Intel's Ultra-Secret Defense Against ARM Holdings

By Michael Comeau Intel (INTC) founder Andy Grove famously said that “only the paranoid survive.” So if I imagine myself as an Intel executive, I'm forced to ask the question, what would keep me up at night? The answer is this: the arrival of Apple (AAPL) or Microsoft (MSFT) Windows PCs running on processors using ARM Holdings (ARM) designs instead of Intel chips.

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Back in the real world, I'm looking at Intel's announcement of a $300 million Ultrabook fund intended "to help drive innovation in this new category of devices," and what I see is defense against this possibility. In other words, Intel wants to give money to companies making hardware and software that enhance the Ultrabook computing experience, in an effort to build up the category. What's an Ultrabook, Anyway?

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Intel first pulled out the Ultrabook term in May at the Comtex conference. It's essentially a marketing term for a new class of slim and attractive laptops. PC manufacturers embracing the Ultrabook brand must hit the following specs: Intel core processor Body less than 21mm thick Intel Rapid Start Technology for instant data access 5+ hours of battery life Essentially, Intel wants PC manufacturers to target the Apple Macbook Air. The Macbook Air matches the Ultrabook specs tit-for-tat with its 17mm-thick body, 5-hour battery life, and solid-state drive, which allows for rapid booting and data access.

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Why Does This Matter? This past January, Microsoft announced that its next generation of Windows would support ARM designs. This means that ARM licensees like Samsung, NVIDIA (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Texas Instruments (TXN) could jump into the PC-processor game, most likely with multi-function chips that include graphics, storage, and/or networking capabilities. And more recently, a lot of folks are noticing that Apple's OS X operating system is beginning to look like the iOS software that powers the iPad and iPhone, both of which run on ARM processors.

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