Intel's New Chips Ushering In the 'Internet of Things'

The traditional PC market may be shrinking, but Intel is still in business, partly due to its move towards enabling the next-generation of ubiquitous computing chips and sensors, often referred to as the "Internet of Things." At a presentation Tuesday, Intel Corp. touted two new series of chips aimed at that future.

The newest Intel chip, a variant of Intel's low-powered mobile processors is called the Atom E3800, previously codenamed "Bay Trail-I."

Describing the new chip as the "beginning of a new era," according to ZDNet, Intel's vice president and general manager of Intel Intelligence Systems group Ton Steenman spoke about how the number of connected devices (as well as the data those devices generate) has skyrocketed over the past five years at a rate of more than 300 percent.

The Atom E3800 processor and Intel's Quark SoC (system on a chip) X1000 embedded processors are meant to provide more of those connected devices with ultra low-powered, intelligent silicon. The Atom E3800 and Quark SoC X1000 processor families feature better power performance, error correction, and Internet of Things-specific enhancements, like the ability to operate at extreme temperatures.

The Atom chips are already available and, according to Reuters, close to a dozen electronics manufactures have already begun embedding them into electronics. The second line, the smaller Quark SoC processors, are due to begin shipping in the beginning of 2014.

Whether these chips will deliver significant revenues to Intel remains to be seen, as the Atom chips are anticipated as selling for between $20 and $50 each, while the even smaller Quark SoC chips may be priced near $5 per chip. Compare that to Intel's PC-geared "Haswell" or Core i3, i5, and i7 chips, which can sell anywhere from $150 to $400 a piece.

The "Internet of Things" concept refers to the idea of embedding microprocessors and/or sensors in all types of common objects, including cars, credit cards, IDs, medical devices, electrical grids, manufacturing machines, and so on, to deliver a richer understanding of how these things interact with each other and with humans.