Why Didn't Intel Win This Novel Asus Phone?
By Ashraf Eassa
A piece back, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC ) too longtime PC partner ASUS announced the ZenFone serial of smartphones. The ZenFone 4, 5, too half dozen all sported older generation Clover Trail+ Atom processors along amongst Intel's 3G modems. Around the same fourth dimension equally this identify unit of measurement of phones launched, Intel announced that it had signed a multiyear, multidevice strategic human relationship amongst ASUS for a whole identify unit of measurement of smartphone too tablets. Interestingly enough, according to VR-Zone China, ASUS' adjacent smartphone -- an LTE-capable 4.5-inch device that looks similar to the Intel-powered ZenFone business -- volition live powered yesteryear Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM ) silicon.
It's that integration
The low-cost, LTE-capable band from ASUS volition sport a low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. This chipset has proven exceptionally pop too has powered everything from Samsung's Milky Way S4 Mini to hordes of white-box smartphones inward Asia. It is non a peculiarly zippy chip, sporting iv low-end ARM (NASDAQ: ARMH ) Cortex A7 cores, but it is highly integrated too comes amongst a Qualcomm LTE modem equally good equally 802.11ac connectivity built correct onto the processor.
What does Intel bring to offering inward this space? Well, for a low-cost LTE product, ASUS would bring 2 nous options:
Intel's prior-generation 32-nanometer Clover Trail+ platform paired amongst discrete connectivity combo too Intel's XMM 7160 modem; and
Intel's latest-generation 22-nanometer Merrifield platform paired amongst discrete connectivity too Intel's XMM 7160 LTE modem.
With the Qualcomm processor, ASUS gets a lot of value integrated onto a unmarried chip. With the Intel platform, ASUS needs to non solely purchase Intel's processor, but it too needs to purchase a split upward LTE modem too a connectivity combo chip. Not solely does this increase the printed circuit board footprint, but it too probable impacts ability consumption to but about non-trivial degree.
Why is this? In Qualcomm's case, both the Wi-Fi too cellular modem are built on the lower-power 28-nanometer LP process. In Intel's case, the discrete modem equally good equally the connectivity combo are probable built on the aging 40-nanometer procedure for Merrifield, although for Moorefield the province of affairs gets a lot improve equally the modem is built on 28-nanometer. That said, inward lodge to fully capture the manufacturing lead that it has, Intel needs all of the performance/power sensitive components inward the platform ask to live built on the latest manufacturing technology.
Do y'all immediately run into why Intel needs SoFIA?
One of the get-go "big" moves that Intel's novel CEO, Brian Krzanich, made was to set a production known equally SoFIA on the smartphone/tablet route map. This is a TSMC-built 28-nanometer high-K/metal gate (this is the faster of the 2 28-nanometer mobile offerings from TSMC) business office that integrates the cellular modem into the nous processor too the connectivity into the RF transceiver.
While the apps processor doesn't larn the create goodness of Intel's latest-and-greatest procedure technology, the entire platform should live much cheaper too potentially lower ability relative to the Merrifield (22-nanometer) + XMM 7160 (40-nanometer baseband/65-nanometer RF transceiver) combination. This would lastly allow Intel to compete on even-footing for mass-market smartphones.
Intel's SoFIA is a game changer, but this could live fifty-fifty bigger
While Intel's smartphone production pipeline continues to improve, just hold off until y'all run into this. The adjacent large affair afterwards smartphones is on the way, too but similar buying Intel earlier it became the world-class PC too server fighting house, y'all immediately bring an chance to arrive on this chance earlier the globe catches on! Click here to larn the total floor inward this eye-opening novel report.
Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/13/why-didnt-intel-win-this-new-asus-phone.aspx
EmoticonEmoticon