Although Intel are updating the current Baytrail D/M range, we’re looking forward to a 14m version and an all-round update for Windows tablets and mobile PCs. That update was previously thought to be CherryTrail but it turns out that Braswell is in the mix too.

At IDF in Shenzen Intel announced Braswell for ‘Entry Systems.’ Given that the presentation was given by Intel’s PC Client Group this means that it’s likely be the replacement for Baytrail-M and D that we see in low-cost PCs and tablets today. E.g. the Medion Akoya P2212T

Braswell is a 14nm product presumably using the Airmont Core although this wasn’t confirmed in the IDF presentation. Coverage of Braswell in the press release was very brief…

In a brief preview of Intel’s future roadmap for PCs and mobile devices, Skaugen said the effort to bring innovation to the value space will continue in earnest with the next-generation 14nm SoC, code-named Braswell.

In his presentation, Kirk Skaugen had this to say.

“Today I want to announce the codename of the next generation Atom microarchitecture-based PC called Braswell. It will be a leading 14nm nanometer technology delivering an even lower bill of materials cost and higher performance.” We assume Kirk meant SoC and not PC in that announcement.

Braswell may also be targeted for Chromebooks

Braswell’s size, highly-integrated design and efficiency will allow manufacturers to produce lower cost devices by reducing design time, bill of materials and the size of the battery needed.

CherryTrail-T remains the ‘high-end’ of the next generation Windows CPUs and we’re likely to see this on tablets at the start of 2015 with a few products possibly making it to market for the December holiday period.

Intel’s developer forum for China kicked of today in Shenzen. We weren’t able to attend but we’ve been following it closely. Much of the news related to mobile and tablet PCs is to be found in the forum session PDFs and we’ve already seen how Intel are launching a back-to-school initiative based around new Celeron and Pentium Baytrail-M CPUs and have published details of USB3.1.

Most of the 35 minutes keynote is focused around the ecosystem in China but it includes info on the 40 million tablet target, news about Realsense (Lenovo S440 with integrated Realsense demonstrated,) Edison (now on Atom) and SoFIA, the integrated 3G/Atom platform for Android (and possibly Windows) tablets and phones.

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If you speak to enough people about Windows tablets at tradeshows certain keywords keep cropping up and if you link those ‘tips’ with a bit of research you come up with some potentially interesting background. In this case we’ve got some information about a Baytrail CR and Baytrail DB variant. The keywords that accompany this news on this Baytrail variant are ‘Dual-OS’ and ‘Upgrade.’

Back in December there was a event held in China that highlighted Intel’s work in Android and Windows tablets and an interesting slide was shown…

Image via dgtle.com

Baytrail-CR is shown for Mid 2014 in the image above but the DB variant is shown as the first Baytrail variant so it could actually be the current range. Is this just a new range of 64-bit SKUs (E.g Z3795 on the new 64-bit Elitepad 1000), some performance boosts through improved production processes or is this the DualOS drive? What’s certain is that Intel are indeed working on Dual-OS for Android and Windows tablets and that a Baytrail upgrade is coming.

We’ll try and track down exactly what’s going on here and bring you more detail soon. In the meantime, here are some other Baytrail-T devices spotted at CeBIT

A video of the Ramos i8 prototype is already available here…

Here’s the nice ‘Blog Hut’ that Intel has set up at CeBIT…

Yes it’s a bit late, but we did get our hands on some exciting devices at last month’s CES 2014 in Las Vegas and have some video for you to see.

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Intel had a great keynote at CES2014 yesterday and while a lot of it was outside the scope of reporting here, the Quark-based Edison PC is worth mentioning. Picture first…

That’s it! An SD-card sized PC / development board. It’s running a 400Mhz dual-core Quark CPU built on a 22nm process. There’s a WiFi and Bluetooth LE module,  memory, storage and interfaces. It may not have a video controller but it runs Linux and the idea is that it has endless possibilities at the newer edges of the Internet. Intel have developed it alongside a $1.3 million competition to stimulate the wearable and internet-of-things segment. It’s for makers!

Intel® Edison is a new Quark technology-based computer housed in an SD card form factor with built-in wireless. The product-ready, general purpose compute platform is well-suited to enable rapid innovation and product development by a range of inventors, entrepreneurs and consumer product designers when available this summer.

Intel Edison is based on 22nm Intel Quark technology for ultra-small and low power-sensitive, Internet of Things edge devices, smart consumer products and wearable computing. The product features an Intel processor and microcontroller core. The programmable microcontroller helps manage I/Os and other baseline functions, while the x86 compatible processor core brings Linux support and enables multiple operating systems to run sophisticated high-level user applications. The small compute package brings connectivity with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE*, and has LPDDR2* and NAND flash storage as well as a wide array of flexible and expandable I/O capabilities.

Intel Edison also brings the ease of Intel technology development with support for Linux and open source community software tools. The product will be compatible with accessible developer tools used by the maker community. (Source: Intel PDF)

The key here is that it’s small and very low power. Wireless power is something Intel are looking into under the umbrella of their internet-of-things work. Ambient energy is also a related topic and for screens, how about a WiFi or BT LE display matrix?

Got ideas already? More surveillance? How about some games? Beach-towel sun-monitor? Look around you and just think what you’d do with an Edison embedded in your picture frame, shoe, partners key-fob!

You can sign up for the competition here and I suspect you’ll get notified of information as it becomes available.  The competition will run in the summer. Keep an eye on the Galileo community too because it also comes under the ‘maker’ banner.

More details on the ‘make it wearable’ challenge here (PDF)

Just minutes ago at the CES keynote, Intel announced, briefly, that they have a dual-OS platform ready. Windows and Android on one device.

The live demo worked!

We know little right now apart from the fact that the Android part will include additional security. In an on-stage demo the switch time was near-instant. Have Intel developed a better solution than ASUS, Insyde? Does it have a true dual-virtual container? The exciting thing is that Intel have the best access to hardware drivers so getting all the hardware mapped through to both operating systems could be easier.

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Just minutes ago at the CES keynote, Intel announced, briefly, that they have a dual-OS platform ready. Windows and Android on one device.

The live demo worked!

We know little right now apart from the fact that the Android part will include additional security. In an on-stage demo the switch time was near-instant. Have Intel developed a better solution than ASUS, Insyde? Does it have a true dual-virtual container? The exciting thing is that Intel have the best access to hardware drivers so getting all the hardware mapped through to both operating systems could be easier.

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As part of their regular improvements to drivers, Intel has released a new HD Graphics driver that applies to all Ivy Bridge and Haswell Ultrabooks. The new driver fixes a number of bugs and enhances game and program compatibility.

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