Intel is planning to put a Core i7 chip inside automated vehicles as the primary controller in cooperation with Mobileye’s EyeQ chips, according to The New York Times. Later, the chip maker will use an unnamed and more powerful processor which could be unveiled in a few weeks, presumable in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Intel serious about self-driving tech
Transmeta, a small low-power chip startup, forced the chip maker to retool its desktop PC processors 16 years ago to meet the demands of notebooks, explains PC World. And now the chip maker is adapting its desktop processors to a completely new market: self-driving vehicles.
Intel’s Core i7 will not arrive in cars for about two years, according to the Times. The report claims that those chips will be capable of about “20 trillion mathematical operation per second.” A later version of the same system will have twice or thrice the processing power.
According to several reports, the chip maker has partnered with auto parts maker Delphi and Mobileye (the former brains behind Tesla’s autopilot system). Mobileye and Intel have agreed to work with BMW as well to assist in getting a self-driving car on the road by 2021.
Earlier this month, the chip making giant announced a $250 million commitment to automated cars as part of a pledge to make self-driving cars a reality. Also the chip maker established a driving group internally. Intel wants to be inside future vehicles – a lucrative segment, for sure. An estimate from the International Energy Agency puts the overall number of vehicles on the road at 1.7 billion worldwide by 2035.
Intel poaches ARM Executive to supervise IoT unit
Intel has split its self-driving car unit from its Internet of Things business. Veteran Doug Davis was previously overseeing the IoT unit. Now with the automated car effort carved into a separate unit, Davis will surrender oversight of the IoT business, notes Fortune.
The chip maker nabbed Tom Lantzsch from ARM Holdings to run its newly separated business focused on making processors for connected, smart products. Lantzsch, who had been at ARM Holdings since 2006, will join Intel as a general manager and senior vice president of the Internet of Things unit. IoT makes chips for everything from drones that can avoid obstacles to street lamps that monitor traffic.
In a post, Intel president Murthy Renduchintala wrote that Lantzsch will be an accelerant for the chip maker and their industry, “leading with a pure passion for how smart and connected devices will enrich our daily lives.”
