Intel Corp. of the US and Qualcomm Inc. of the US are making preparations to enter processors for tablets and other growing applications. Both companies are leaders in their fields, one in PC processors and the other in mobile phone processors, and both desperately want the new market. The outcome of the battle will sway the entire mobile equipment processor market.
Intel, the ruling master of the PC microprocessor market, and Qualcomm, top dog in mobile phone chipsets, are heading for a face-off. The battleground is processors in portable equipment, such as the tablet terminals that exploded with the appearance of the iPad from Apple Inc. of the US (Fig.1).
Fig.1 Intel and Qualcomm Head for a Face-Off
PC microprocessor giant Intel and mobile phone chipset giant Qualcomm are on collision course in this new market midway between them.
Over the last year, Qualcomm has achieved major success in the smartphone sector, building on its years of supplying baseband processor ICs and application processors to mobile phones. The lever they used to accomplish it was the Snapdragon processor, which first showed up in a handset in summer 2009. It single-chips a 1GHz central processing unit (CPU) core and a baseband processor handling 3rd-generation mobile communications (3G) technology. Already about a dozen handsets offer the Snapdragon, primarily those running Android and Windows Mobile OSes.
Intel, meanwhile, essentially monopolizes the market for PC and server microprocessors. In 2008 it used the Atom low-power processor to create a brand-new netbook market. Netbooks, combining low prices with small size and offering limited functionality and performance, have made it possible for Intel to significantly boost shipment volume.
Two World Leaders Go Head-to-Head
Both companies are now taking aim at the terminal market somewhere between smartphones and netbooks. Qualcomm calls them "smartbooks, " while Intel prefers "mobile Internet device" or MID. Regardless of which name you use, they have displays between five and ten inches in size, and come in tablet, clamshell or sliding cases. They are equipped with 3G and Wireless LAN communication functionality, and designed to run on Linux, for example. In other words, they compete directly with the iPad.
