Intel is expecting its next Atom tablet chip, code-named Cherry Trail, to be in devices by the end of this year, the company said this week.
A detailed update on Cherry Trail may be provided around the middle of this year, likely around the Computex trade show time frame, said Julie Coppernoll, marketing director in Intel’s mobile and communications group.
Cherry Trail will go into tablets and low-end PCs, and succeed the current chip code-named Bay Trail, which was announced last year and is being used largely in tablets, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.
The Cherry Trail chip, which will be made using the 14-nanometer process, will be even faster and more power-efficient than Bay Trail, which is made using the 22-nm process. Users can expect better battery life and performance in tablets with Cherry Trail compared to the current Bay Trail chips. The new 14-nm manufacturing process will allow Intel to make denser chips that are more power-efficient.
Intel could target the new Cherry Trail chips at high-end tablets during the holiday season this year, and may push the Bay Trail tablet into the lower price band of tablets, a strategy the chip maker has adopted with its previous tablet and PC chips.
Intel’s Bay Trail chips are largely found in Windows 8.1 tablets such as Dell’s Venue products and Asustek’s Transformer Book T100. Intel’s LTE modem announced at Mobile World Congress, the XMM 7260, will also go into Bay Trail tablets later this year for mobile broadband connectivity.
