Intel Atom x3, x5, and x7 chips coming soon: will x86 finally match ARM?

[Reefa]

Intel is set to announce some updated mobile chips at Mobile World Congress in a few days, but the company has chosen to out its new naming strategy early. The new 2015 Atom systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) will come in three tiers just like the high-end Core processors. Intel will offer mobile Atom chips with the monikers x3, x5, and x7.

Just like the full-scale CPUs in the Core family (i3, i5, and i7), these three chip tiers will denote the performance and features. It will be considerably less confusing than past Atom SoC model numbers like Z3580 and Z3735D. That really tells you nothing. The new branding will let you instantly classify a device’s approximate performance level just like you can with laptops. The x3 chip will be primarily for entry-level devices, the x5 will be mid-range, and the x7 will be for flagship devices.

Intel is saving the specifics of its new chips for Mobile World Congress, but we can surmise the new names will roll out with Intel’s 2015 Cherry Trail platform. These chips will be based on a 14nm manufacturing process with as many as four cores operating at up to 2.7GHz. However, the low-end X3 chips might be based on an older platform and manufacturing process. They could still compare favorably to competing low-end chips, though.

Intel has had a rough ride in the mobile space since it announced its first Atom SoC in the Medfield family back in 2012. That chip powered a handful of phones, but Atom has since been relegated to tablets. Scaling x86 down to fit in a phone’s power envelope has been a challenge for Intel, but it’s getting close. It’s not clear if the upcoming processors will be used in phones, but this is definitely the time to strike. ARM-based chips have powered virtually all Android devices thus far, but market-leading chip-maker Qualcomm is vulnerable.

Qualcomm cemented its reputation as the world’s premiere ARM chip maker on the strength of its LTE modems and custom CPU cores. Unlike most of its competition, ARM has an instruction set license to design its own CPUs, which has been a huge advantage. The company has never produced a flagship SoC with standard ARM reference CPU cores until now. The Snapdragon 810 has Cortex-A57 and A53 cores because Qualcomm knew it needed to support 64-bit, if only as a marketing feature.

I would speculate that Qualcomm got comfortable being in the lead, then suddenly 64-bit ARM chips were a thing. Apple went 64-bit, then Nvidia was rumored to be working on a 64-bit custom mobile CPU (now it’s out and known as Denver). Qualcomm’s custom 64-bit solution isn’t ready yet, so we get ARM reference cores, which Qualcomm isn’t as familiar with. Early reports point to significant thermal throttling issues on the Snapdragon 810 with very minimal performance gains over last-gen chips, even in the best circumstances. Intel, on the other hand, has supported 64-bit x86 architecture on its Atom SoCs since 2013.

There is no guarantee Intel will have the goods to take on Qualcomm when the new Atom chips are announced under the x3, x5, x7 branding at MWC, but this is the opening Intel has been waiting for. The Snapdragon 810 is a stopgap chip, and it will probably be at least six months until Qualcomm can get back on track. If Intel can offer a compelling alternative for phones, it could finally capture a significant part of the market later this year.

http://www.geek.com/chips/intel-atom-x3-x5-and-x7-chips-coming-soon-will-x86-finally-match-arm-1616638/