The battle between Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) is set to escalate as the year progresses with Intel aggressively pushing its resources into its Medfield chip.
Intel, the market leader in PC processors, is developing a smartphone chip under the name Medfield to rival ARM whose Cortex A9 technology forms the basis of several mobile computing chips.
Intel launched its Atom processor Z2460 platform, or Medfield, at the recently concluded CES 2012 and betting heavily on Medfield to revive its fortunes in the smartphone processor market, which is currently led by ARM.
Medfield, a system on a chip product for smartphone and tablets, is a 32-nanometer processor and is designed to be energy-efficient, which is one of the key features of ARM's chips. If the report from Anandtech is to be believed, then Intel is moving on the right track and may offer processors that consumer less power compared to ARM-based competitors.
"The Intel provided values are pretty astonishing, Sub 20mW idle, sub 750mW during a call on 3G and although not pictured here, Intel's internal data suggest ~1W power consumption while browsing the web compared to ~1.3W on the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S 2. I've done my own measurements on 4S web browsing and came up with a very similar value," according to a report from Anandtech.
Meanwhile, Intel is well aware that creating a powerful processor is simply not enough, it would also need the support of original equipment manufacturers to realize its dream. As a result, Intel announced partnerships with Motorola and Lenovo.
Motorola smartphones having Intel processors are expected to ship in the second half of this year, and tablets would come at a later date, while Lenovo's K800 Android smartphone powered by Intel chips would be available in China in the second quarter.
A Wall Street analyst said that Intel may win market share against ARM due to its superior graphic performance.
"Converged view is that INTC Medfield chip has probably 2x better graphical performance than ARM chipsets. However, converged view is that ARMH is still better on power management vs. INTC's Medfield chip," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry wrote in a note to clients.
Chowdhry said that his contacts feel that performance and screen resolutions on Motorola's Android phones running on Intel chips are probably 1.5 times better than Apple's iPhone 4S.
"Converged view is that probably after October 2012 about 20% - 30% of Android phones will run on INTC Medfield chips, and this may have a negative effect on ARMH market share," Chowdhry added.
Interestingly, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has bought 11.5 million shares of Intel, implying that more good days are ahead for the chip maker. Buffet's's investments are being closely watched by investors to get a clue of future market movements.