Chip maker Intel may have made a name for itself by building platforms for Windows and OS X computers, but with virtually every PC maker getting into the low power consumer tablet space Intel finds itself struggling to compete in the mobile space against ARM-based chip manufacturers. So Intel is starting to push its next-generation low power Atom chips for tablets running Windows and MeeGo Linux. But DigiTimes reports that Intel will also launch a platform for Android 3.0 tablets later this year.

This is just an industry rumor at this point and Intel isn’t commenting. But we’ve already seen that the Google Android operating system is perfectly capable of running on devices with Intel processors.

The platform is reportedly called PRC Plus and the idea is that hardware makers can save on Windows licensing costs by using the open source Android operating system, but offer more performance than you would get from an ARM-based chipset.

This might explain why Gigabyte is planning to launch a line of dual boot tablets running both Android and Windows this Fall. It would also explain why portions of the Android 3.0 source code seem to show support for x86 processors.

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2 replies on “Will Intel push Android tablet platform later this year?”

  1. x86 processors… sure… but will they support accelerated media decoding/transcoding like Tegra or ION devices?

    1. Oak Trail and the upcoming Cedar Trail do add media hardware acceleration support.

      Though applications for things like video editing are primarily CPU intensive and we may have to wait for software optimized for the platform to take full advantage of the hardware support.

      Even on a ION system, you’d need programs like Badaboom that are specifically made to take advantage of Nvidia’s CUDA.

      While Tegra 3 and similar next gen ARM offerings may still have other graphical advantages such as for gaming though. Since they are entering the graphical range of gaming consoles like the Sony PS3.

      Though support for other than the mobile versions of OpenGL and Direct3D is only beginning for ARM systems and you can still find more games for x86 systems than you can for ARM and you don’t need to use an emulator in most cases with a x86 system.

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