Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Allwinner A33, $4 Quad Core Tablet Processor, Now in Mass Production

There have already been $4 SOCs on the market. This isn't the first.

Allwinner's A13 had similar costs. The difference seems to be that they've upgraded from single core Cortex-A8 to 4-core Cortex-A7, and from Mali-400 MP1 to Mali-400 MP2 graphics. The original part was 55nm, and the new one is 28nm. Not surprising that 2 process generations has given them silicon budget for more cores and more graphics, though both of these engines are still incredibly feeble in performance.

They may be targeting sub-$99 tablets, but for $50 more you can get a Bay Trail tablet with >2x the CPU performance, and about 6x the graphics performance - and most likely a much better display, more storage, etc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231791&cm_re=memo_pad_7-_-34-231-791-_-Product

The "race to the bottom" hasn't necessarily produced a better tablet. I'd also like to see what Intel can create with SoFIA. Probably something with similar specs to A33, but with better quality.