Intel Outs Cherry Trail Atom x5 And x7 SoCs; Entry-Level SoFIA Chips, Too

[scolaner]

At Mobile World Congress today, Intel announced its new spate of mobile chips, which includes Cherry Trail as well as the entry-level SoFIA series.

Intel Outs Cherry Trail Atom x5 And x7 SoCs; Entry-Level SoFIA Chips, Too : Read more

 

[RedJaron]

I've been using an Acer Switch 10 for a few months and have been generally pleased with it. Would love to see what kind of 2-in-1 these chips will be found in. A 10" Win8/10 2-in-1 with built-in LTE for under $400 would make me consider an upgrade.

 

[hannibal]

Most interesting processors to new Wintel tablets! Increased GPU speed is promising for light gaming with windows tablets and 14nm process should provide even better battery usage.
Just hope to see one of these in good 9 to 10 " tablet with reasonable resolution IPS screen. 1080p minimum.

 

[digitaldoc]

Will have to see what products these chips end up in, at what price points. They have potential though.

 

[hixbot]

It may be finally time to break my Cherry Trail.

 

[rluker5]

wintel probably won't but they could do the whole windows pc on a phone thing with one of these if they put a micro hdmi port on it. the keyboard/mouse/gamepad would be Bluetooth. I've got that on a lesser baytrail and it's a better htpc than an average vista desktop. it would be nice for boring slideshows over the holidays

 

[epobirs]

hixbot , March 2, 2015 11:57 AM
It may be finally time to break my Cherry Trail.
-----------

A double! Most impressive, sir.

 

[aldaia]

Unfortunately for Intel, the mobile market doesn't care about x86, no matter how great their processors are. Those processors may take a share in the tablet market, but tablets are as saturated as desktops, it's not anymore a growing market. A lot of people are replacing their old tablet + their old smartphone by a newer phablet. The growth potential and the high volume is still in the smartphone camp, where the big names are Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and Mediatek

 

[MyDocuments]

Hmm, it remains to be seen how seriously an x86 Android Phone can be taken, given that there are still application incompatibility issues despite the marketing given by Intel in order to allay these fears.
Comparative battery life would also be a good measure of these CPU's without taking into account how much faster these CPUs can get the job done... days (or even better weeks) between charging would be a good measure.
Also interesting is the use of ARM-based MALI Gfx options, which means the licensing fees associated with the move to an x86 core are still not behind Intel. I guess the modem may also still contain a core or more from ARM.

 

[MyDocuments]

PS It's anyway a good thing to see more competition in any market. Hopefully this raises the technology and lowers the prices from everyone who chooses to compete.

 

[RedJaron]

Unfortunately for Intel, the mobile market doesn't care about x86, no matter how great their processors are. Those processors may take a share in the tablet market, but tablets are as saturated as desktops, it's not anymore a growing market. A lot of people are replacing their old tablet + their old smartphone by a newer phablet. The growth potential and the high volume is still in the smartphone camp, where the big names are Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and Mediatek

Where are you getting that mobile consumers don't want x86? The very notion of an x86 phone is drool inducing to most people in my department. The majority of the public is likely indifferent to x86 in that they don't care what architecture so long as it runs well.

And yes, a lot of people are replacing their old tablets. So which would you prefer: another iPad that's 0.01% thinner and 0.02% faster, or a full x86 tablet or 2-in-1 with LTE connectivity that's only a mobile keyboard and mouse away from being a desktop in a pinch? Hell, there's no reason an x86 phone couldn't act like a Windows thin client.

 

[aldaia]

Where are you getting that mobile consumers don't want x86? The very notion of an x86 phone is drool inducing to most people in my department. The majority of the public is likely indifferent to x86 in that they don't care what architecture so long as it runs well.

I didn't said "no body wants x86", I said "nobody cares about x86" which is very different (although Intel doesn't like any of them), plus mobile consumers is not the mobile market, even if some consumers want x86, the market doesn't care. Actually you share my own opinion, 99% of the users doesn't care about the processor, and the rest are irrelevant for a mass market.

And yes, a lot of people are replacing their old tablets. So which would you prefer: another iPad that's 0.01% thinner and 0.02% faster, or a full x86 tablet or 2-in-1 with LTE connectivity that's only a mobile keyboard and mouse away from being a desktop in a pinch?

None of them, a 5-6 inch smartphone fills much better 95% of my needs, my smartphone is always with me, the tablet or the 2-1 are not. For the remaining 5% I prefer a desktop (i like bigh screens and good ergonomic seats for some activities) that (unfortunately for intel&amd) I replace maybe every 6-7 years.

 

[RedJaron]

I didn't said "no body wants x86", I said "nobody cares about x86" which is very different (although Intel doesn't like any of them), plus mobile consumers is not the mobile market, even if some consumers want x86, the market doesn't care. Actually you share my own opinion, 99% of the users doesn't care about the processor, and the rest are irrelevant for a mass market.

Ok then, why would that be "unfortunate" for Intel? Unfortunate would be if people were actively shunning x86 mobile. If they just want something that runs the applications they want, there's no reason x86 mobile devices won't sell, provided they offer similar performance and cost as ARM.

None of them, a 5-6 inch smartphone fills much better 95% of my needs, my smartphone is always with me, the tablet or the 2-1 are not.

Huh, and I notice you conveniently edited the part you quoted from me where I mention it's possible that an x86 smartphone could be a thin Windows client. Also, what tasks would a 5" ARM phone perform that a 5" x86 device can't do?

 

[PacoBell]

These x86 CPUs have one feature I desperately want: AES-NI in that "Security Processor". It does AES-GCM stupidly fast!

 

[aldaia]

These x86 CPUs have one feature I desperately want: AES-NI in that "Security Processor". It does AES-GCM stupidly fast!

The ARMv8-A processor architecture, including the ARM Cortex-A53 and A57 also have user level instructions which implement AES rounds.