IDF 2013: Intel shows Quark series processor along with Haswell-Y and 14nm Broadwell

So while everyone was glued to the Apple iPhone 5S/5C event, there were a few geeks who were tuned in to the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) 2013 event which was happening in San Francisco. Intel had some interesting announcements as well. New Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced Intel's plans to progress in the ultra-mobile devices space, with new products over the next year and beyond, including a new low-power product family. He announced the Intel Quark processor family which is expected to be a fraction of the Atom family in terms of power consumption and targeted mainly at lower power products such as embedded devices or wearables. "Smartphones and tablets are not the end-state," said Krzanich. "The next wave of computing is still being defined. Wearable computers and sophisticated sensors and robotics are only some of the initial applications."

Intel's new juggernaught against ARM

Intel plans to allow third-party integration with the Quark processor cores and this synthesized product can be manufactured at other fabrication facilities as well. This is being done to allow partners to easily integrate their own silicon with the Quark cores. So Intel is clearly aiming to hit out at ARM in the low power processor design space.

Krzanich also showed off a fourth generation Haswell Y processor housing device which consumed a mere 4.5W and had a fanless design. It is expected to be seen in laptops and 2-in-1 devices and will run Windows. These devices are expected to be more powerful than Atom-powered Windows devices and offer a much better battery life.

Intel showcased the successor to Haswell whcih will be coming next year

The next generation of Intel's processor family is the Broadwell family which will be based on the 14nm process. Krzanich also show-cased a laptop running on the Broadwell chip. According to Intel the production for Broadwell will commence by then end of the year. According to Kzranich, the 14nm Intel Atom chips would be available by the end of next year and the tablets sporting them would be priced in the sub-USD 100 mark.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Intel Developer Forum 2013.