CES 2013: Quad-core 22nm Intel Atom ‘Bay Trail’ chipset detailed

Intel says it wants to ‘redefine mobile computing’ in 2013 with a new range of mobile chipsets that it claims will help cement the company as a dominant force in the mobile chip manufacturing space.

Intel will launch its first quad-core 22nm Atom ‘Bay Trail’ chipset, designed specifically for tablets, in Q4 of 2013 – just in time for Christmas. Intel says the Bay Trail chipset will offer more than two times the computing performance of Intel's current generation tablet offering.

These improvements, says Intel, will enable new experiences for business and personal use in devices as thin as 8mm that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby, all at lower prices.

‘With Bay Trail we will build on the work done with our current [system on a chip] SoC development and accelerate very quickly by leveraging Intel's core computing strengths,’ said Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group.

Intel confirmed that a whole range of tablet devices would be running Bay Trail and consumers can expect to see them in stores and online during Q4 2013.

Just how well Intel’s new quad-core chipset will compare to Qualcomm’s current S4 Pro chipset and the newly announced Snapdragon 800 remains to be seen. Needless to say, we’ll be benchmarking both as soon as we get our hands on them.

Intel is one of the biggest forces in the PC market but, as we all know, PCs are becoming increasing less important in today’s mobile technology dominated society. It looks like Intel has finally woken up to this reality.

But is it too late? Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group at Intel, doesn’t seem to think so.

‘The best of Intel is coming to a mobile device near you,’ said Skaugen.

He added: ‘we're also significantly extending the performance and power savings in Atom processors as we accelerate our mobile offerings in an unprecedented fashion in 2013.’

We spoke to Intel spokesperson Anna Cheng about where Intel is heading in 2013 in the run up to CES 2013, check out the full story – Where is Intel heading in the Smartphone space.