Intel certainly doesn’t want to be left sitting on the bench when it comes to the tablet game, and used the recent Computex expo in Taiwan to show what skills it brought to the table.
Whilst almost every tablet maker around will be using ARM’s processors inside, Intel firmly believes that its x86 Atom processor offers a better alternative, especially with the upcoming Oak Trail platform, specially designed with tablets in mind.
Intel’s Mooly Eden said Oak Trail was comprised of “special silicon” sporting a very low-power Atom processor and low-power hub in order to try to up battery life whilst conserving an aura of powerful compute ‘oomph.’
Indeed, compared to Intel’s current Atom platform, Oak Trail will only purportedly need about half the physical footprint and will also support 1080p video playback.
Intel’s main ‘advantage’ – if one can call it that – is that its x86 platform supports the Windows software stack, whereas ARM’s processors do not. This means Intel can truly present its tablets as a “port of choice” allowing anything from Android and Meego to Windows 7 to run on them.
The problem with Windows on tablets, as with netbooks, is that the operating system tends to be too heavy, slowing the system down and making for an unpleasant experience. Eden, however, said Intel had been working with Microsoft to improve the experience and optimize Win 7 for tablets.
Blasting the competition with a veritable shock and awe of tablets at its booth, Intel showed off tablet prototypes from a multitude of big names including Asus, Compal, LG Electronics, MSI, Quanta and others.
While most of the tablets on display run on Moorestown rather than Oak Trail, that doesn’t mean they won’t run on Oak Trail once they are actually available for purchase sometime in early 2011.
