While we didn’t get full details about Moorestown at Intel’s Developer Forum this week, we did get a sneak peak, as Intel love to call it, into what Moorestown brings to the table by the chief architect himself, Shreekant (Ticky) Thakkar.

Most of it is summarized in a PDF issued to the press but there’s also a set of slides to check out too. See SPCS004 on this content page. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the session but I’ve been through the documents and have pulled out some key features below.

2x power reduction in use. In real terms we should see what I call ‘on-net’ active power drain (using the device) reduced to under 2W. With the smaller screen devices that will reduce further. This is about double what you’d see on an ARM-based device under similar usage sdcenarios but in terms of getting things done, should be much snappier.

50x idle power reduction. This brings, for the first time, a PC into always-on scenarios.

Hyperthreading capability. As we’ve experienced on Menlow, devices with hyperthreading feel faster.

Burst Performance Technology (BPT) – Monitoring thermals to allow short-term bursting of the CPU clock beyond the design limit. Basically, as other parts of the Moorestown platform are turned off, there is the potential to increase clock until certain temperatures are reached.

Bus Turbo mode – Allows the bus speed to be increased in line with CPU frequency scaling thus reducing memory latency and increasing bus bandwidth.

Active power management – Turns off certain parts of the system when not in use. E.g. turn of video decoders when web browsing. Power management is controlled by a ‘profile’ system that identifies certain usage modes and turns on and off ‘power islands’ as required. Here’s a thermal map of the system in a fully-on and controlled (‘gated’) state. This is something that may only be successfully achieved when using a Moblin-based OS.

Through this technique we should be looking at 2x power reduction overall but in certain usage modes the effect will be dramatic. Standby, video decoding and audio playback modes will be vastly more power efficient. Up to 50x in standby more for example.

Briertown. This embedded mixed-signal analogue control circuit integrates functions that were previously found on descreet chips. DC-DC power conversion, audio, LED control, battery charging circuits. This module also integrates with the ‘power-gating’ process mentioned above.

In addition to the information released this week, we should not forget what we’ve learnt before. We’re probably looking at a PowerVR SGX graphics core, hardware decoding video to 720p or even 1080p levels, hardware encoding of video and huge reductions in platform size (about 2x volume reductions expected in devices.)

CPU clock rates aren’t known at the moment (expect SKUs to be announced in early 2010) and pricing is also an unknown factor that could affect OEM choices but I think that’s enough information to be getting excited about for the time being.

Note: Moorestown could scale from smartphone to MID and UMPC scenarios, smartbooks and many other product categories. For a look past the technical specifications into what the Moorestown platform could mean for consumers, see this article.

Highlighting Intel’s ultimate goal for Atom, the growing importance of a high-speed web experience on a smartphone and possibly Intel’s concern about the speed of development of ARM-based smartphones is this Mobile World Congress announcement that LG and Intel are going to work together on a voice-enabled MID. The first smartphone to be based on what is effectively a PC architecture is expected in 2010.

No details of the device are available at the moment but you can be sure that LG will already have prototype designs built around the Atom core (on the Lincroft ’system on chip’) and the Langwell I/O hub. Expect a high-end, big-screen design that, like the recently announced Toshibe LG01, could redefine the size and capability of those leading edge voice communicators called smartphones!

The announcement also re-confirms timescales for Moorestown and Moblin2 for MIDs and LG is expected to be one of the first OEMs out of the door with Moorestown in 2010.

Read the full story

Lincroft is the ’system on chip’  that powers Moorestown, Intel’s next-gen Mobile Internet Device platform. CPU, GPU, video decode hardware, video encode hardware [Note: Try finding that on the average laptop. Justin.tv needs to watch closely!] and 2D video hardware. Langwell is the comms silicon that connects Moorestown to all the peripherals that are required in a Mobile Internet Device. Its the USB bus, the audio bus, serial, video, etc etc. Think of Moorestown as the bare motherboard which comes pre-loaded with Lincroft, the combined CPU, Northbridge and video card, and Langwell as the Southbridge which provides all the comms interfaces. On to Morestown, OEMs will add memory, power circuitry, comms chips, audio chips, BIOS, storage, cams, mics, speakers and everything else that’s required to make a MID. Hopefuly it all gets wrapped up in an exciting bit of industrial design and loaded with top quality software!

You can see Moorestown demo’d, kind of, on the video that Engadget got hold of today.

And what about that ‘10x lower idle power’ figure that keeps being mentioned? Well, it means that the platform, that’s Moorestown, will idle nicely. Like a smartphone. All-day. The software will need to be developed such that it powers down all those peripherals that aren’t needed though and as for total system power drain (i.e. How long will a device last on a 10wh battery) I’m afraid its an unknown right now. Moorestown will account for a significant power saving but if an OEM goes and slaps a 2W WiFi module on it…

Intel have the same problems as all smartphone manufacturers now. It’s about guiding the OEMs and software developers and giving them the right components from the MID ecosystem.

I didn’t ever expected to be covering voice-capable devices on UMPCPortal but it looks like that’s the way it’s going!

Comprising the ’system on chip’ known as Lincroft and the comms chip known as Langwell, the next-generation MID platform from Intel, known as Moorestown, promises to provide smaller sizes and smaller power consumption. At IDF in Taipei today, Intel demonstrated the first working version.

Chandrasekher said that Moorestown will be a catalyst for exciting and innovative developments that will extend the full Internet experience into the smartphone space with the Communication MID. He indicated that Moorestown platforms will support a range of wireless technologies including 3G, WiMAX, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV. Additionally, Chandrasekher announced a collaboration with Ericsson* for HSPA data modules optimized for the Moorestown platform. He also announced that Option* is extending its collaboration for HSPA modules to the Moorestown platform. These 3G modules come in 25×30x2.x mm small size, are optimized for Moorestown power requirements and will help provide MID users with more powerful, always connected Internet-based experiences. [press release]

Don’t expect too much information about Moorestown this week though as Intel have already stated that the next announcements are to come at the Spring IDF in 2009. In fact, if Menlow is anything to go by, the timeframe between first demonstrations and product availability will be about 18 months. We’ll keep an eye out for videos and details about Moorestown though.

Looking at the MID display from the technology showcase, I don’t see anything new there either. Keep any eye on the IDF photo stream at Flickr. Maybe something will turn up.