Internet Device

Michael Dell may have been speaking from halfway around the world, but the voice of the CEO for a $20 billion company carries a long way. The topic was small-screen devices and specifically smartphones, a market with which Dell has flirted with but never quite taken the plunge. But Dell said that may change.

"It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices," he said. "We don't have any announcements to share today, but stay tuned, as when we have new news we will share that with you."

Crowded Market

At this week's Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan, Intel conducted its first public demonstration of Moorestown -- a new Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform that company executives say will "increase battery life an order of magnitude" in a variety of portable devices.

With the launch of Moorestown, Intel is on track to reduce "idle power by more than 10 times compared to the first-generation MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor," said Intel Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher, who is also general manager of the company's ultra mobility group.

Mobile Internet

Intel has unveiled eight new Integrated Processor chips that the company claims will yield new levels of performance and energy efficiency versus traditional system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

Beyond targeting the company's traditional computing businesses, Intel intends to customize members of its new product line to fit specialty applications in the Mobile Internet Device (MID), consumer electronics and embedded markets, noted Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's digital enterprise group.