PCs are not dead. In fact, if you talk to Intel — which supplies the vast majority of today’s PC processors — they are absolutely resurgent. Now the company is focusing on delivering more power to the place users compute most — in mobile computers.
Intel announced on Tuesday that — as part of its latest line of Core processors, the 14-nanometer sixth-generation Skylake chips — the company will create three different flavors for the Core M CPU found in many of today’s convertibles and ultra-portables, including the newest ultra-thin MacBook.
It’s also bringing the high-end Xeon chip to business notebooks.
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The migration of a powerful Intel Xeon processor to a mobile workstation is notable, since it usually resides in stationary, tower computers and even servers. It could offer mobile workers unprecedented power.
How do you squeeze a workstation CPU into a notebook computer? Intel claims that new Skylake chips will offer more than double the performance while delivering three times the battery life, pretty much a perfect combination for mobile computing. In a world where users expect to capture, compile, edit and consume 360-degree images, Intel contends, this kind of power is becoming a necessity for everyone. In a world where users expect to capture, compile, edit and consume 360-degree images, Intel contends, this kind of power is becoming a necessity for everyone.
The Core M processor is now a line of CPUs, splitting into Core M3, M5 and M7 (analogous to the Core i3, i5 and i7 of the main Core chips). That should help a wide variety of computing form factors, everything from tiny computer sticks like the Compute Stick Intel unveiled earlier this year to laptop computers and what Intel calls “detachables” similar in design to Microsoft’s Surface (the Pro uses Core i CPUs and the standard Surface uses Intel Atom x7). Intel executives told Mashable that consumers who might normally have bought tablets are actually buying these convertible systems.
All sixth-generation Core systems will, Intel promises, provide better graphics performance: They’ll support 4K video and add Intel’s Speed Shift technology, which improves responsiveness on graphics operations.
The Core M designs should start rolling out later this year, while business-focused Xeons will arrive in 2016.
Intel also continues to press its RealSense cameras, a 3D visual system that has started to appear on some laptops and tablets including the Dell Venue 8 7000. The cameras enable gesture-controlled computing and can measure people, objects and room dimensions in real time. More powerful RealSense cameras (the rear-facing R-200 camera) will arrive with the Skylake chips later this year.
RealSense could also play a role in eliminating passwords, at least when combined with Windows 10. Its Hello system allows for face recognition sign-in, but only with RealSense-equipped systems.
Source: Mashable
