Medfield is Intel's mobile chipset, which will inherit the company's first foray into the mobile silicon world - Moorestown. It has the word mobile in its description, but shouldn't be confused with the dual-core Oak Trail, as found in the Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series, which runs Windows 7 for 6-9 hours before the battery dies down. Medfield will be for tablets, smartphones and the like, which will most probably run Android and/or MeeGo.
Threatened by the absolute dominance of ARM-based designs for current mobile chipsets, Intel decided to speed up Medfield's development, and is now promising phones and other devices with it as soon as the third quarter of this year. Medfield is built with the 32nm production technology, which might make it the most advanced mobile chipset in that regard in Q3.
Will it be enough to sway people from ARM, and convince tablet, smartphone and MID manufacturers to consider it along with ARM-based chipsets, remains to be seen. Intel claims it will be more power efficient than chips with the ARM design - if it means the current generation, which is produced with 45nm, it might as well be.
The quad-core ARM designs from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and the rest, will rely on 28nm though, so we'll see. 28nm wafers are still few and far between, so Intel might enjoy some quality time with Medfield until the next-gen ARM Cortex-A15 devices hit the market late this year or the beginning of next.
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Intel acquired Infineon not long ago, so what we might see with Medfield is the first true mobile system-on-a-chip from Intel, wireless connectivity and all. We haven't seen any concept devices yet, although Aava Mobile flaunted one with Intel's 32nm chipset a while ago (pictured below).
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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