Intel announces "Quark" processors to power wearable devices
Intel fell behind in the mobile race which has been dominated by ARM processors so far, but the company has slowly been pushing its way back in. The company definitely doesn't want the same thing to happen with the upcoming wave of wearable devices; so, today the company unveiled its new line of "Quark" processors, which it plans to be in smartwatches and other wearables.
The Quark processors are going to be incredibly small, and power efficient. According to Intel, they will be one-fifth the size of the smallest Atom processor, and it will use one-tenth of the power. Intel CEO Brian Kraznich said of the applications for the new chip:
Smartphones and tablets are not the end-state. The next wave of computing is still being defined. Wearable computers and sophisticated sensors and robotics are only some of the initial applications.
Intel will have samples of the new chip design ready for the fourth quarter this year, but we shouldn't expect to see Quark in wide use until next year. The first run of the chips will likely find their way into "embedded" technologies, also referred to as "the Internet of things" (a term which recently made it into the dictionary.)
source: WSJ
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