Intel and Google Sign Smartphone Partnership at IDF 2011

Every year, Intel invites journalists from around the world to converge on its Intel Developer Forum event in San Francisco, where it updates them on its current plans and future developments.  This time round, the firm's CEO, Paul Otellini, opened the show by announcing a strategic partnership with Google which is set to see Intel processors in smartphones.

During the presentation, Paul Otellini showed of a new smartphone running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on an Intel processor.

After a few years in the wilderness, Intel has decided to return to making mobile processors in its Atom line.  Despite having the same name, the Atom processors set to make their way into mobiles aren't the same as the Atom chips that powered a whole generation of netbooks.  The new Intel Medfield series, engineered at 32 nm and using the x86 architecture, was first unveiled last year and with a small form factor and reduced energy consumption designed specifically for smartphones.

The new platform is set to go into manufacturing next year, when it will have to beat the Qualcomm Snapdragon family as well as Nvidia's Tegra range and the OMAP4 from Texas Instruments at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

Watch this space ...

> Phone Reviews: Mobiles & Smartphones

> Buyer's Guides: Our Pick of The Best Products