Two Australian-designed tablet PCs for business users will join others from the likes of Lenovo and Fujitsu in becoming the first to use Intel’s new Atom Z670 “Oak Trail” platform.The Maestro S and Maestro C tablets from Frenchs Forest, Sydney-based Evolve III are already in production and are making their debut at the Intel Developer Forum in China this week, where the chipmaker yesterday unveiled the Oak Trail platform.
Intel until now has missed out on the tablet phenomenon, due to not having a processor specifically designed for touchscreen tablets that could compete with designs from the UK ARM company, used by Texas Instruments for its Tegra chips, and Qualcomm for its Snapdragon line.
In a bid to catch up, a crash development has gone into development of Oak Trail, which puts together the all new Atom Z670 CPU and SM35 chipset. Tablets using the platform can multi-boot into Windows, Android or MeeGo operating systems.
(MeeGo is the system jointly developed by Intel and Nokia – and the future of which is in doubt following Nokia’s decision to partner closely with Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 system).
The Oak Trail chips are said to deliver high-level video playback (including 1080p decoding and HDMI output), fast Internet browsing, and longer battery life. The integrated graphics and memory controller are incorporated on the main processor die, enabling thin tablet designs.
In Australia, Evolve III hopes to have its first Maestro models, with 1.5GHz Atom 760 processors, on sale via the Leading Edge Computers retail chain by the end of this month. A US launch should follow in one to two months, followed by a move into Asian markets, media and communications manager, James Paola said.
One of the models – features a clip-on stand and a magnetically attachable optional keyboard.
Evolve III began life several years ago as a digital screen business, Paola said. It first began looking for tablet devices as sales tools for its own operatives on the road, but found everything then available too heavy and hampered by low battery life.
With the rise of the iPad and Android tablet, things began to change, and Paola said Oak Trail was the clincher, offering cool running, long battery life and sufficient power to run three systems – though not simultaneously.
Evolve III is headed by MD Ray Paola and R&D director Ray Daimper.
- Intel plans to introduce more Atom-based tablet chips dubbed “Cedar Trail” in the second half of 2011. They will offer Blu-ray 2.0 support, a dedicated media engine for full 1080p playback and support for Intel Wireless Music, Wireless Display, PC synch and fast booting.
