Intel Launches Core M Brand

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Intel launches the first commercially available “no-conflict” processor, Core M,  and sends it directly into the battle for mobility. More front-line Intel innovations will fully arm laptops as they fight tablets & smartphones to win over the world’s 600 million owners of 4-year old laptops who are on the brink of change.

Intel's Kirk Skaugen

Six hundred million ageing laptops make an awfully big sales target. Each of those consumers faces a decision very different than the one when they bought their laptop four years ago. And Intel dedicated its IFA press conference to its battle plan to win over those hundreds of millions whose collective decisions may decide the fate of the PC.

And it’s no accident that Intel chose IFA as the place to announce Core M, its first processor brand since five years, and the man gun of their battle plan. The 14nm Intel Core M processor package is 50% smaller and, at 4.5 watts, has 60% lower thermal power than the previous generation.

This lets OEMs design sleek, fanless systems less than 9 mm thin – thinner than an AAA battery. “Captain” Kirk, leader of the Intel pc enterprise, told his IFA audience the new Intel Core M processor delivers up to 2X the compute performance, up to 7X better graphics compared to a 4-year-old PC, and double the battery life of the average 4-year-old PC.

Skaugen showed the audience some of the range of Core M-enabled models from Big brands like Dell, Asus, HP, Acer and Lenovo. Intel pins its hopes on the 2-in-1 “tablet-when-you-need-it, laptop-when-you-want it” to win over the 600 million who consume and create content.

The “multi-year journey to re-invent the notebook” is just one battlefront that Intel is fighting on. Tablets is another. Even desktops are alive and well, insists Intel, suggesting that desktops are evolving down several paths (gaming, workstations, mini PCs, all-in-ones.)

To understand how mobility has left no PC untouched, the latest trend Intel is promoting is the desktop known as a “portable all-in-one.”

Skaugen sets three missions for Intel.

1 By the end of next year they plan for all their technology to embrace wireless.

2 They want to eliminate the need for passwords.

3 And they hope to bring more 3D (“natural user interface”) to the screen.

They will find little "conflict" in any of those goals.