Intel seeks tablet breakthrough with Clover Trail, Windows 8

IDG News Service - After months of heralding its Clover Trail processor for Windows 8 tablets, Intel on Thursday unveiled the chip that it believes is its ticket to success in the ARM-dominated market.

Tablets with Clover Trail, aka the Atom Z2760 chip, will become available around the end of October when Microsoft ships Windows 8, Intel officials said. The chip will facilitate long battery life for Windows 8 tablets and full HD video.

While Intel dominates the PC market, it faces a tough road in the mobile battle with ARM, whose processors ship in most smartphones and tablets including Apple's iPad. Intel has high hopes for Windows 8, and has worked with Microsoft to take advantage of OS features to provide fast performance and long battery life in tablets.

Microsoft will release Windows 8 for Intel-based tablets and Windows RT for ARM-based tablets. Intel has said Windows 8 devices will have the advantage of supporting existing Windows applications and drivers, and users will be able to install existing Windows 7 programs and attach peripherals like printers and cameras. That could be an issue with Windows RT tablets, which may prove more popular with users who don't need that ability. But Windows RT devices may have advantages in price and battery life.

Intel has a better chance to succeed in the tablet market with the touch-based Windows 8, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Clover Trail's predecessors were used in tablets running Windows 7, which was a desktop and not a mobile OS.

Intel's primary goal with Clover Trail is to reduce power consumption in its tablet chips so it can catch up with ARM, whose processors were originally designed for smartphones and are considered more power efficient.

Clover Trail is faster and more power efficient than the previous Atom tablet chip, code-named Oak Trail, which appeared in just a handful of Windows 7 tablets starting in 2011. Clover Trail is made using an advanced, 32-nanometer manufacturing process, which made the chip smaller in size while reducing power leakage.

"With each generation the product becomes a better fit," McCarron said. "They are doing everything they can."

Device makers have already shown off upcoming tablets with the Clover Trail chip. Lenovo announced the ThinkPad Tablet 2, while Hewlett-Packard announced the Envy X2, a PC with a detachable keyboard that turns into a tablet. Asus and Samsung have also announced Windows 8 tablets with Clover Trail. A prominent name missing is Microsoft, which has announced a Surface tablet model based on Intel's faster but more power hungry Core processors and also a model with Windows RT.