“Could” is the main keyword in the title -many phone companies are already pretty much tied up to ARM processors. Even Apple is known to be using some form of ARM technology running in the newly launched iPad touch screen tablet and there is very little reason to believe that they would not be using similar technology in the upcoming iPhone. Microsoft has announced that the new Windows Phone 7 mobile platform will be restricted to Qualcomm processors too.
Still, despite this, the fact that Intel has been able to make such an impressive piece of hardware is certainly a great sign for gamers who have been shunning the world of mobile gaming since most of the titles available on apps are usually casual games that hardly match up to the depth and intricacy of the gameplay provided by handheld gaming devices such as the Sony Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS.
The reason for this is first, game developers would prefer to work on devices with good hardware and more importantly, they prefer to make games for devices that the gaming market actually buys. Sure, there are millions of people who use smart phones, but the portion of that which is also gamers are pretty small.
The demonstration of the new Intel processor showed Quake 3 running smoothly on a mobile device. This is more than just promising; it is the hardware itself running in full action. Of course, gaming handhelds would also be making use of the technology as well as netbooks.
The big challenge for tech companies making CPUs for portable devices has always been about power usage. Fast processors tend to consume plenty of power –a trait that the new Intel Atom reportedly does not have. Sure, we can run Quake III at 100 FPS, but the real question that Intel has to answer is for how long.
Tags: Apple, AppleiPhone, ARM, CPU, Intel, Processors, Windows-Phone-7