Intel predicts powerful personal processors

Mobile devices will deliver a more personal internet within five years, using chips with the power of today's desktop PCs, Intel's head has said.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, Paul Otellini predicted mobile devices could soon "augment reality" by pulling data from the net in real time.

He said the industry was on the verge of creating a "new level of capability and usefulness to the internet".

"It's an internet that is proactive, predictive and context-aware."

Explaining that devices would be location-aware, and would access the internet over Wimax wireless connections, he said: "Instead of going to the internet, the internet comes to us.

"We need a ubiquitous, wireless broadband infrastructure. Eventually we will blanket the globe in wireless broadband connectivity."

At the show Intel unveiled a range of new processors, including chips designed for so-called "mobile internet devices".
 
The first machines to use the new chips, which are 25% smaller than previous generations, are expected to hit the market later this year.

"A mobile internet device is something that you carry around in your pocket, and can deliver the full internet, with no compromises," he said.

 
The first devices will be larger than a typical mobile phone but are expected to shrink in size by a factor of four within two years.