Intel to Unveil new Chipset, Sandy Bridge Next Week

Intel will launch  its new chipset, codenamed Sandy Bridge with built-in graphics at its Developer Forum conference in San Francisco next week. The latest move will enhance the rivalry further between Intel and AMD.  The innovation is going to remove the need for separate graphic chip in PC. Although Intel currently sell single units that can manage both graphics and processing, the new sets has two separate chips: a central processing unit (CPU) and the graphic processing unit (GPU). Rival AMD has its own single unit chip Zacate that has both GPU and CPU.

In 2008, Intel launched Atom processor with separate CPU and GPU for mobile computing. However, it is still too large to penetrate Smartphone market. An improved version of the chip, codename Moorestown was announced in May this year. This is the desperate attempt by the company to bring the size and power usage of their chips down. Chip manufacturers are keen to get into the smartphone market because smartphones are going to outsell PC in the next 12 months, according to the analysts.

The vast majority of smartphone use ARM chips, based in UK. For example, Apple A4 chip is used in its iPad and iPhone 4 is ARM’s design. The firm recently launched a new chip, Cortex-A15 MPCore which will provide faster processing speed with 2.5 GHz with minimal power. That’s why the pressure is on Intel because they are determined to catch up the market using existing technology.