Bill Kircos, Intel’s director of product and technology media relations, has revealed that the company is now expecting the arrival of the Atom Cloverview platform and its Clover Trail processor to coincide with the arrival of Windows 8, providing a “one-two punch” of chip and software upgrades that Intel hopes will fend off the challenge of Microsoft’s embrace of ARM-powered devices for Windows 8.
Intel plans to put Atom architectures in a slew of 2012 model tablets, netbooks, slider devices and other future products that build on the 32nm Atom chips, which will further reduce power consumption and improve battery life.
Clover Trail is now expected to appear in early 2012 to combat the threat of NVIDIA’s quad-core “Kal-El” and ARM’s Cortex A15, not to mention any future chips Apple may have in mind for 2012. Kircos said that the Cloverview platform would meet or beat Windows 8 to market, providing a more compelling reason for consumers to upgrade to the newer hardware.
