Intel Introduces New Atom Series, Cherry Trail Tablets

At its Mobile World Congress press conference today, Intel formally announced its Atom X5 and X7 chips, its first 14nm Atom system-on-chip (SoC) design, aimed primarily at the tablet market, along with the Atom X3, Intel's first SoC with an integrated modem.

This chips have been expected for some time, but CEO Brian Krzanich gave some more specific dates, and discussed his expectations for the chips.

Atom x5 and x7 Tech Specs

The Atom x5 and x7 chips are the platform formerly known as Cherry Trail and are the first SoCs manufactured on Intel's 14nm FinFET process. These are all quad-core 64-bit chips that use Intel Gen 8 graphics; Krzanich said the graphics would offer twice the performance of the previous Bay Trail platform. There are three models – the x5-8300 which can run up to 1.84 GHz, the x5-8500 which can run up to 2.24 GHz, and the x7- 8700, which can run at up to 2.4 GHz. In theory, this follows a lot of Intel's Core series numbering, with chips with the same basic die running at different speeds, and enabling different features. In this case, the big differences are in display resolution and camera supported, with the two higher-end models allowing for 2,560-by-1,600 displays and up to a 13-megapixel camera.

Atom x3 Tech Specs

The X3, formerly known as SoFIA, began shipping its 3G version at the end of last year, Krzanich said, and is Intel's first chip to integrate a modem. The three models disclosed today range include a dual-core 3G version, a faster quad-core 3G version, and an upcoming quad-core LTE model that he said would be shipping in the second half of 2105. All include ARM's Mali graphics, ranging from the 400 MP2 in the lowest-end chip, up to Mali T720 MP2 in the higher-end version with LTE. All are manufactured by a chip foundry on a 28nm process.

He said Intel has commitments to use the new chips by 20 partners in 27 designs, ranging from 4-inch to 8-inch phones and tablets. In addition, he discussed the upcoming XMM7360 modem, which will support LTE Category 10 with up to 450 Mbps, also due in the second half of the year.

But when asked when Intel will make a big push in phones, like it did in tablets (shipping in 40 million tablets in 2014, despite losing money on the chips), Krzanich said he was "willing to take my time" until Intel had the right products for the larger market, which he suggested wasn't yet.

Krzanich and Venue Pro 10

Krzanich made a big point of talking about Intel's "end-to-end" solutions, including not only the chips, but also new mobility experiences and network transformation. For new mobility experiences, he talked about the RealSense camera included originally in the Dell Venue Pro 8, and Krzanich also showed off the upcoming Venue Pro 10 with a detachable keyboard that looked quite nice. Another experience he pushed was wireless charging, which has become a big theme around the show. And he said the company's McAfee mobile security suite would be offered by a variety of vendors, including being standard on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and available for the LG Watch Urbane LTE, as he thought all network-connected devices need security.