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Intel red-faced as admits own chip isn't up to the iPhone challenge
Backtracks over ARM slams… whoops

By Tom Krazit

Published: Friday 24 October 2008

Intel issued a "correction" Thursday regarding comments one of its executives made earlier this week slamming the iPhone as incapable of working correctly with the internet.

Among other things, the executives accused ARM chips of being unable to "handle the internet" and singled out the iPhone as an example of a smart phone that could be really great if it used one of Intel's low-power x86 architecture processors, known as Atom.

But in a posting to Intel's Chip Shots blog Thursday afternoon, Anand Chandrasekher, the head of Intel's low-power efforts, admitted Intel's current low-power x86 processors don't even come close to matching the power consumption numbers - a vital design parameter in smart phones - of those made by ARM's partners, which are used in smart phones like the iPhone and more than 90 per cent of all the mobile phones in the world.

The post said: "Anand Chandrasekher issued a correction on comments made by members of his team yesterday at Intel's Developer Forum in Taiwan. As general manager of the group responsible for Intel's ultra-mobility products, he acknowledged that Intel's low-power Atom processor does not yet match the battery life characteristics of the ARM processor in a phone form factor; and, that while Intel does have plans on the books to get us to be competitive in the ultra low power domain - we are not there as yet.

"Secondly, Apple's iPhone offering is an extremely innovative product that enables new and exciting market opportunities. The statements made in Taiwan were inappropriate, and Intel representatives should not have been commenting on specific customer designs."

Apple purchased the engineers of PA Semi earlier this year to start working on processors based on ARM's cores for future iPhones and iPod Touches, rather than waiting for Intel's Moorestown product - the chip Chandrasekher referred to in the post - to arrive.