Intel and Google join hands on Android development | Processors | ZDNet UK

Intel has revealed a new partnership with Google on Android, advances in the ultrabook device category and a new security technology that protects against zero-day exploits at its Intel Developer Forum.

Intel boss Paul Otellini has announced a new partnership with Google and advances in the ultrabook category of devices, at IDF in San Francisco. Photo credit: James Martin/CNET News

All future versions of Google's Android mobile operating system will be optimised for Intel's range of Atom processors, giving the company a boost in its efforts to displace ARM as the chipmaker of choice for smartphone manufacturers, Intel and Google announced on Tuesday at the event in San Francisco.
The joint development effort will see all future versions of the popular Android operating system receive tweaks from the kernel level and up, to support Atom-based Intel architecture chips.
"Over the last few years, Intel has learned a lot of things about smartphone silicon and the Intel design," Intel's chief executive, Paul Otellini, said in his keynote speech. "Our goal here is not easy but it is very simple — we want to make Intel the platform of choice for smartphone ecosystems."
Intel has struggled to break into the smartphone market while its main competitor in the sector, ARM, has ploughed ahead: Apple's iPhone uses a low-powered ARM Cortex processor, while many popular handsets use ARM-based chips from Qualcomm and other licensees.
That is set to change, Otellini said, before welcoming Google's senior vice president of mobile, Andy Rubin, onto the stage. Rubin walked on with a Medfield-based smartphone in his hand. Intel first demonstrated a handset powered by the chip at Mobile World Congress in February.
"We're going to collaborate very closely to make sure Android can be optimised for the Intel architecture," Rubin said. "All future releases" of Android will be tweaked and fitted for the Intel architecture, he added.
Otellini said he expects Intel-based phones to commence shipping in the first half of 2012.


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