phones like the iPhone and the Pre. CNN are giving us a tiny lead into Medfield today with an article that reveals the codename ‘Medfield’ and talks about a single chip design. But there’s not much more detail there at all so that’s all we’re left with. You can try reading between the lines at CNN.com but I’d recommend staying focused on Moorestown first. Computex is in just over 2 weeks so there’s lots of excitement to come before we start getting into the details of Medfield.