Intel has just launched the Haswell processors which are claiming to be more efficient and now it looks like the company is getting ready to update the Atom lineup with new Bay Trail chips for Windows 8 and Android powered tablets. The new 22nm chips are made based on the Intel Silvermount architecture and will be coming with the Z3000 series name. The newest processors are going to go head to head against those from ARM and Nvidia that are already on the market in several different places. Intel thinks that the new chips will offer tablets something very substantial.
The new Z3000 models will be seen on both dual-core and quad-core models and can deliver up to 2 times CPU performance and 3 times the graphics processor performance. The flagship model will be called the Z3770 and can reportedly deliver speeds up to 2.4GHz, with more than 10 hours of battery life on the average. The most popular processor are the ARM based ones, with those from Nvidia starting to make an impact on the quad-core market. Intel did not get into any details about what tablets consumers might see on the market, but previous reports suggest they would be between 7 and 11-inches in size with price tags that could read as low as $199.
Intel has some very popular Atom processors on the market, but they are really only put inside of netbooks, which are pretty hard to come by these days. Intel is looking to get back into the more popular markets out there and that would include tablets, phablets and smartphones. Bringing double the performance for the processor and triple the performance for the graphics will certainly shake things up a bit when it comes to smartphones and tablets on the market where quad-core processors are maxing out at 2.3GHz.
According to Intel, the new higher performance chips will not affect the battery life, claiming that the 10 hours is “active use” time with around three weeks of standby time. The 10 hours of active use time is certainly the highest seen on the market today and can be above average for laptops out there today. When the new Bay Trail processors can be seen in products is not known right now, but consumers can expect to be paying around $350 for a full hybrid, while the larger, slower products will come with a price tag closer to $200.
