Intel's Medfield Gingerbread Smartphone Reference Platform

Earlier this morning Paul Otellini showed off Intel's Android smartphone reference platform running a version of Gingerbread. We just got up close and personal with the device as you can see in the gallery below. The phone is 9.5mm thick and features Intel's 32nm Medfield SoC although there's no word on the specifics of the architecture. Intel also told us that Medfield includes a newer generation GPU, but it's unclear whether Intel is using something as powerful as the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 or if it's a bit more tame in the graphics department.

Intel did give us a demonstration of the new ISP (Image Signal Processor) in Medfield that's capable of capturing up to 20 fps at 1600 x 1200. The reference platform could only deliver 10 fps from its 8MP rear sensor, but there's apparently headroom in the architecture.

Intel is claiming competitive battery life/power for Medfield but it's unclear how it will perform compared to the next-generation of ARM based SoCs (Krait, Kal-El, A15). We won't see the first Medfield based solutions until the first half of 2012. Apparently most device manufacturers weren't too pleased with Intel's close partnership with Nokia and Google was likely unhappy with Intel's work on MeeGo. With the Nokia partnership dissolved, Android prioritized and a unified design infrastructure, we may finally see some real momentum behind Atom in smartphones starting next year.