Intel have just announced their Media SDK 2013, the software development kit that lets developers get to some of the unique media transcoding features found in the Intel processing platforms. As a core part of Intel Quick Sync that you find used in video conversion and video editing tools it’s something that can really help those video editing and rendering sessions and can help to improve battery life under these operations.
CES 2013 has kicked off and this year I’m in the studio reporting across the handheld and Ultrabook PC space. For UMPCPortal that means ‘Clovertrail’ and ‘Bay Trail’, the latter being important as it’s the first time the Atom platform will get a new architecture.
Clovertrail has brought the handheld PC space alive again and we’ve reported a number of times on Clovertrail-based products over the last three months. As the only PC platform that’s Connected Standby capable it’s a huge step forward and although the current designs use at least 10-inch displays there’s potential here for 8.9-inch and even 7-inch display Clovertrail devices.
During CES we’ll be looking for information on the Lenovo Ideatab Lynx, Fujitsu Arrows QH55J, Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet2, Dell Latitude 10 and the HP Envy 2. Naturally we’re looking out for new devices based on Clovertrail too. We’ll bring you the news as we find it.
Moving on to Bay Trail then, it’s the next generation, 22nm-based Atom architecture and it’s a big change. Leaked roadmaps mention a 2014 availability (1st Quarter) so don’t get too excited just yet but some of the details are very interesting. You’ll see a higher TDP but don’t worry because there’s a lot more on-board here including a variant of Intel’s graphics unit. A move away from PowerVR means better control over drivers and hope for Linux fans!
The SoC is known as Valleyview-T (where Clovertrail used a Cloverview SoC) and it will offer up to 4 cores. Display support will be improved above 1920×1080 and the graphics could be much more powerful. We expect huge improvements in media encoding and decoding efficiency and speed. Storage will still be eMMC based but USB3.0 support will be added.
With Intel’s Haswell platform reaching down into 8W TDP space and Bay Trail reaching up where Pentiums and Celeron processors were operating a few years ago there’s little space left for these brands. Haswell will also offer Connected Standby features so there’s a possibility that there will be a crossover of platforms in the 10-12.5-inch space with ‘Pro’ tablets offering true desktop capability and the consumer tablets focusing on style, weight, value and mobility.
Intel’s press conference is happening later today so I’ll be analyzing it for answers to the above questions.
Bay Trail information via MobileGeeks.
As part of our continuing co-op with Intel to highlight interesting and useful Ultrabook software resources I’ve got a demo of a touch-enabled game from Appup running on the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga Ultrabook Convertible for you, gamers and developers alike.
Related articles in this series:
As part of our continuing co-op with Intel on highlighting interesting and useful resources from our favorite Ultrabook-related company (!) we’ve got a 3rd party report for you that highlights the responsiveness and performance characteristics of an Ultrabook compared to previous generation laptops.
Intel could, according to Xbitlabs, release a new set of low-TDP Ivy Bridge CPUs next year that will help tablet and Ultrabook designers make products thinner, cooler and quieter. TDPs will be brought down from 17W to 10W by limiting clockrate and Turbo features. The process is going to make it very difficult for a customer (and for us analysts) to determine performance based on a i3/i5/i7 part number but are also likely to be there to let Intel feed-in lower price CPUs for tablets and low-cost Ultrabooks. There’s a little trickery involved here as designers already have options for locking-down TDPs although the new parts extend that capability down to tablet designs and make it simpler for manufacturers. The new parts seem good candidates for the Surface Pro for which we don’t have a Core i5 model number yet.
Base frequencies and Turbo features are changed in all of the new CPUs. We don’t expect any changes to the Core architecture.
Early reviews of CloverTrail devices are positive and that’s making investors and analysts sit up and take note. Deutsche Bank have just issued a note to their customers saying some very positive things about the platform and notes that it is competitive against ARM-based solutions.
“Intel to Showcase Ultrabook™ Convertibles with Touch, Tablets and Phones at CES 2013” is the title of the media information post that’s just gone out from in relation to the CES trade show running from Jan 8-11 in Las Vegas. Clearly the big push is still with Ultrabooks.
David Blaine’s Intel-sponsored ‘Electrified’ event.
If anyone has ever tried to tell you that advertising doesn’t work, here’s some evidence that they’re wrong: Intel has launched a huge new digital campaign with the launch of Windows 8 and the results are plain to see. In the last few weeks, Google search trends for ‘Ultrabook’ have surpassed searches for ‘netbooks’ for the first time. The launch of Windows 8, Ultrabook ads from Intel hardware partners, and a new digital campaign from Intel are all involved in the activity spike. Intel’s latest efforts involve Angry Birds, Pandora, and David Blaine.
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