Intel Pushing Braswell into Chromebooks, Low-end PCs

In yet another nod to Chromebook’s growing presence, Intel (INTC) said it will bake a new 14-nanometer system-on-a-chip (SoC) code-named Braswell into 20 designs of the Google (GOOG) Chrome OS-centric systems and other low-end PCs.

KIrk Skaugen, Intel PC Client Group general manager, told attendees at Intel’s Developer Forum in Shenzhen, China, that Braswell will succeed the chip maker’s existing 22-nanometer Bay Trail chip and find its way into entry-level desktops, notebooks and convertibles. The Braswell chip is said to offer improved performance and power management over the Pentium- and Celeron-brand Bay Trail processors that typically show up on budget devices such as Chromebooks and low-cost PCs.

To a certain degree, Intel appears to have thrown its fortunes in with Google’s OS platform, betting on Android’s overwhelming market share to help drive its mobile initiatives. "Last year, we had only four designs on Chrome. Today I can announce that we will have over 20 designs on Chrome," said Skaugen.

Intel’s Cherry Trail chip was expected to be Bay Trail’s successor but now it appears the chip maker will confine the former to tablets and the latter to PCs. At this point, there’s no word about when Intel will launch the Braswell chip designs.

As for Intel’s bright eyes for Android, Google released Android KitKat 4.4 with a kernel optimized for the company’s 64-bit chips. Intel said it took on a lot of the work developers would do with porting, validating and testing. “This release will provide the ecosystem with 64-bit kernel support for development of next-generation devices," Intel officials said.

The chip maker said it will roll out an Android-focused developer program, including a portal housing Intel resources such as source code, documents and specifications for Android on the Intel Architecture, and it will take measures to improve security in Intel-based Android devices.