As we wrote back in April, Intel's next-generation Atom mobile platform is certainly a push forward in the right direction for the CE industry, as new tablets and ultraportable netbooks based on Cedar Trail-M will be capable of streaming high definition 1080p video to an Intel WiDi-enabled settop box for home theater purposes.
First unveiled at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) is one of the company's showcase mobile technologies that enables hassle-free wireless high definition streaming from any mobile device equipped with Intel's 32nm Core 2010 series processors (Core i7 6xxM/LM/UM, Core i5 5xxM/UM, Core i5 4xxM, Core i3 3xxM) that include Intel 45nm integrated HD Graphics on-die (mobile Clarksfield and Arrandale processors with 32nm CPU + 45nm IPG).
As of today, the company is implicating that it wants to lose the restrictive mobile Sandy Bridge requirement, as a company representative pulled out a tablet device based on an 32nm Atom processor with full-fledged WiDi capabilities. In the technology demonstration, a large HDTV was shown mirroring the tablet's display in realtime. Although there is a bit of lag, the technology works impressively for a CPU/GPU hybrid low-power chip that consumes a mere 5 watts.
Nevertheless, another great aspect of upcoming tablets and netbooks based on the Cedar Trail-M platform is the inevitability of completely fanless designs. Due to the low TDP architecture of Intel's next-generation Atom processors, we expect 2011 will be a year where the company can more realistically compete with low-power platform architectures from ARM and Qualcomm that have produced fanless design wins for quite some time.
Check out the video below for the IDF demonstration of Intel's next-generation Atom tablet with WiDi technology.
