Intel, AMD, ARM Unveil New Chips, Designs at Computex

By Jeffrey Burt | Posted 2013-06-06

New chips from the likes of Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm—and a new chip design from ARM—and the range of mobile systems they're powering was a key theme at this year's Computex 2013 show in Taiwan, Asia's largest tech show. The improved the performance, energy efficiency and feature sets of the systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) are enabling systems makers to come up with new form factors, many of them designed to give consumers and business users devices that offer the performance and productivity of traditional notebooks and the ease, long battery life and instant-on capabilities of tablets. Intel executives officially released the company's next-generation Core "Haswell" chips, fueling a rush of new systems from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, while they also touted the upcoming "Merrifield" and "Bay Trail" Atom chips for smartphones and tablets. AMD showed off the first of the Elite A-Series chips for desktops while touting the recent release of three new mobile SoCs. Meanwhile, Qualcomm introduced the latest of its Snapdragon 400 chips, a quad-core model with integrated 3G/4G LTE (Long Term Evolution). And ARM unveiled its Cortex-A12 SoC design that will be for midrange smartphones. Here, eWEEK takes a look at some of those announcements made at Computex.

1 of

Intel, AMD, ARM Unveil New Chips, Designs at Computex

by Jeffrey Burt
Intel Launches the Core Haswell Chips for New Form Factors

Intel officials have been touting Haswell for months, talking about its improved performance, graphics and power efficiency. The SoCs not only will power traditional notebooks, but also new form factors such as Ultrabooks, convertibles, hybrids and two-in-one devices that can be used as both a laptop and tablet.
Intel's Haswell SoCs Offer Two and Four Cores

This is a shot of a quad-core fourth-generation Core chip, which is part of a larger wave of mobile products coming from Intel this year. Later in 2013, Intel will introduce low-power Atom chips based on the new "Silvermont" microarchitecture.
A New Dell Two-in-One System Will Run on Haswell

Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, shows off a thin, light two-in-one Ultrabook from Dell powered by Haswell chips, which will hit the market later this year.
Dell XPS 11 Is a Convertible Laptop

Dell officials introduced the XPS 11 Ultrabook, a Windows 8 convertible laptop that can easily become a tablet with a flip of its 11.6-inch display.
HP Puts Haswell Into a Number of New Systems

Included in the new Haswell-based systems is the Envy Rove 20, an all-in-one device that can be used in an upright position or completely horizontal in a table-top fashion. The Envy Rove 20 and other systems were announced in May.
Acer Upgrades Its PCs With Fourth-Generation Core SoCs

Acer officials announced that they were putting Haswell into a number of systems, including the Aspire S7 Ultrabook (pictured), Aspire S3 Ultrabook and the Aspire Z3 all-in-one.
Asus' Haswell Lineup Includes the Transformer Book Trio

Company officials call the Transformer Book Trio, which can be used as a desktop PC, a notebook or a tablet. In addition, the system contains both a Haswell chip and an Atom SoC, so it can run either Android or Windows 8.
Panasonic Unveils the Ax Ultrabook

Panasonic's fourth-generation Core chip system is an Ultrabook.
Sony's Vaio Duo 13 Can Be Used as a Notebook or Tablet

The Vaio Duo 13 is the successor to the company's year-old Duo 11, with a revamped look, improved hinge and improved keyboard, according to reviewers.
Toshiba's Portege Z10t Offers a Detachable Display

The Ultrabook is the first business laptop from the company to offer Microsoft's Windows 8 OS.
HP's New Sleekbook Runs on AMD

HP's Pavilion 14 TouchSmart Sleekbook is powered by AMD's A-Series chips.
AMD Aims "Richland" APU at Mainstream PCs

AMD officials at Computex announced their Elite A-Series chips for desktops, while also touting other mobile chips—Kabini and Temash—released in May for notebooks, tablets and other form factors. The officials highlighted systems powered by the mobile chips.
Acer's Aspire V3 Lineup Includes AMD-Based Systems

Acer officials tout the Aspire V3 Series systems for their performance and graphics capabilities.
ARM Aims for Midrange Smartphones With Cortex-A12

ARM already offers SoC designs for high-end and entry-level phones. With the Cortex-A12, the company now will have the midrange covered. ARM officials expect devices with Cortex-A12-based chips in them to start hitting the market in early 2012.
Qualcomm Upgrades Snapdragon 400 Offerings

Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 400 comes with four cores and integrated 3G/4G capabilities.
Intel Pushes Atom for Smartphones

At Computex, Tom Kilroy, executive vice president for Intel, shows a smartphone reference design platform based on the company's next-generation 22-nanometer Atom SoC for smartphones, dubbed "Merrifield."
Intel and Asus Show Off the FonePad

Hermann Eul, vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobile Communications Group (left), was joined on stage by Asus CEO Jerry Shen, who showed off Asus' FonePad, a tablet that offers full smartphone capabilities and runs on Intel's Atom Z2580 SoC.
View All Slideshows >