Intel to put internet in your pants

Moorestown MIDs due by 2010

Intel and LG Electronics have joined forces to release a "next-generation" mobile internet device (MID) based on Intel's upcoming Moorestown hardware platform and running Moblin 2.0.

In a joint statement released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said that the co-operative effort "will deliver the best internet experience while dramatically reducing power - contributing to the development of ultra sleek devices that offer superb battery life."

Pankaj Kedia, Intel's director of global ecosystems programs for MID, told The Reg that the planned device is set for release after the Moorestown platform ships. So, "by 2010."

Although the exact specifications of the upcoming device are not yet public, Kedia said that it will put "the mind of a PC in your pocket," providing voice, chat, and data communications, plus internet browsing, navigation, video, games, and more.

"The Moorestown platform will deliver the full internet as you and I know it on a PC. Any website, any video - all of it," he said. "If you want to sit down...you use a netbook or notebook. When you don't have time to sit down, and maybe a clamshell device is too big for you, you want a smaller device that fits in your pocket."

Discussing the other end of the notebook-smartphone continuum, Kedia said, "We expect some buyers to leave their smartphones behind and use communications MIDs," which he referred to as "really smart phones."

Moorestown will be Intel's second-generation MID platform, taking over from the current Menlow platform, which is based on Intel's Atom Z500-series (née Silverthorne) processors and Poulsbo system controller hub.