Stefan Mileschin

Intel's latest Atom-based wireless chip-set Medfield is a product of desperation according to rivals Qualcomm.

Sy Choudury, director of product management was collared by SlashGear and asked what he thought about Medfield. He said that it was a good product in that, unlike other Intel mobile chips it actually worked. Howver he said that it had been built out of desperation rather than any real innovation.

According to Electronics Weekly, he thought Medfield was a sign that Intel was getting a bit better on the mobile front. But then again it has a long way to go and Qualcomm was getting better too.

Choudury thought that Intel problems were compounded by internal politics which deny any business unit, except the PC business unit, access to the company's latest manufacturing processes.

Intel's wireless chips are not due to be put onto its upcoming 22nm process until 2013, and will not be made on a leading-edge process until Intel introduces 14nm processing probably around 2014/15.

However TSMC/ARM are already making ARM-based chip-sets in volume production quantities on 28nm, and expect to move onto a 20nm process later this year and onto a 14nm process next year.

Choudury's comments are similar to those made by ARM boss Warren East, as we reported yesterday, who thought that technically Medfield was better than it has ever been before for smartphones, but they are still a generation or two behind ARM.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/intel...laims-qualcomm